Virtual Lab
TeachFORGE.ai
Virtual Lab knowledge base
The Virtual Lab
Interactive digital practicals — parameters, apparatus, live graphs, procedure, and data — for demonstration, exploration, pre-lab, and revision, with you in control of how the class meets the experiment.
Explore. Record. Understand. Not a gradebook.
The big idea
Virtual Lab is TeachForge’s home for interactive digital practicals. Learners change parameters, operate apparatus, watch live graphs, follow a procedure, record data, and write up analysis — with evidence of exploration, not an automated gradebook.
Anyone can browse and try showcase or library labs. Authoring, publishing, and community submit are Academy capabilities. Formal assessment stays in Quest Ladder; the lab can still use a Quest gatekeeper before the practical begins.
Virtual Lab is exploration and practice. Marks, attempt limits, and LMS grade sync are not what this product is for.
How it sits with The Forge
Workshop
Stations build diagrams and interactive visuals that complement a lab. Rich content blocks can open Workshop craft. Station-to-lab schema import is not part of this release.
Whiteboard
Open a lab from the library in a new tab, or snapshot apparatus from a shared bench onto the board. Live on-canvas lab embed is not shipped yet.
Quest Ladder
Use Quest for formal assessment. Virtual Lab can embed a Quest gatekeeper as a pre-lab check and reuses the same style of rich content blocks.
Identity on the bench
Shared-bench peers use a short display name (default Guest). Prefer non-identifiable nicknames — Virtual Lab is not a student identity system.
Two ways to launch a lab
Every lab can open in Guided or Flexible mode. Authors set a default; a URL mode override can change it for a specific link or embed.
| Mode | What learners get |
|---|---|
| Guided | Sequential walkthrough along the teaching arc — one section focus at a time, Next policy, Teaching guide prompts for live delivery |
| Flexible | Multi-panel workspace — float and arrange apparatus, controls, graphs, theory, procedure, datalog, and analysis as tiles |
Use Guided when you are demonstrating or pacing a first run. Use Flexible when learners need free what-if exploration.
Accessibility and viewing options
Player chrome targets careful accessibility: keyboard-operable controls, clear focus, and View preferences you can leave on for the session.
- Text scale — enlarge UI type without fighting the whole browser zoom alone
- High contrast — stronger chrome contrast when the room or display needs it
- Reduce motion — calm animation when motion distracts
- Graph and scene alternatives — plot tracers and text alternatives where the player provides them
3D apparatus depends on WebGL. If a device cannot load the scene, learners still need a fallback plan — the canvas is visual-first, like other interactive lab tools.
Guides in this knowledge base
Four focused articles. Open the one that matches the job in front of you.
Learner and class
- Playing a labTry and library, Guided vs Flexible, apparatus, graphs, procedure, data, notebook
- Teaching and sharingShared bench, teacher faults, share links, embeds, whiteboard open
Authoring
- Building a labAcademy Manual authoring, rich-block sections, publish and community
- AI help for authorsFull-lab generation, per-section refine, Copy prompt / own GPU / own API key