Self-efficacy is an important determinant in successfully attempting a task. In the area of education, self-efficacy plays a crucial role in causing behavioral changes, resulting in enhanced performance over the course of learning. In chemistry education, students often develop anxiety towards performing experiments due to the perceived negative outcomes resulting from lack of understanding and improper experimentation. This anxiety negatively impacts the self-efficacy of students in performing laboratory experiments. We define student-held beliefs about their experimental skills as ’experimental self-efficacy’ (ESE), and examine the four prominent factors that impact ESE in chemical laboratories. Through the development of an instrument, this work characterizes ESE and the impact of pre-laboratory interventions such as exposure to virtual laboratories (VL) on ESE and conceptual knowledge of students. Furthermore, analysis using statistical techniques such as t-tests and dissimilarity matrices reveal the positive impact of VL in enhancing students’ ESE.

Access and personalized instruction required for laboratory education can be highly compromised due to regulatory constraints in times such as COVID-19 pandemic or resource shortages at other times. This directly impacts the student engagement and immersion that are necessary for conceptual and procedural understanding for scientific experimentation. While online and remote laboratories have potential to address the aforementioned challenges, theoretical perspectives of laboratory learning outcomes are critical to enhance their impact and are sparsely examined in the literature. Using Transactional Distance Theory (TDT), this paper addresses the gap through a case study on Universal Testing Machine (UTM). By comparing physical (PL-UTM) and remotely triggerable (RT-UTM) laboratory platforms, the structure and interactions as per TDT are analysed. Characterization of interactivity between remote learners and instructors disclose indicative parameters that affect transactional distances and aid in conceptual understanding in remote laboratory learning environment. An extensive pedagogical study through development of two instruments towards assessing conceptual understanding and perception of platform effectiveness that was conducted both on physical laboratory and RT-UTM showed: (1) remote users conducted experiments 3 times more frequently (2) completed assignments in 30% less time and (3) had over 200% improvement in scores when RT-UTM platform was integrated into mainstream learning.

Background: Menstrual hygiene products used by women have evolved in the past several decades with comfort, ease of use and cost driving women’s choices. In a country like India, where women form nearly 50% of the population, the sheer volume of periodic menstrual non-biodegradable waste generated has significant environmental implications. With majority of the country hailing from low-middle class backgrounds, observing healthy menstrual hygiene practices with environmentally friendly products necessitates the consideration of affordable and highly sustainable alternatives. Further, during the COVID-19 pandemic, period poverty is higher than ever, causing women to turn to the reusable product market for affordable and long lasting alternatives. Hence, we studied the Feasibility and Acceptability (FA) of a novel banana fiber based menstrual pad (BFP) amongst women living in rural and urban environments.Methods: The quantitative study of FA of the BFP was conducted amongst 155 rural and 216 urban participants in India. For greater authenticity of the FA study, we considered participants who used BFP for more than 4 months (Rural = 111 and Urban = 186) in the study. The survey data included responses from participants from Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. A 22-item survey instrument was developed and validated using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and reliability test (Cronback’s $$\alpha$$α ). Binomial logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the factors that affect the FA of BFP based on the survey responses. In addition to survey analysis, environmental sustainability through $$\hbox {CO}_2$$CO2 footprint analysis, microbial load, pH and the ability of the BFP to withstand pressure after absorption were also studied.Results: The results indicated high levels of feasibility (rural $$= 82.2\%$$=82.2% , urban $$= 80.3\%$$=80.3% and acceptability (rural $$= 80.2\%$$=80.2% , urban $$= 77.5\%$$=77.5% ) of BFPs across both participant groups. Comparing key BFP characteristics such as leakage and comfort to participants’ prior practices revealed general satisfaction on the performance of BFP, leading to them recommending BFPs to others. User perception on the reasons for their preference of BFP highlighted their concern for environment, health and cost as decisive factors. The microbial load on a 3 year reused BFP was found to be similar to an unused BFP. Regression analysis showed cost as an important indicator for feasibility ( $$\hbox {OR} =1.233$$OR=1.233 ; 95% CI = 1.083–3.248) and acceptability ( $$\hbox {OR}= 1.422$$OR=1.422 ; 95% CI = 1.203–3.748) amongst rural participants.Conclusion: Based on feasibility and acceptability results, BFP is a promising consideration as an environmentally sound, non-invasive; yet reusable alternative to fulfil MHM needs in populous countries such as India. Longer term studies in larger samples are necessary to validate these findings.