The use of computers and multimedia, as well as the World Wide Web and new communication technologies, allows new forms of teaching and learning like distance learning, blended learning, use of virtual libraries and many more. The herewith discussed RCL project shall offer an additional contribution. The basic idea is for a user to connect via the Internet with a computer from place A, to a real experiment carried out in place B. An overview of our technical and didactical developments as well as an outlook on future plans are presented. Currently, about 10 RCLs have been implemented. The essential characteristics of an RCL are the intuitive use and interactivity (operating the technical parameters), the possibility of different points of view of the ongoing experiment thanks to web cams, and the quickest possible transfer of the data measured by the user. A reasonable use of sensibly chosen real experiments as remote labs allows a new form of homework and exercises, as well as project work and the execution of experiments, which usually would a teacher's prerogative only.

Smartphones and Tablets are used as experimental tools and for quantitative measurements in two traditional laboratory experiments for undergraduate physics courses: The Doppler effect is analyzed and the speed of sound is determined with an accuracy of about 5 % using ultrasonic frequency and two smartphones, which serve as rotating sound emitter and stationary sound detector. Emphasis is put on the investigation of measurement errors in order to judge experimentally derived results and to sensitize undergraduate students to the methods of error estimates. The distance dependency of the illuminance of a light bulb is investigated using an ambient light sensor of a mobile device. Satisfactory results indicate that the spectrum of possible smartphone experiments goes well beyond those already published for mechanics.

Tablet computers were used as experimental tools to record and analyse the motion of a ball thrown vertically from a moving skateboard. Special applications plotted the measurement data component by component, allowing a simple determination of initial conditions and g in order to explore the underlying laws of motion. This experiment can easily be performed by students themselves, providing more autonomy in their problem-solving processes than traditional learning approaches. We believe that this autonomy and the authenticity of the experimental tool both foster their motivation.

Here, we show the possibility of analysing circular motion and acceleration using the acceleration sensors of smartphones. For instance, the known linear dependence of the radial acceleration on the distance to the centre (a constant angular frequency) can be shown using multiple smartphones attached to a revolving disc. As a second example, the decrease of the radial acceleration and the rotation frequency due to friction can be measured and fitted with a quadratic function, in accordance with theory. Finally, because the disc is not set up exactly horizontal, each smartphone measures a component of the gravitational acceleration that adds to the radial acceleration during one half of the period and subtracts from the radial acceleration during the other half. Hence, every graph shows a small modulation, which can be used to determine the rotation frequency, thus converting a 'nuisance effect' into a source of useful information, making additional measurements with stopwatches or the like unnecessary.

Introductory mechanics physics courses at the transition from school to university are a challenge for students. They are faced with an abrupt and necessary increase of theoretical content and requirements on their conceptual understanding of phyiscs. In order to support this transition we replaced part of the mandatory weekly theory-based paper-and-pencil problems with video analysis problems of equal content and level of difficulty. Video-based problems (VBP) are a new problem format for teaching physics from a linked sequence of theoretical and video-based experimental tasks. Experimental tasks are related to the well-known concept of video motion analysis. This introduction of an experimental part in recitations allows the establishment of theory–experiment interplay as well as connections between physical content and context fields such as nature, technique, everyday life and applied physics by conducting model-and context-related experiments. Furthermore, laws and formulas as predominantly representative forms are extended by the use of diagrams and vectors. In this paper we give general reasons for this approach, describe the structure and added values of VBP, and show that they cover a relevant part of mechanics courses at university. Emphasis is put on theory–experiment interplay as a structural added value of VBP to promote studentsʼ construction of knowledge and conceptual understanding.