I do agree cooperative and active learning have positive effects in the lab: as students are more engaged, they grasp the materials much faster and easily. There is significant improvement in their cognition as well as they are able to reflect back in a more better way.
Teaching in a lab can have many challenges, in many aspects such as the visibility of the students who are standing in the back; the instructor / instructors mite not be able to demonstrate certain things due to lack of appropriate models or study materials; may be due to budgeting issues, spacing issues, storage issues etc... In these situations virtual lab can be more beneficial to engage and connect the students. Plus the students can repeat the exercises several time on their own pace and have a better practise. Another advantage is that the risks of safety hazard is low when using a virtual lab.
