Work in progress: Hybrid lab for engineering learning

This paper describes the implementation of a hybrid platform for experimental activities in engineering courses. The proposed platform can be used as a remote or face-to-face laboratory;it may also be ideal for the new normal after the Covid 19 pandemic. The proposal has the purpose to help engineering teachers to build this hybrid laboratory without specialized knowledge, requiring little time for its implementation and practically no economic investment. To validate the proposal, the process to build the course of a hybrid laboratory for Control System course is described in this paper, which is expected to have experimental activities within the university and from home. After the implementation, the full functionality of the laboratory will be carried out both in its remote and face-to-face format. © 2023 IEEE.

Remote Energy Lab - Experience and Improvements of European Cooperation in Remote Labs (SHORT)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching methods have gained more interest. Most formats of teaching can be easily transferred into an online format from a technical point of view. However, this is more difficult for practical courses in a laboratory. Together with partners from three European universities, we tackled the issue of providing a practical online course for higher education levels in the framework of the EuroTeQ university. In this work, we present our concept of the course and discuss the course goals and further improvements. We tested the remote lab setting in order to offer the course on a yearly basis in future. The remote lab was focused on energy engineering and was open to students from different engineering disciplines and countries. The course was comprised of three blocks, each consisting of one lecture on the broader context of the topic and one experimental laboratory session. The experimental session was streamed via a video broadcasting service. Students were required to either deliver a written report or to write a newspaper article for each of the three blocks. The learning outcome of the course was that students on the one hand learn about the technologies discussed in the course and on the other hand learn about intercultural communication skills. The goal was to show the diversity of technologies and to show the significance of each technology for a specific country. The online experimental sessions proved to deliver a clear explanation of the topic for the students when provided with sufficient course material adapted to online formats. Contrary, keeping a high level of interaction with students during remote experiments was found most challenging. © 2022 SEFI 2022 - 50th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Online Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics Labs

In recent years, online laboratories have become highly integrated into the educational process due to the development of distance learning tools as well as circumstances associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of a master's degree program in bioinformatics and neuroinformatics, in the academic years 2020–2021 and 2021–2022, the mandatory module "Laboratory Education (LE)” included 9 labs which transitioned to online delivery. A questionnaire was administered to all participants examining their self-reported learning as well as their satisfaction with each lab, the educational material associated with each lab, as well as the facilitator in each lab. A total of 73 postgraduate students completed the questionnaire. According to the results, the overall satisfaction from each laboratory ranged from 3.94 to 4.49/5.00. Furthermore, there is a variety of values in self-reported learning ranging from 23 to 50/50. Finally, although 7 out of 10 students indicated they are satisfied with the distance structure of LE, 8 out of 10 say they prefer LE to be carried out with a physical presence in the labs. © 2023,International journal of online and biomedical engineering. All Rights Reserved.

Rectification Laboratory - from in-lab to remote - the development story

Using remote laboratories in STEM education to provide students with practical learning content has gained importance in recent years, in particular since Covid19. However, the application of remote labs plays a minor role in the education of chemists. With this paper we want to give a detailed insight view on the development process of a remote lab for chemists, reasons for such a development as well as how we would approach it with today's knowledge. As educators in the STEM field at university level, we underestimated the impact of the technical setup on the learning outcomes and would like to encourage other educators to take a closer look on the didactic implementation prior starting such a process. However, the use of remote labs can be a wonderful addition to STEM education and can help to prepare students for the working life in times of Industry 4.0. © 2022 IEEE.

A Smartphone based Remote-Lab cum Topic-Specific Learning Management System

A smartphone application has been developed to help students perform laboratory experiments remotely and on the go. The students need to use their smartphones or tablets to connect with the teacher's smartphone, which in turn is interfaced with the actual experiment through a data-acquisition setup. The students may interact and seek help from the teacher at every step of the experiment. The teacher may provide the students with all the information and resources from within the application itself. The teacher may also manage the progress of learning of the experimental topic by each individual student. Such an interactive remote learning approach to laboratory experiments and related topics may prove very helpful for both the teachers and the students, especially in these times of the new normal. © 2022 IEEE.

DISINFECTION WITH VAPORIZED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE FLUID IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS AND ITS APPLICATIONS AND ADVANTAGES IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT

During a global pandemic, mitigating the impact of the disease and coordinating efforts to manage not only the medical but also the logistical and administrative aspects of such an all-encompassing phenomenon are of paramount importance. An extremely important but less publicised issue in this context is laboratory management and safety in analytical laboratories. In times of high capacity utilisation, as is the case during a pandemic or endemic outbreak of disease, other routine processes have to be abbreviated or are cancelled altogether due to lack of planning owing to the rapid emergence of the outbreak. In order to achieve high level of cleanliness in laboratories of all shapes and sizes and with different requirements, a universal solution seems unimaginable. Our experiments show a promising, automated approach of disinfection of various spaces. Within a short timeframe of 1 h – 3 h it is possible to disinfect any desired room to achieve a laboratory grade hygiene status. This was proven by employing biological indicators validated for this procedure. The tested technology reduced the indicator germs by a concentration of the mathematical log 6 reduction. Achieving this high level of cleanliness is possible by assigning a single person to the task for the set-up at the scene. Steering and monitoring of the process can be done remotely. While the machine used in our experiments is not a completely new concept, our experiments in a real-life setting such as laboratories and clinics alike, show that the applied hydrogen peroxide vapour distributed by a specialized fogger, disinfects even hard to reach spots within closed-off spaces. This program can be performed while automated (PCR) machines are running and highly trained personnel can apply their expertise elsewhere. Moreover, while the program is running real-time data is available and the process can be remotely monitored and steered digitally. It is of major concern to ensure maintainability of infrastructure e.g. COVID labs, ambulances, laboratories or veterinary practitioners to ensure treatment of directly and indirectly related health issues within a crisis. We concentrated on evaluating the usability of the disinfection technology presented in real-life settings. © 2022 IDIMT. All rights reserved.

Remote Lab Access: A Powerful Tool Beyond the Pandemic

The access to the tools used in laboratory sessions outside official teaching hours is difficult for students. For that purpose, a remote access architecture has been deployed. The proposed solution has three main tools: a management tool developed by the authors, a web-based remote desktop application based on Apache Guacamole and a monitoring and control tool based on the Veyon software with which teachers are able to full monitor students' screens or even remote-control them. The architecture allows both remote teaching and a way for students to access lab resources from home. Even though the solution has been mainly used for the exceptional situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, these tools provide a powerful way to use learning resources in traditional teaching scenarios. © 2022 IEEE.

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.

Design and Implementation of a Remote Lab for Investigation of DC Motors

The last two years and the COVID-19 situation showed the need to ensure sustainable engineering education via the use of virtual and remote laboratories. The aim of the article is to design a laboratory model for studying the characteristics of DC electric motors. The implementation is based on different well know solutions, such as Raspberry PI, ESP32, power modules and sensor. The communication is based on the TCP/IP protocol and the control of the power modules is implemented using PWM. The IoT implementation of the lab is based on the Home Assistant platform, which allows monitoring and control of remote devices. The study also presents the schematic diagram of the virtual laboratory system, which allows to explain and substantiate the role and behavior of each component. © 2022 IEEE.

Fully Remote Project-Based Learning of Hardware/Software Codesign

This Innovative Practice Category Work-In-Progress paper describes the innovative way in which a course on hardware/software codesign was conducted fully online during a near-lockdown necessitated by the COVID19 pandemic. A novel remote lab setup was established in a very limited time, which was used to ensure that students were able to achieve hands-on experience through a project in spite of the course being taught fully online. Students could run the development environment on their own computers and needed to access the online lab setup only for running their program on the actual hardware, which was connected to a light server with the serial and programming ports forwarded over the internet. Lab exercises were modified appropriately to fit the constraints imposed by the remote setup while not compromising on the rigor and desirable course learning outcomes. A wiki-based platform was used for the dissemination of information, scaffolding, collaboration, as well as booking of slots to access the remote lab setup. Zoom video conferencing tool was used for consultations as well as evaluations. The results are encouraging, with students satisfied with the experience gained, without having to compromise on practical knowledge. This opens up the potential to implement such remote lab-based hands-on projects in MOOCs and continuing education scenarios to enhance student learning.

Conducting an Electronics Remote Lab Experiment: A Case Study

A laboratory experiment in an undergraduate course on electronics was conducted remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lab assignment was to construct and analyze a single-transistor NPN amplifier. In the conventional on-site lab experiment the students would construct the amplifier on a breadboard, carry out measurements of DC and small signal characteristics, and compare with both SPICE simulations and manual calculations. The pandemic prevented the attendance of students in the lab, and thus the experiment was redesigned and carried out online, using remotely controlled instruments through the internet. It was found that to some extent a remotely conducted experiment can substitute the on-site work, and there are some unique advantages of this approach. On the other hand, some aspects of the on-site laboratory experiment cannot be substituted by the remote experience, and this is discussed in the paper. © 2022 IEEE.

Online Engineering Education: Laboratories During the Pandemic - A Case Study

Engineering laboratories plays a key role in the engineering education curricula. Virtual or remote laboratory concept already existed in several institutions that provide a well-designed platform for students to access labs remotely with similar experience to physical labs. However, this type of labs, remote lab, has limitations in term of engineering hands on experience and essential social skills students need for their future engineering practice. As educational institutions forced to switch from traditional face-to-face to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no option but to utilize the online laboratory resources and platforms available. Fully remote or blended solutions were provided for students to assure meeting the specific learning outcomes of engineering courses. This paper will focus on highlighting a specific case study during the pandemic when switching from the traditional face-to-face learning for an engineering lab course to fully online. © 2022 IEEE.

In-the-Online-Class Remote Lab in Post COVID-19 Pandemic

A low-cost remote lab has been implemented to aid instructors in delivering an online electrical engineering introductory course in electric circuits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main purpose of implementing the remote lab was to familiarize freshmen students with conventional equipment such as digital oscilloscope, function generators, power supply, multimeter and frequency counters. The integration of the remote devices in the online lectures was essential to enable students to operate the equipment and prepare them for a smooth transition upon their return to campus. The lab has also offered students the possibility of conducting basic online circuit experiments, both as part of the theoretical course and its associated lab, in a proof-of-concept paradigm or as a fully practical course. © 2022 IEEE.

An Effective Methodology for the Attraction of Students into Engineering Programs for Post-Covid Normality

In this paper we present a methodology based in simple constructions for the solution of scaled real problem situations. This methodology was used during the pandemic terms in our university in the years 2020 and 2021. The first objective of this work is vocational orientation of future Mechanical, Industrial and Innovation Engineers. The second objective was to develop competences in students of the fifth and sixth semesters of a high school level. In order to achieve these objectives a process that includes challenges and problem situations was established. These challenges and problem situations cover vocational orientation and some pre-defined competences. A total of 300 students participated in these activities during one year and half, during lock down conditions and over 100 students in the new normality conditions on campus. Results show that the objectives were fulfilled and the activities contributed in the attraction of more students into Engineering programs. © 2022 IEEE.

An Electric and Electronic Circuit Remote Laboratory in a Control Course

Control courses are important parts of the curricula of Control & Automation Engineering and Electrical Engineering. In this area, as in Engineering curricula in general, experimentation is of paramount importance. Engineering curricula have always had many lab classes for students to perform experiments - lab classes were hosted in traditional brick and mortar environments. The current status of technology allows for experiments to remotely be performed. Remote Labs are used in many institutions over the world as well as Virtual Labs. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, these solutions have gained greater importance. This work addresses the use of an Electric and Electronic Circuit Lab in a Control Course to perform Analog Simulations. It introduces the characteristics of the Remote Lab as well as the way it was used to enhance the learning of systems of different natures. This Remote Lab had been in use at the institution since the second semester of 2016 but in Electric Circuits and General Electricity courses. The Institution has been implementing other Remote Labs too. This work focuses the school years of 2020 and 2021, and addresses the plans for the near future. The main topics to be discussed are: the context at the University, the Control Course, the technological tools that have been in use for many years and how Remote Labs in general have been used. VISIR - Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality, the Remote Lab for Electric and Electronic Circuits is briefly described. © 2022 IEEE.

Education 4.0 Lab for Digital Innovation Units - Collaborative Learning in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic

Industry 4.0 and the COVID-19 pandemic are shaping the future of higher education, industry, and organizations, acting as a catalyst for digitalization with enormous challenges for mobile connectivity, collaboration, and blended teaching and learning. This paper focuses on the didactical concept of remote interaction and collaborative learning for students in electronics. We present the Education 4.0 Lab for Digital Innovation Units (E4LDIU). In this regard, we implemented for two courses ("Optoelectronic Devices", and "Photonic Sensors and Transducers") a remote lab, experimental-based interactions with the learning environment. E4LDIU offers a foundation for collaborative learning and sustainable development with knowledge produced in situational contexts. E4LDIU is here to stay after the pandemic.

Remote Electronic Engineering Teaching during Lockdown: Lessons Learned

The devastating effects of COVID-19 pandemic led the Spanish government to adopt exceptional emergency regulations that forced the confinement of the entire population and, therefore, the cessation of on-site teaching. This forced the migration of teaching methodologies to virtual formats in a few weeks. The lack of specific resources and experience in online teaching, and the need of a rapid response meant that the measures adopted fostered a hybrid model between online and face-to-face teaching. This paper presents the context and the approach taken in the methodological adaptation of three subjects of Electronic Engineering with different characteristics. In addition, the results of the evaluation of these measures by students, obtained through a survey, are presented. The results show that virtualisation has produced a fictitious improvement in students' grades, as the assessment evidences. The students considered very positive the use of synchronous learning as opposed to asynchronous format, as well as all the activities that promoted direct communication between the student and the lecturer. Another generalised opinion extracted from the results of the survey is that the new measures have implied an excess of work for students. The experience gained and the students' opinions can be very useful for the design of blended learning formats, which seem to be a very promising alternative in the future of University, although this change seems to be non-trivial in such experimental studies as engineering.

Experiential Learning Through Remote Electrical Engineering Labs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Engineers learn best via experiential learning. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the safe-distancing measures have disrupted regular teaching activities across the world. While numerous engineering schools have resorted to e-learning, there is a risk that many would sacrifice the hands-on learning experience for the students. We adapted a freshmen electrical engineering module into mostly home-based learning mode, while retaining its experiential learning focus through remote lab activities with synchronous supervision. Our survey results and analyses showed that, although students felt face-to-face labs provided them with better hands-on training compared to online remote labs, they were still able to perform as well as previous cohorts in terms of their understanding of the principles taught. A key drawback of online remote labs is the difficulty to help students with debugging. This might be mitigated with the use of software tools that help students take a more active role in debugging on their own. © 2021 IEEE.

Managing Hands-on Electrical and Computer Engineering Labs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Experiences in managing hands-on laboratory activ-ities across five different Electrical and Computer Engineering courses or subjects in three different Australian universities during the COVID-19 pandemic are presented. With different financial, logistical and other resource constraints and lock down conditions in different state jurisdictions, a multitude of approaches were used which included: at-home labs with hardware kits posted by teaching coordinators or acquired directly from suppliers by students;remote tutor interactions;remote test-bed;remote and cloud-based assessments;and remotely accessed and manipulated lab equipment. This paper aims to share experience in maintaining hands-on learning objectives intact during mostly online teaching while providing lessons learnt and qualitative comparisons among different approaches utilised. © 2021 IEEE.

Engaging Students in Distance Learning of Science With Remote Labs 2.0

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students lost opportunities to explore science in labs due to school closures. Remote labs provide a possible solution to mitigate this loss. However, most remote labs to date are based on a somehow centralized model in which experts design and conduct certain types of experiments in well-equipped facilities, with a few options of manipulation provided to remote users. In this paper, we propose a distributed framework, dubbed remote labs 2.0, that offers the flexibility needed to build an open platform to support educators to create, operate, and share their own remote labs. Similar to the transformation of the Web from 1.0 to 2.0, remote labs 2.0 can greatly enrich experimental science on the Internet by allowing users to choose and contribute their subjects and topics. As a reference implementation, we developed a platform branded as Telelab. In collaboration with a high school chemistry teacher, we conducted remote chemical reaction experiments on the Telelab platform with two online classes. Pre/post-test results showed that these high school students attained significant gains (t(26)=8.76, p<0.00001) in evidence-based reasoning abilities. Student surveys revealed three key affordances of Telelab: live experiments, scientific instruments, and social interactions. All 31 respondents were engaged by one or more of these affordances. Students behaviors were characterized by analyzing their interaction data logged by the platform. These findings suggest that appropriate applications of remote labs 2.0 in distance education can, to some extent, reproduce critical effects of their local counterparts on promoting science learning. IEEE