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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This chapter examines virtual laboratories and describes a design architecture of an intelligent lab
companion (ILC) agent for intelligent virtual laboratories (IVL). A virtual laboratory is a stimulating
aspect in spreading practical education based on online web experimentation in distance and blended
education. It can facilitate and improve the practical and investigation learning of students.
INTRODUCTION
Hands-on technical learning requiring students to be in a laboratory is a core pre-requisite skill of sci-
ence and technology fields like computer science, engineering, and the pure sciences. There are two
types of laboratories namely, actual and virtual laboratory (VL) (Elawady & Tolba, 2009). Whilst actual
laboratories have their strengths and challenges, virtual laboratories (VLs) have an added advantage over
the actual in that they allow room for maximizing the use of technology for adaptive learning to be built
in to support customized learning.
Uludag, Guler, Karakus, & Turner (2012) have described that since the physical laboratory set-up is
expensive, to meet the laboratory needs they introduced a virtualized infrastructure whereby two com-
puter courses for implementing an operating system and network were created. It is commonly accepted
Designing an Intelligent
Virtual Laboratory Using
Intelligent Agent Technology
Saima Munawar
NCBAE, Pakistan & Virtual University of Pakistan, Pakistan
Saba Khalil Toor
Forman Christian College University, Pakistan
Muhammad Hamid
NCBAE, Pakistan & Virtual University of Pakistan, Pakistan