Abstract-Experiments have been at the heart of scientific development and education for centuries. From the outburst of Information and Communication Technologies, virtual and remote labs have added to hands-on labs a new conception of practical experience, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education. This paper aims at describing the features of a remote lab named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, embedded in a community of practice and forming the spearhead of a federation of remote labs. More particularly, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages of remote labs over virtual labs as regards to scalability constraints and development and maintenance costs. Finally, it describes an actual implementation in an international community of practice of engineering schools forming the embryo of a first world wide federation of Virtual Instruments System in Reality nodes, under the framework of a project funded by the Erasmus+ Program.

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 alternatives accessible anytime, anywhere. These two alternatives are known as virtual and remote labs, and are sometimes indistinguishably referred as online labs. Similarly to other instructional technologies, virtual and remote labs require some effort from teachers in integrating them into curricula, taking into consideration several 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 number of teachers and students involved in engineering education. It presents an example 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

No abstract

No abstract

Nowadays, it is more common to use both systems, a Learning Management System (LMS) and a remote laboratory, independently. However, we understand it is highly convenient for the students to have access and perform real experimental practices in remote laboratories from a LMS. This integration of both educational resources constitutes one objective of a project developed by a joint venture company-university: a technology company ("educativa") and a public university (UNR). The project is based on the addition to the "Virtual Campus LMS", developed by "e-ducativa", of a function that allows the access and control, via Internet, to the "Remote Laboratory of Electronic Physics" located in the university headquarters. Technology is basically a self-communication protocol that allows exchanging data in a standardized way between the LMS software and the device control connected to the remote equipment. The project includes the implementation of an interface that allows the users of the elearning platform to have access to it and to future developments of remote laboratories. In this paper the authors describe the technical implementation of the project and provide educational criteria in order to integrate the new development into the electronic engineering curriculum.

No abstract

No abstract

Abstract-This paper aims to present new evidence and findings that enhance and enrich the knowledge of the preferences and uses of the remote laboratories from the students´ viewpoint. Specifically, the study aims to recognize the students' preferences in selecting the remote lab as a learning resource, beyond the uses promoted by the professorship. Likewise, we seek to know the reasons given by students that support those preferences. The research was conducted at Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura (FCEIA), Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR), Argentina, by using the "FCEIA-UNR Electronics Physics Remote Lab" and involving almost 300 students in the second year of Electronic Engineering. The lab is integrated into the e-ducativa Learning Management System (LMS), Facebook and Twitter, allowing the students to log in without additional authentication, both from the virtual classroom or from those social networks. We have collected empirical evidence from both, users' opinions and productions, and also, from registers of the remote lab itself, involving more than 4000 successful tests completed on the lab´s database. We have achieved both qualitative and quantitative data that allow us to get a comprehensive study from the students' perspective.