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The Utah online Virtual Lab is a JAVA program run dynamically off a database. Instructors author a statistical virtual reality simulating theories and data in a specific research focus area by defining independent, predictor, and dependent variables and the relations among them. Students work in an online virtual environment to discover the principles of this simulated reality: they go to a library, read theoretical overviews and scientific puzzles, and then go to a lab, design a study, collect and analyze data, and write a report. A student's design and data analysis decisions are computer-graded and recorded in a database; the written research report can be read by the instructor or by other students in peer groups simulating scientific conventions.
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