COVID-19 Impact on the Laboratory Practices of the Automation Subjects at the University of La Laguna

Our practice programs have changed drastically after the appearance of COVID-19. The practical sessions designed for all Automation subjects until 2019 were face-to-face. But the arrival of the pandemic and health restrictions resulted in the closure of our university facilities, which forced us to redo the laboratory experiences. It is in this context that simulation and gamification helped us to move forward, since the solution we followed was the virtualization of the laboratory. Although the degree of satisfaction of the students with the new practical sessions is quite good, the purpose of this paper is not to present a detailed analysis of all the simulation and gamification tools we studied, but to explain what our situation was like before COVID-19, how we faced the change, what we learned in the process, what the new practice programs we are currently following are like, what tools have helped us, and what goals we still have to achieve. We hope that our experience can be useful to other teachers. Copyright © 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Design Experience of Laboratory Practices in COVID Times

The development of laboratory practices is necessary for training mechatronics engineering students because they must learn in scenarios that allow checking the theories reviewed in class and implementing their solutions to real-world challenges posed in a course. Unexpectedly, the COVID pandemic caused a rethinking of how to develop the laboratory as a form of teaching, looking for online alternatives using simulation platforms, portable instruments, and 3D printing to design prototypes. This work presents the experience of two online laboratory practice activities in two mechatronics engineering subjects, which allowed students to complement their training without the risk of contagion, develop the planned competencies, and acquire skills in this form of teaching. © 2023 IEEE.

Design of virtual learning experiences for microcontroller programming during COVID-19 pandemic

The social distancing imposed by Covid-19 impacted the development of educational activities at all levels. Engineering education was specially challenged by the suspension of face-to-face activities, which paused the development of laboratory practices. The present work accounts for the design of virtual learning experiences in a Microcontrollers course. The free online tools 'Tinkercad Circuits' and 'Arduino' were used to simulate circuit programming and connections. These tools also allowed remote collaboration between students and teachers during lockdown. The results of the Mechatronics Engineering students (n=30) show that programming skills and hardware knowledge were developed. Additionally, the activities had a positive response from the students. On the other hand, according to the psychomotor domain taxonomy, the students had obstacles to their full development. It is concluded on the importance of integrating simulation to the development of activities and laboratory practices, as well as the advantages of hybrid teaching formats. © 2023 IEEE.

Virtual Laboratory in Electromagnetism: A Study of Instrumental Orchestration

The integration between virtual learning environments of recognized individual success, such as the PhET project and the Moodle Platform, presents itself as a path to be explored in the context of Instrumental Orchestration (IO), due to the broad benefits that this type of junction can bring to STEM teaching and learning. In this perspective, we conducted a purely interpretive study to investigate the role of IO, in different resources, on the academic success of students in a Bioengineering course, by comparing two activities, corresponding to the extremes of their scores, in electromagnetism laboratory practices, converted to Hybrid Teaching, by means of the COVID19 pandemic. For this, an evaluative framework was built based on the bibliographic reference, which underwent refinements adapting it to the available data, to finally analyze the IO dimensions referring to PhET, Moodle, proposed activities and interactions among participants. The main contribution of the research refers to the need for a better orchestration between simulated activities and laboratory practices, naturally accompanied by more productive interactions. This kind of research also contributes to the elaboration of new pedagogical practices, anchored in facts concerning the different approaches of IO and the way students learn. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Analysis of teaching Experimental Physics in Guayaquil using online education

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching of Physics at the high school level in the city of Guayaquil was carried out virtually. Consequently, the study that is presented below aims to explore the status and condition of teaching Experimental Physics in Guayaquil at the high school level during the two school years in which the education was carried out virtually (2020-2022) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main results aim at the 'rejection' of teachers to carry out virtual laboratory practices and teacher training. © 2022 IEEE.

Experience in providing a laboratory practice in the conditions of distance learning during a pandemic

Pandemic COVID-19 in 2020-2021 led to the largest disruption in education systems in history. Universities, institutes, and other institutions of higher education changed their students to study by using distance learning technologies. The greatest difficulties for educational organizations were caused by the implementation of a laboratory workshop in a distance form. In this work, we share the experience of leading laboratory classes in a remote form, using virtual laboratory installations. © 2022 SPIE.

Remote implementation of a discrete temperature control by hysteresis

The practices of face-to-face or conventional laboratories are essential for the training by competences of the student of electronic engineering. However, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic at FIEE-UNMSM, it has been decided to carry out virtual laboratory practices using only simulators, harming the practical training of the student. This has motivated the implementation of remote laboratory practices, where the student can experiment with real physical devices at a distance. In this sense, as a prototype, the laboratory practice of discrete temperature control by hysteresis has been developed, using the Arduino Uno card programmed in Bascom-AVR, LabWindows/CVI for the graphical interface and the Team Viewer software for the remote connectivity of users. Obviously, the learning outcome compared to simulated practices is superior and is expected to be as close as possible to the laboratory presence. © 2022 IEEE.

Virtual Laboratory Workshop in Physics

A cycle of virtual laboratory work has been developed in the Mechanics section of the General Physics course, simulating real laboratory equipment used in the physics workshop of the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University SPbETU 'LETI'. Virtual models are available on the website of the Department of Physics of St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University and allow students to perform laboratory work remotely. Virtual units reflect both the key laws and the nuances of physical phenomena that arise during the experiment and research on real devices. The developed workshop was used and tested when teaching students of St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University during the quarantine period for coronavirus. The almost complete correspondence between real and virtual physical installations achieved in computer models made it possible to conduct distance learning instead of face-to-face training without loss of quality. © 2022 IEEE.

Project-Based Learning Using Internet of Things as an Educational Tool in COVID 19 Era with a Hybrid Context for Engineering Students

Universities must develop disciplinary skills during the COVID-19 era due to virtual classes, even in laboratory practices. In this experiment, disciplinary skills during COVID-19 era are developed through Project-Based Learning (PjBL), which is a classroom approach to give students knowledge and skills, through projects focused on real world challenges and problems. The purpose of this study was to design PjBL using Internet of Things (IoT) to have quantitative evaluation, learning experience perception, course contents assimilation, perception of improvement in soft skills and critical thinking. The project consisted in the measurement and analysis of vehicle variables for an engine embedded in IoT with idle speed conditions. The vehicle variables to be measured and analyzed are: carbon oxide and dioxide gas emissions, gas emission temperature, engine bay temperature and humidity, engine RPM, oil temperature, engine inertial forces, engine block temperature, and accelerator pedal position. The results prove that PjBLs with IoT in a hybrid context improve the students' learning experiences in a similar way to the face-to-face context. The score grade before and during COVID-19 exhibited 1.59% of increment;the learning experience perception showed that the students preferred the hybrid (42.86%) model (remote and real) in similar percentage in comparison with the face-to-face (53.06%), the virtual model (remote) was not fully accepted (4.08%). The 81.6% of the students preferred to implement projects based on IoT for future courses or prototypes. © 2021 ACM.

On the Experience of Using NI ELVIS III in Remote Laboratory Practice During Pandemic Lockdown

By the beginning of COVID pandemic, remote education technology have was being implemented at some level by almost every educational institution, but the following lockdown forced the world to accelerate this process. In these circumstances, a lack of laboratory practice in online engineering education was revealed. The existing lab equipment, even quite modern, was focused on offline laboratory experience, and required enough efforts to be reachable from the outside. The International Scientific and Educational Center “National Instruments – Polytechnic” possessed a number of virtual instrumentation lab stations called NI ELVIS II, which had been being used in education for more than 10 years and allowed the replacement outdated bulky instruments with computer-based all-in-one virtual measurement solutions. But even these devices required additional development to allow students to work remotely, did not allow them to work in groups and manage access control. The new product applied by our professors called NI ELVIS III appeared to be a perfect solution to establish online lab practice. We managed to run several labs in electronics course with almost zero configuration, group collaboration and possible real-time teacher supervision. The paper describes the experience of applying NI ELVIS III in remote electronics lab, the benefits and caveats of using this platform. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Non-clinical safety assessment and in vivo biodistribution of CoviFab, an RBD-specific F(ab')2 fragment derived from equine polyclonal antibodies.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has required the urgent development of new therapies, among which passive immunotherapy is contemplated. CoviFab (INM005) is a RBD-specific F(ab')2 fragment derived from equine polyclonal antibodies. We investigate their preclinical security and biodistribution by in vivo and ex vivo NIR imaging after intravenous administration of a dose of 4 mg/kg at time 0 and 48 h. Images were taken at 1, 12, 24, 36, 48, 49, 60, 72, 84, 96, 108, 120, 132 and 144 h after the first intravenous injection. At 96 and 144 h, mice were sacrificed for haematology, serum chemistry, clinical pathology, histopathology and ex vivo imaging. The biodistribution profile was similar in all organs studied, with the highest fluorescence at 1 h after each injection, gradually decreasing after that each one and until the end of the study (144 h). The toxicology study revealed no significant changes in the haematology and serum chemistry parameters. Further, there were no changes in the gross and histological examination of organs. Nonclinical data of the current study confirm that CoviFab is safe, without observable adverse effects in mice. Furthermore, we confirm that bioimaging studies are a useful approach in preclinical trials to determine biodistribution.

Managing COVID-19 Lockdown Impacts: Sustaining GLP Compliance and Man Material Medium (MMM) Strategy for Augmenting Prevention of Workplace Infections.

Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) is a well-established global system that encompass a set of principles or a framework for defining how laboratory studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, reported, and stored for future reference. It is important that compliance with the principles of GLP continues to be maintained. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdowns in various countries, including India, have been sudden and over an extended duration. Although every GLP laboratory has Standard Operating Procedure for disaster management, the sudden lockdown due to COVID-19 created specific emergency procedures related to this situation such as travel bans, safe distancing, and work from home notifications. Good Laboratory Practice compliances in the context of animal experimentation during and post lockdown period need effective managerial responses that are not just flexible and innovative but can ensure they are well-calibrated to the challenges of business continuity and maintenance of health directives. On-the-ground realities suggest there may still be practical challenges to compliance, and guidelines may not always be complied with. This article discusses the issues that may be encountered due to COVID-19 that could potentially impact the GLP status of a study and suggests ways to manage them so as to minimize or prevent infection with COVID-19. We propose an MMM (Man, Material, and Medium) strategy to ensure compliance with health directives and guidelines that will help staff to keep themselves and others safe in the workplace while endeavoring to comply with GLP requirements.