Providing Collaborative Support to Virtual and Remote Laboratories

Virtual and remote laboratories (VRLs) are e-learning resources that enhance the accessibility of experimental setups providing a distance teaching framework which meets the student's hands-on learning needs. In addition, online collaborative communication represents a practical and a constructivist method to transmit the knowledge and experience from the teacher to students, overcoming physical distance and isolation. This paper describes the extension of two open source tools: (1) the learning management system Moodle, and (2) the tool to create VRLs Easy Java Simulations (EJS). Our extension provides: (1) synchronous collaborative support to any VRL developed with EJS (i.e., any existing VRL written in EJS can be automatically converted into a collaborative lab with no cost), and (2) support to deploy synchronous collaborative VRLs into Moodle. Using our approach students and/or teachers can invite other users enrolled in a Moodle course to a real-time collaborative experimental session, sharing and/or supervising experiences at the same time they practice and explore experiments using VRLs.This work was supported by the Spanish Government under the CICYT Project DPI2007-61068 and the GITE grant of the Technology and Educational Innovation Vice-President Office of the University of Alicante

Avaliação em Duas Fases do Laboratório Remoto em Engenharia, VISIR, na Universidade Al-Quds da Palestina

Os laboratórios de ciência e engenharia desempenham um papel fundamental na demonstração de conceitos e princípios, bem como na melhoria das competências técnicas. Com a introdução de laboratórios remotos foi possível partilhar dispositivos, equipamento e instrumentação entre universidades. Mais, eles evitam restrições de tempo e espaço, sendo capazes de se adaptar ao ritmo próprio de cada estudante, no caso do tempo passado no laboratório não ter sido suficiente. Neste artigo é descrito um estudo empírico, dividido em duas fases de avaliação. Na primeira fase foi avaliada a flexibilidade de aplicação do laboratório remoto em engenharia VISIR na faculdade de engenharia na Universidade de Al-Quds em Jerusalém, Palestina. Durante esta fase foi ainda avaliada a aceitação desta tecnologia, pelos estudantes, quando em interação com os laboratórios tradicionais. Na segunda fase deste estudo, que decor rerá em 2014/15, será realizada uma aprofundada análise comparativa de forma a caracterizar o VISIR perante as restantes modalidades de laboratórios de engenharia, os práticos/presenciais e os de simulação. Estas três formas de laboratório são comparadas através de testes experimentais, tendo em atenção os critérios de avaliação definidos para os laboratórios de ensino de engenharia e de acordo com os objetivos fundamentais dos cursos, nomeadamente, as taxas de retenção e de satisfação dos estudantes, bem como do seu desempenho.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Two-Stage Assessment of the Remote Engineering Lab VISIR at Al-Quds University in Palestine

Engineering labs are an essential part in engineering education since they provide practical knowledge for students, illustrate concepts and principles, and improve technical skills. Remote labs allow devices, equipment and instrumentations to be shared with other universities. Additionally, they relax time and space constraints, and are capable of being adapted to the pace of each student in case there was insufficient time in the laboratory. This paper describes an empirical study, which embeds two stages of assessment. In the first stage, we are concerned with finding out the level of flexibility when applying the engineering remote lab VISIR as a contemporary remote lab technology in the engineering faculty at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem in Palestine, and whether the engineering students will accept such technology to interact with in their future lab courses or not. In the second stage of the assessment study, a more in-depth comparative analysis will be carried out in order to have a categorization of VISIR in the landscape of the engineering labs such as hands-on and simulations. The three lab approaches will be compared with each other by means of an experimental testing based on assessment criteria that are in accordance with the fundamental course objectives of engineering instructional labs: student’s retention rate and satisfaction survey, as well as their performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio