Federated Electronic Practical Resources using PILAR as VISIR Integrated Tool

Practical training is a pillar in technical education. Traditionally, these benefits have been acquired through hands-on laboratory sessions. However, at present, the educational models trend to rely on distance education tools either totally (e-learning, m-learning, etc.) or partially (b-learning). To provide practical training in those educational scenarios is challenging. Remote laboratories --real laboratories, working on real systems and under real conditions, controlled remotely-- can play a fundamental role. Nevertheless, remote laboratories not only provide advantages, but disadvantages of both environments involved in the process: real laboratories and remote communications. Furthermore, remote laboratories add new limitations due to constructive constraints. VISIR (Virtual Instruments System In Reality) is a remote laboratory on top of the state of the art for wiring and measuring electrical and electronics circuits, but VISIR system has his own particular restrictions like any other remote lab. In this context, PILAR (Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of visiR) Erasmus Plus project development aims for a federation of five of the existing VISIR nodes in Europe: Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED), University of Deusto (UDEUSTO), Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS), School of Engineering of Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP). This paper describes the benefits that PILAR project will provide to the consortium, and how these physical constraints of the VISIR system can be compensated through the federation, after one year and a half of the project development and having the first draft of the federation and weebsite running.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Una Federación de Laboratorios Remotos VISIR a través del Proyecto PILAR

Este documento describe cómo un nuevo proyecto Erasmus+, PILAR (Plataform Integration of Laboratories base don the Architecture of visiR), está siendo desarrollado y cómo la puesta en marcha del partenariado y del proyecto está reforzando la red VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) y el Grupo de Interés Especial de VISIR bajo el Consorcio de Laboratorios online (GOLC - Global Online Laboratory Consortium) de la Asociación Internacional de Ingeniería Online (IAOE - International Association of Online Engineering. La Universidad Española para la Educación a Distancia (UNED) coordina este proyecto que tiene como objetivo federar los sistemas existentes (o nuevos) con el fin de utilizar los recursos de manera más efectiva y eficiente, haciendo transparente para el usuario final la elección de los recursos compartidos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The VISIR+ Project – Preliminary results of the training actions

Experimental competences allow engineering students to consolidate knowledge and skills. Remote labs are a powerful tool to aid students in those developments. The VISIR remote lab was considered the best remote lab in the world in 2015. The VISIR+ project main goal is to spread VISIR usage in Brazil and Argentina, providing technical and didactical sup- port. This paper presents an analysis of the already prosecuted actions regarding this project and an assessment of their impact in terms of conditioning factors. The overall outcomes are highly positive since, in each Latin American Higher Education Institution, all training actions were successful, the first didactical implementations were designed and ongoing in the current semester. In some cases, instead of one foreseen implementation, there are several. The most statistically conditioning factors which affected the outcomes were the pre-experience with re- mote labs, the pre-experience with VISIR and the training actions duration. The teachers’ per- ceptions that most conditioned their enrollment in implementing VISIR in their courses were related to their consciousness of the VISIR effectiveness to teach and learn. The lack of time to practice and discuss their doubts and the fulfillment of their expectations in the training actions, also affected how comfortable in modifying their course curricula teachers were.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Chapter 1

Experimenting is fundamental to the training process of all scientists and engineers. While experiments have been traditionally done inside laboratories, the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies added two alter-natives accessible anytime, anywhere. These two alternatives are known as virtual and remote labs, and are sometimes indistinguishably referred as online labs. Sim-ilarly to other instructional technologies, virtual and remote labs require some ef-fort from teachers in integrating them into curricula, taking into consideration sev-eral factors that affect their adoption (i.e. cost) and their educational effectiveness (i.e. benefit). This chapter analyses these two dimensions and sustains the case where only through international cooperation it is possible to serve the large num-ber of teachers and students involved in engineering education. It presents an ex-ample in the area of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, based on a remote lab named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, and it then describes how a number of European and Latin-American institutions have been cooperating under the scope of an Erasmus+ project2, for spreading its use in Brazil and Argentina.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A roadmap for the VISIR remote lab

This article proposes a roadmap for the VISIR remote laboratory based on a SWOT analysis performed by fifteen experts, with large experience on VISIR deployment, and their perceptions in three categories: Technical, Pedagogical and Educational. The resulting VISIR roadmap was obtained considering an underlying strategy based on a RAKID model. The major resulting insights address the user interface as the most evident strength in the Pedagogical category, while the major weakness is matrix limitations in the Technical category. At the same time, this weakness is somewhat related to major opportunities identified as ‘new developments’ also, in the Pedagogical category. The major Educational category aspects arise as threats and are related to ICT availability, an issue not directly controlled by the VISIR community, but by institutional practices and policies. The proposed roadmap and its guidelines establish a sustainable strategy and framework to support the future of VISIR and enlarging its community.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia: [Grant Number UIDB/04730/2020].info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Lab sessions in VISIR laboratories

Experimental activities with real components are an essential part of all courses including or devoted to electrical and electronic circuits theory and practice. The knowledge triangle composed of hand-written exercises, simulations and traditional lab experiments has been enriched with the possibility for students to conduct real experiments over the Internet, using remote labs. This tutorial is devoted to one such remote lab named Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR). The Global Online Laboratory Consortium (GOLC) elected VISIR as the best remote controlled laboratory in the world, at the first time this distinction was awarded. At the end of this tutorial, attendees are expected to know what is VISIR, what can (not) be done with it, who is currently using it, and how can one integrate it in a given course curriculum.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio