Pre-laboratoryactivitieshavebeenknowntoimprovestudents’preparationbeforetheirpracticalwork astheyassiststudentstomakeavailablemoreworkingmemorycapacityforactuallearningduring thelaboratory.Theaimofthisinvestigationwastocomparetwodifferentteachingapproacheswhich supportedapre-laboratorysessionbyusingthesamesimulationprogram.Theinvestigationwascon- ductedintwocountries(GreeceandUK).TheGreekstudentsattendedthecourseinacomputercluster, wheretheteacherandthestudentshadaface-to-facecommunication,whiletheEnglishstudentspartic- ipatedintheon-lineWebCTcourse,wheretherewasanon-lineasynchronousdiscussion.Acrucialpoint whichemergedfromthisinvestigationwasthatthesimulationprograminthetwodifferentpre-labora- torytrainingsessionsgavethesamelearningoutcome;however,thelearningcharacteristicsandthetea- cher’seffortweredifferent.Thus,theteachercouldadoptboththetwoteachingapproachesdepending ontheuniversityfacilities,thestaff’s\timeandthestudents’familiaritywithvirtuallearningenviron- ments.However,ineachcaseofstudentsfollowedadifferentway(collaborationor/andindependent learning)toobtainthesimilarlearningoutcome.Inallcasesaftertheirpre-laboratorytrainingsession theyenteredthelaboratoryperformingtheexperimentswithoutanyfurtherinstructions.Additionally, theteacher’srolewasslightdifferenceinthetwoteachingapproaches.Inthecomputercluster,thetea- cherhadamoreactiveroleguidingstudentstoobtaintheexpectedlearningoutcomethroughface-to- facediscussionandinteraction,whereasinthecaseofthevirtuallearningenvironment(WebCT),thetea- cherhadamoreofafacilitatorrolefocusedonposingquestionstothestudentsandcollectingthe resourcespromotingtheindependentlearning.