Usability of concrete and virtual models in chemistry instruction

•A perceptually controlled virtual modeling system was developed and tested.•Performance using virtual models was compared to performance using concrete models.•A similar level of accuracy was measured for performance with both model types.•Virtual models were more efficient than concrete models on some measures.•Efficiency when using virtual models was due to constrained interactivity.

Virtual models are increasingly common in the modern science classroom, however little is known about the relative effectiveness of virtual and concrete models. We developed a virtual modeling system and tested the benefit of haptic cue fidelity, controlling for many other perceptual differences between concrete and virtual models. In two studies we directly compared performance of students using this virtual model and using concrete models for tasks in the domain of organic chemistry. Students used either virtual or concrete models to match diagrams of molecules or compare the structures of molecules represented by models and diagrams. The results indicated similar levels of accuracy and similar ratings of usability for virtual and concrete models but no effect of haptic cue fidelity. Greater efficiency with virtual models was observed when students matched diagrams and models, and this efficiency transferred to later use of concrete models. The efficiency benefit is attributed to interactive constraints of the hand-held interface to the virtual model, which helped students identify task-relevant information in the model and limited them to performing the most task-relevant interactions with the models.