Bringing Remote Labs and Mobile Learning together

1999

Last ten years have seen a explosion in the number distance learning programs offered by educational institutions . Distance learning programs of various types are available through more than 1,000 educational institutions in the United States. [1] Estimates are that by the year 2007 almost 50 percent of all learners enrolled in postsecondary education courses will take some of their courses through distance education formats. [2] Offering distance learning programs in Engineering and Engineering Technology pose special challenges for institutions. While it is relatively easy to modify a lecture course for distance education, it is the laboratory courses that offer real challenge. Various solutions have been proposed to address the problem of offering realistic laboratories experience for distance learners. These include virtual Laboratories, computer based simulations, videotaped laboratory experiments and mobile laboratories. This paper discusses the effort that has gone into the ...

The use of mobile devices is increasing every day and they are quickly becoming an indispensable tool for everyone. In today's environment, mobile devices have the potential to give valuable contribution in different areas, and one of them is learning and teaching. The purpose of this article is to study the support that mobile devices can give especially during laboratory works. In order to study and prove the usefulness of these devices in such environment, we have implemented an application that integrates a mobile android app and a web application, to support students and also teachers during and after the experiments. We tested the application during a Physical Chemistry laboratory work and asked students and teachers through a questionnaire about their opinion in regard of the usefulness of the tested application and the potential to use it with all laboratory works and even in other learning and teaching fields. At the end, we present and study the results of this questionnaire.

This paper describes how to extend the access to remote experiments from mobile devices, aiming to better engage digital native students who expect a more interactive and ubiquitous access mode. The extension is based on features of HTML5 and the jQuery Mobile framework, which allow accessing the experiments from different operating systems via the browser or native applications. As a result, users have a richer interaction mode with the experiments, which includes access from simple hand-held devices such as smartphones and PDAs. Extending the access to remote experiments, from simple devices, enables its use in other educational stages, such as high schools, where teachers struggle to engage students in STEM learning. By enabling students to use their everyday "technological companions", e.g. cellular phones, to access remote experiments, we seek to increase the educational value of this technology-enhanced learning resource.

IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 2009

Emersion of Websites that enable users to easily participate in creation of their content moved individuals on a scale rarely seen before. Web 2.0 transformed the passive reader into an active user and millions of users were drawn into a community previously reserved for professionals only. Users became able to experiment with data, collaborate with other users, and add value to a community of users. A similar revolution is needed in the electrical engineering education. In this field, courses offer a significant amount of theory and generally an unstimulating content to the students. Remote laboratories (RLs) could, however, make a difference. Instead of being passive collectors of the theory, students could become active builders of their own knowledge. At this point, the design of such a laboratory becomes important. Without a detailed user-oriented design, RL could have a counterproductive effect, generating frustration instead of motivation. A team of researchers used the QFD method to translate multidimensional and interdependent user requirements into the RL design model-MIRACLE. The MIRACLE model is based on survey results, instructional design, and good e-learning practice, and as such this model brings satisfaction, raises effectiveness and motivation, and makes electrical engineering courses appealing to students.

2007

This paper introduces the concept and the advantages of using virtual laboratories through mobile devices. It will also be introduced some concepts related to learning objects and mlearning. We also present the virtual experience used for the virtual mobile laboratory. In the end, we indicate the ideal methodology to use these technologies when teaching chemical experiments.

Ninth IFAC Symposium on Automated Systems Based on Human Skill and Knowledge, 2006, 2006

There is a high demand for engineers to design, produce and develop mobile learning (mLearning) technology. However, there are only a limit number of courses which fully present the correct pathway to develop and construct mLearning courseware. This paper is a report based on documentary research and a needs assessment survey of mLearning, the whole concept being, in many ways, a work in progress, pending general adoption. The survey aims to explore how university students consider mLearning and how mLearning would be suited to their needs. The outcome of the survey reveals many crucial elements that should be applied to create a new curriculum in the engineering area. The participants of the survey were 296 university students in Thailand. The majority of respondents were Thai (91.2%). Almost all (97.4%) of the participants who would pay for mLearning courses believed that mLearning would enhance their present learning capabilities. MLearning will assuredly be accepted in the future, since 96.6 per cent of university students stated they wanted to use mLearning if they can access the material with no charge. The proposed mLearning sciences and technology program can be structured into three main areas: wireless technology, mobile education and application management.

2016 Technologies Applied to Electronics Teaching (TAEE), 2016

The practice and the hands-on are essential for technical and professionals skills, even in controlled situations. Due to that, the use of laboratories during the learning process is fundamental, although it has been more difficult to support such kind of infrastructure locally, which brings the challenge to find alternatives. On the other hand, the Brazilian law establishes that higher education institutions can offer a complete curricula or a part of the curricula by using E-learning, what builds a scenario to use remote laboratories. This work presents the alternatives for the use of remote laboratories, showing that this idea can be spread and applied in different technical areas allowing students and professors to accomplish experiments in a safe and flexible environment trough the internet in real remote laboratories. This work also shows preliminary discussions of a first experiment with technical high school students using remote laboratories.

2012

In this paper the authors intend to demonstrate the utilization of remote experimentation (RE) using mobile computational devices in the Science areas of the elementary school, with the purpose to develop practices that will help in the assimilation process of the subjects taught in classroom seeking to interlink them with the daily students' activities. Allying mobility with RE we intend to minimize the space-temporal barrier giving more availability and speed in the information access. The implemented architecture utilizes technologies and freely distributed softwares with open code resources besides remotes experiments developed in the Laboratory of Remote Experimentation (RExLab) of Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), in Brazil, through the physical computation platform of the “open hardware” of self-construction type. The utilization of open code computational tools and the integration of hardware to the 3D virtual worlds, accessible through mobile devices, give to the project an innovative face with a high potential for reproducibility and reusability.