Lab-based education has always played an important role in teaching students. Making remote and virtual labs communicate with one another by creating networks of labs can enhance the traditional way of learning as well as reduce the costs of implementing and using labs. This paper provides a review of the literature on non-traditional labs and lab network initiatives up to 2020. With the term ‘non-traditional labs’, we mean virtual, remote and hybrid labs, whereas with the term ‘lab network’, we indicate a set of two or more cooperating labs typically connected through the internet. In this study, we used a recent and comprehensive framework for data collection, organization and analysis to gather information on 40 non-traditional labs and lab network initiatives. Thanks to this framework, the outcomes of our work highlight interesting trends of lab-based education, which pertain to didactical, organizational and technical aspects.

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The interest of the educational community in the laboratory- (lab) based education has grown steadily. As remote labs have started to be a reliable alternative to traditional hands-on labs, security and safety issues are becoming increasingly important, as their interconnected nature raises new and challenging issues. The complexity increases when multiple institutions are involved in a federated lab infrastructure. This paper provides a guideline for assessing safety and security in federated labs following the VDI/VDE 2182 guideline and verifies the concept based on remote labs in three different academic institutions.

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