Innovative remote laboratory to enhance remote learning for he digital electronics subjects

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced engineering disciplines to rethink practical activities which are imperative for development of engineering skills in higher education. The main challenge is developing new practical activities that suit remote learning whilst maintaining the experiences of an in-person lab session. This paper outlines the development and implementation of a remotely accessible undergraduate laboratory exercise using off the shelf equipment and remote learning software. In the described lab, students learn the fundamentals of digital systems and the process of using software to design logic circuits, through to implementing and analysing these circuits on an electronic board. The remote lab was successfully implemented using a camera, NI ELVIS II device with a Digital System Development Board (DSDB) and programmed using NI Multisim. The paper describes the development and transition of a traditionally in-person lab to a remote application whilst keeping the same intended learning outcomes and making sure a blended approach can be used in the future. Students remotely trigger inputs (as they would do in-person) to see the cause and effect of their design on the real hardware by pairing visual switches on screen to the physical switches on the board. The students use the camera pointed to the device to see how their designs behave when implemented on the real hardware. The designed lab has already been undertaken by more than 100 undergraduate students from a variety of engineering programmes over a series of multiple sessions. The paper discusses the feedback received from the use of surveys, semi-structured interviews and focus groups of students and academics involved in the development of these remote labs. The discussion focus includes the ease of use, relevance to core subject material and if the practical activities help with their understanding of theory. The paper then concludes by exploring future developments as well as the lessons learnt. © the authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.