Joining the game and the experiment in peer-to-peer remote laboratories for STEM education

Remote Access Laboratories (RAL) provide access to experimental setups from remote locations. These experimental setups are composed of controller units programmed to gather data and interact with user inputs. A distributed version of RAL can be maker oriented i.e. the experiment rigs are designed by individuals and shared among each other. This paper presents the programming aspects and activity user interface (UI) design and organization of experiments in a distributed RAL aims at STEM education. The user interface must be interactive to increase engagement and motivation for the user. Being designed for school students, the environment to create the control logic of a rig created by the student needs to be on a homogenous platform. The programming language has to be easy to understand and use. Characteristics and requirements of a graphical programming language SNAP, which is modified and used as the programming platform for RAL, is studied in this paper

Introducing RALfie – remote access laboratories for fun, innovation and education

Remote Access laboratories are online platform for performing experiments from remote locations. Usually these systems follow a centralised client-server paradigm. This demo will present RALfie - Remote Access Laboratories for Fun, Innovation and Education that is a peer-to-peer remote access laboratory architecture where participants are both users of experiments as well as makers. The system is built upon a VPN service that allows direct access between learner and makers’ experiential rigs. A graphical programming language SNAP is the basis of programming and interfacing with the experimental rig. Apart from experiment and interfaces, quest-based learning strategy is used that presents the experiments as a set of hierarchical groups of activities or quests. This distributed design of RAL allows more hands-on experience to build any experimental setup and provides opt unities to collaborate with fellow students

Enabling peer-to-peer remote experimentation in distributed online remote laboratories

Remote Access Laboratories (RALs) are online platforms that allow human user interaction with physical instruments over the Internet. Usually RALs follow a client-server paradigm. Dedicated providers create and maintain experiments and corresponding educational content. In contrast, this dissertation focuses on a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) service model for RALs where users are encouraged to host experiments at their location. This approach can be seen as an example of an Internet of Things (IoT) system. A set of smart devices work together providing a cyber-physical interface for users to run experiments remotely via the Internet. The majority of traditional RAL learning activities focus on undergraduate education where hands-on experience such as building experiments, is not a major focus. In contrast this work is motivated by the need to improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education for school-aged children. Here physically constructing experiments forms a substantial part of the learning experience. In the proposed approach, experiments can be designed with relatively simple components such as LEGO Mindstorms or Arduinos. The user interface can be programed using SNAP!, a graphical programming tool. While the motivation for the work is educational in nature, this thesis focuses on the technical details of experiment control in an opportunistic distributed environment. P2P RAL aims to enable any two random participants in the system - one in the role of maker creating and hosting an experiment and one in the role of learner using the experiment - to establish a communication session during which the learner runs the remote experiment through the Internet without requiring a centralized experiment or service provider. The makers need to have support to create the experiment according to a common web based programing interface. Thus, the P2P approach of RALs requires an architecture that provides a set of heterogeneous tools which can be used by makers to create a wide variety of experiments. The core contribution of this dissertation is an automaton-based model (twin finite state automata) of the controller units and the controller interface of an experiment. This enables the creation of experiments based on a common platform, both in terms of software and hardware. This architecture enables further development of algorithms for evaluating and supporting the performance of users which is demonstrated through a number of algorithms. It can also ensure the safety of instruments with intelligent tools. The proposed network architecture for P2P RALs is designed to minimise latency to improve user satisfaction and learning experience. As experiment availability is limited for this approach of RALs, novel scheduling strategies are proposed. Each of these contributions has been validated through either simulations, e.g. in case of network architecture and scheduling, or test-bed implementations, in case of the intelligent tools. Three example experiments are discussed along with users' feedback on their experience of creating an experiment and using others’ experimental setup. The focus of the thesis is mainly on the design and hosting of experiments and ensuring user accessibility to them. The main contributions of this thesis are in regards to machine learning and data mining techniques applied to IoT systems in order to realize the P2P RALs system. This research has shown that a P2P architecture of RALs can provide a wide variety of experimental setups in a modular environment with high scalability. It can potentially enhance the user-learning experience while aiding the makers of experiments. It presents new aspects of learning analytics mechanisms to monitor and support users while running experiments, thus lending itself to further research. The proposed mathematical models are also applicable to other Internet of Things applications

Sparking Innovation in STEM Education with Technology and Collaboration

This report highlights innovative technology-supported pedagogic models in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, explores what to expect from collaboration in a designed network, and, thereafter, sketches lessons for promoting educational innovation through collaboration. How can technology-supported learning help to move beyond content delivery and truly enhance STEM education so that students develop a broad mix of skills? How can collaboration be encouraged and used to help develop, spread, accelerate and sustain innovation in education? The HP Catalyst Initiative –an education grant programme by the Hewlett Packard (HP) Sustainability and Social Innovation team – is used as a case study to answer these questions

Augmented and mixed reality features and tools for remote laboratory experiment

Augmented Reality (AR) is the process of overlaying meaningful interactive information in a live video stream for creating an enriched visual experience for users. Within Remote Access Laboratories (RAL) this enables users to gain design experience along with gaining knowledge about the particular experiment in question and potentially collaborate on design experiences. This paper focuses on the issues related to the applications of AR in RAL, the levels of AR in context of RAL and their effect on the learning tools. This paper also discusses the challenges of integrating a Natural User interface into the AR for RAL experiments. Finally it presets two example applications for AR in RAL experiment - Virtual Objects Creation and Object Identification and Tagging

Teacher perspectives of constructing remote experiments for collaboration and sharing in STEM education

Remote Access Laboratories (RAL) allow remote access to instruments for educational purposes and have been widely used in engineering education. A conceptual Peer-to-Peer (P2P) RAL is an architecture where participant(s) can be: makers who create an experiment on a STEM topic and publish them on the Internet; or learners who simply runs experiments published by others for learning purposes. The process of integrating these technologies can give STEM students hands-on experience on how to build and run experiment setups which are integral parts of STEM subjects them to collaborate with people with similar interest from large distances. This approach requires active participation from the teachers as well for guiding the STEM student participants. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish whether it is feasible to deploy a conceptual P2P RAL environment for STEM education where the students make their own experiment and publish it in an online environment. The focus of this trial was to abilities, perceptions and efficacy of teachers. Approach: A trial of the P2P RAL system was held with participants who were Bachelor degree students (preservice teachers) in the course EDP4130 Technology Curriculum and Pedagogy. The following sequence of activities was conducted: The users' proficiency with procedural programming in SNAP was established and the users' ability to use procedural programming to create an activity for this purpose was evaluated. Participants were as to integrate a constructed hardware robot including a controller and three actuators into one activity. As part of the activity, the pre-service teachers collaborate with each other to setup an activity and used the built activity remotely. Changes in the participants' mood as a result of engaging in this activity was evaluate using PANAS (Watson, D.1988). Results: The participant's feedback has shown that the kind of hands-on-experience done in the trials is essential and suitable for school children. All participants successfully created programs. All groups were able to create their own robot with various designs. All the participants understood that they could use this approach to demonstrate someone else's rig first, to understand the capabilities of the system before building their own. Participants indicated that a bank of example activities would considerably help their understanding of the concepts. Additionally, it was indicated that sharing of the activities with other participants was the most memorable aspect of the trial. All participants indicated that this type of activity could be done at schools but may not be suitable for homes. Conclusions: The proposed RAL approach involves using modern network and consumer robotics technology to construct scientific experiments for sharing over the Internet. Teachers in STEM education must be well prepared and trained in order to adapt this new medium of education. The chosen cohort of preservice teachers demonstrated with reported limitations that they were able to undertake these tasks and use similar activities in the classroom

Business Model validation for a marketplace of lab network initiatives

In the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) the use of laboratories to support teaching is a common requirement, not just a possibility. With the rise of the internet, teaching laboratories have changed from 'traditional' hands-on equipment to configurations that allow remote use of the experiment materials. In recent years, online labs (e.g., laboratories of universities or research institutes) have gradually been integrated into 'networks' of labs, with the objective of making them more economically viable, otherwise they would have been short-lived due to the high cost for their development and maintenance. While research on online labs has focused on didactic and technical aspects, there seem to be no in-depth studies on the financial sustainability of technical solutions developed. Moreover, online solutions subvert the traditional pattern of access being limited to individuals engaged in the practice of organizations. Indeed, online laboratories can also be used by professionals and companies interested in research and development, testing, and training activities. The authors of this article frame the problem from the perspective of the servitization of labs of universities and research institutions, through a new business model of a marketplace capable of coordinating the network of labs. To do this, an analysis of the intention to use an online lab marketplace and the activities made available by the online labs is conducted. The analysis involves entrepreneurs and practitioners of various companies from diverse industries in the northern Italy. The analysis is twofold. Firstly, it proposes a survey of intention to use university labs and LNIs in business environment. Second, it seeks to assess the usefulness of a marketplace service that technically manages the relationship between service provider and buyer beyond the mere educational aspects