Emerge: A European Educational Network for Dissemination of Online Laboratory Experiments (original) (raw)

eMerge: An European Educational Network for Dissemination of online Laboratory Experiments

 This paper presents the development of the eMerge project, an innovative and advanced educational network structure that will permit the dissemination of online laboratory experiments to support engineering and science education. This project has been performing in the framework of European Community SOCRATES -MINERVA program. Partners from nine different educational institutions are involved in this project. The actual work is based on previous experiences where prototypes of virtual laboratories were realized and successfully demonstrated. By using Web technologies and computer controled instrumentation, students could access to these remote laboratories. The main objective of the actual project is to extend these technologies out of the individual institutions, making the services avalaibles to the european students. In the project, we emphasize the creation of a variety laboratory experiments, and the development of supporting course material and educational practices. From a pedagogical point of view, it is very important to create a lab-like atmosphere at the client side. We are designing a client interface that lets the student work with instrument-like images, to receive experimental data in suitable formats such as graphs and tables. In the avalaible cases, the experiments are accompanied by on-line simulation tools for further in-depth illustration and comparison. In other case, we provide the ability to reconfigure the experiments on-line, for example by means of switching matrices. To ease the client access to the laboratories, the requirement on the client side is minimal; only a terminal with a Web browser and Internet access is required. We use advanced server systems that can provide the laboratory services in a reliable and secure fashion. New innovative solutions concerning the networking of partner laboratories, server technologies, access control, security, queuing, scalable user interfaces, are being developed using standard web tools like Applets, SOAP, ASP, COM+.

e-lab: an online laboratory

The present academic approach suggests that e-learning will become a normal part of the educational practice over time, complementing traditional methods, and that students will expect e-tools and experimental work to be available to enhance and support their learning. We propose a workshop using a scientific resource called e-lab, an online laboratory that we believe that will contribute for the development of a scientific generation of students. e-lab is a great tool that can help teachers to perform some experiments that are impossible to carry out at school either because of lack of material or by safety precautions, for example.

The VISIR project - an Open Source Software Initiative for Distributed Online Laboratories

2007

Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) in Sweden has started a project known as VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) together with National Instruments in USA and Axiom EduTech in Sweden to disseminate an online laboratory concept created at BTH using open source technologies in collaboration with other universities and organizations. The concept is about adding a remote operation option to traditional instructional laboratories to make them more accessible, irrespective of whether the students are on campus or mainly off campus. The BTH option is equipped with a unique interface enabling students to recognize on their own computer screen the instruments and other equipment most of them have previously used in the local laboratory. The first remote control option implemented is for an electronics laboratory and the second one is for a signal processing laboratory with emphasis on mechanical vibration experiments. The electronics lab option features remote circuit wiring usi...

World Wide Student Laboratory: Global Educational Infrastructure for Remote Experimentation

2014

The World Wide Student Laboratory, WWSL, is an innovative advance in the delivery of science and engineering education over the Internet. The WWSL allows students anywhere in the world to control advanced experiments in remote locations and to have access to equipment that would otherwise be unavailable. Using the WWSL, students perform experiments with real experimental setups and, under the guidance of their professor, teacher, or instructor, collect real data for analysis. The WWSL can serve traditional universities, colleges and high schools, as well as distance education institutions. With the WWSL's new approach, educational institutions will be able to afford better facilities for the education they provide, access the best lab facilities in other institutions, and substantially broaden the number of lab study items in their curriculum. Using the WWSL Internet portal, students will access the individual laboratory setups by means of “web centers” arranged by topic – Topic...

E‐laboratory design and implementation for enhanced science, technology and engineering education

Campus-wide information systems, 2011

This paper reports on the design and implementation of an e-laboratory for enhanced science, technology and engineering education studies. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper assesses a computer-based e-laboratory, designed for new entrants to science, technology and engineering programmes of study in further and higher education to enable them complete proper 'hands-on' (not simulation) laboratory experiments off-campus and also in virtual learning environments (VLEs) accessible remotely. The development of such a laboratory was in response to the inherent inability of web-based learning environments to duplicate, off-campus, the laboratory facilities and availability on-campus. The measurement of effectiveness relates to whether a laboratory task can be accurately and completely achieved. Common parameters included percentage task completion, error rate and assistance required. Operations under different conditions were studied and observations made from comparison on implementations. Findings: The computer-based e-laboratories deployment, within a specific learning scenario, has been investigated and presented. E-laboratories were found to be more student-centred with learners taking responsibility for their own learning.. The face-to-face (F2F) pre-computer scenario learners had a very low completion rate, a high error rate and required constant assistance. The computer-based scenario resulted in a high completion rate, low error rate and a significant reduction in learner supervision. Research limitations/implications: The technical constraints imposed by present online environments, the resulting impact on specific learning styles, and possible solutions to overcome these limitations are discussed. Practical Implications: Both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews established a positive impact on student learning, thus justifying development of similar systems. More research and applications could follow as this has the potential to impact positively on development and use of e-labs for enhanced science, technology and engineering studies in terms of costs, time and space requirements. Originality: The recent interest and advances in the development of remote and virtual labs has shown that students of today, who are digital natives, especially those in the fields of science, technology and engineering, finds the use of e-laboratories very useful in enhancing their studies, encouraging them to use familiar technologies to access and do experiments either remotely or virtually online thereby enhancing their learning. The approach adopted is unique and original blending both virtual and hands-on approach to experimental studies.

A Framework for Implementing Virtual and Remote Laboratories in Scientific Course

This work describes the experience of the authors regarding the design, development, analysis, and exploitation of web-based technologies for creating an online experimentation framework with distance education purposes. The framework we propose is specially designed for scientific and technical courses that require a quite important presence of experimentation. It supports the development of virtual and remote laboratories, and their integration in a Learning Management System. In addition, to illustrate the applicability of our proposal this paper presents a network of remote and virtual laboratories for control engineering education that has been implemented with the framework.

Development of a virtual laboratory on the internet as support for physics laboratory training

European Journal of Physics, 2002

A virtual physics laboratory is being developed in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática of the Universidad de Valladolid (UVA). This laboratory will be accessible via the internet, and its main aim is to provide support for the real physics laboratory. In this paper we describe the main steps taken to develop such a laboratory. This virtual laboratory is currently accessible from http://cawdor.fa2.etit.uva.es/laboratorio/index.html.