Examining the first-person perspective as appropriate prelaboratory preparation

Prelaboratory tasks are used to facilitate learning and introduce and provide context for laboratory work. The application of first-person perspective (FPP) technology may provide interesting new approaches to providing prelaboratory preparation. However, there is limited knowledge as to whether this perspective is useful or enjoyable for students preparing for laboratory tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine whether prelaboratory preparation, utilizing the FPP technique, was enjoyable and led to improvements in laboratory task-specific self-efficacy in comparison to the traditional text-only (TO) style. We observed that the FPP group found the style to be generally more enjoyable, entertaining, and generally fun compared with the TO group (5.3 ± 0.2 and 2.7 ± 0.3, respectively, P < 0.05). Furthermore, we found that the FPP group had a greater laboratory task-specific self-efficacy than their counterparts in the TO group, following the prelaboratory preparation (93.6 ± 1.6 and 83.5 ± 3.2, respectively, P < 0.05). We did not find any differences in scenario-based self-efficacy between the FPP and the TO group. Taken together, our data support the use of FPP videos as a novel, refreshing approach to prelaboratory preparation that builds self-efficacy in students performing laboratory tasks.