The effect of virtual laboratory use on academic achievement in science education: A meta-analysis study

In recent years, when technological developments have increased rapidly, the integration of technology into education and the positive developments in educational technologies, which is a concept that emerged as a result, have led researchers to conduct research in this field. In this study, which aims to investigate the effects of virtual laboratories, which are the most prominent reflection of modern technology within the scope of educational technologies within the scope of science course, on students' academic achievement levels, meta-analysis method was used. For this purpose, master's and doctoral theses published in YÖK National Thesis Center were examined. All master's and doctoral theses published until December 2024 were included in the study. In the study, among the theses reached as a result of the literature review, 15 studies examining the effect of virtual laboratory use in science education on students' academic achievement were included in line with the inclusion criteria. Since a limited number of studies were reached during the literature review process, no year restriction was made. There is no previous meta-analysis study on this subject in the literature. As a result of the meta-analysis conducted in line with the data obtained from 15 studies, the combined overall effect size was calculated as 6.85 with a confidence interval of 2.718-10.975. This effect size is a large effect according to Cohen (1988) classification and a huge effect according to Thalheimer and Cook (2002) classification. Based on this context, it was concluded that the use of virtual laboratories in science education has a positive effect on student academic achievement in favor of the experimental group compared to the currently used traditional laboratories. PRISMA protocol steps were followed while reporting the study. In this study within the scope of meta-analysis method; many analyses such as heterogeneity statistics and publication bias were included. As a result of these analyses, it was concluded that the heterogeneity of the study was very high, there was no publication bias, and for these reasons, it had internal reliability and external validity. Key words: Virtual Laboratory, Meta-Analysis, Science Education, Education Technology, PRISMA Protocol