LabXchange vs Molecular Workbench

LabXchange is a free digital science education platform created at Harvard University with support from the Amgen Foundation. Learners and educators can assemble videos, assessments, and simulations into personalized learning journeys. Its resource library includes simulations, interactive materials, worksheets, lesson plans, and educator resources. Virtual labs provide environments for working through experiments, and some simulations add a notebook containing background information. Educators can create private classes, share content, and track learner progress. Public material can be distributed through Google Classroom, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or a direct link. LabXchange says it is ad-free, does not sell student data or use it commercially, stores student data on U.S. servers, and follows the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for security practices. Users may register directly or through Google or Facebook sign-on. The service supports Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, major browsers, and mobile browsers, and is intended for organizations and people aged 13 or older.

Molecular Workbench is a free modeling tool for designing and conducting computational experiments across science. Its interactive learning environment supports science inquiry, while its authoring system lets instructional designers create and publish curriculum based on models and simulations. Users can customize simulations or create their own, with topics spanning gas laws, fluid mechanics, states of matter, chemical reactions, genetics, protein synthesis, and quantum phenomena. Activities can include assessments, student-data collection, learning monitoring, and teacher feedback. Simulations can also be embedded in blogs, wikis, or web pages. The Next-Generation Molecular Workbench brings computational experiments to browsers using HTML5. An offline version is available, but it cannot access the latest simulations or collect student data. Downloads are listed for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and require Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or later. The maker says the software needs considerable computing power and may start slowly while the Java virtual machine launches. Molecular Workbench is developed and maintained by the Concord Consortium.