The Effects of Remote Laboratory Implementation on Freshman Engineering Students' Experience

Abstract

Today, learning in the engineering laboratory takes place via face-to-face and distance modes, the latter via the internet. Learning of laboratory skills in any mode of laboratory is influenced by the interactions that occur between the students, instructors and the equipment in the laboratory. Recent innovations have focused on developing new remotely controlled laboratories for various disciplines in engineering studies. These laboratories focus purely on technical aspects and may struggle to provide an environment for the development of personal and professional skills that are also a critical part of an engineering student's education. In this research, quantitative and qualitative surveys were conducted at two Australian institutions to measure first-year students' interactions and capturing their experience in these two contrasting laboratory modes. Quantitative survey data showed that students were more satisfied and valued social interactions more in the remotely controlled laboratory than in the face-to-face laboratory. By contrast qualitative responses revealed that their first preference was still face-to-face laboratories because they valued the importance of gaining hands-on experience of the experiment, working in teams and under an instructor's guidance as an engineering student. Students also preferred remote laboratory work to be introduced at a later stage in their engineering studies when they are conceptually more capable and experienced.

Perceptions of the relative importance of student interactions for the attainment of engineering laboratory-learning outcomes

“…Our earlier work (Lal et al, 2019) reported on the relative importance of student interactions in the attainment of the ten Engineers Australia (EA) laboratory learning outcomes (Engineers Australia 2013). The present paper is based on investigations conducted for face-to-face laboratory work with further analysis of the perceptions of students and instructors.…”

“…Recent studies (Lal et al, 2018;Wei et al, 2018Wei et al, , 2019 have added a fourth type termed indirect interaction (Ind-Int). Indirect interaction occurs when a student learns or is assumed to learn from the observation or listening in to other students' interactions either between themselves or with an instructor in the laboratory.…”

“…Indirect interaction occurs when a student learns or is assumed to learn from the observation or listening in to other students' interactions either between themselves or with an instructor in the laboratory. Each interaction has its own significance for students' learning in the laboratory (Lal et al, 2018).…”

Fostering Experimental Competences Using Complementary Resources

“…In instructional hands-on laboratories, the learning environment includes: the student themselves, other students, the teacher and/or instructor and the lab equipment (which may include components, computers and manuals). It was clear in literature that three types of interaction occurred: student-student interaction (S-S), student-instructor interaction (S-I), and student-equipment interaction (S-E) (Lal, Lucey, Treagust, & Mocerino, 2018;Lowe, Member, Murray, Lindsay, & Liu, 2009;Shea & Bidjerano, 2013) and more recently another type of interaction was added: indirect-interaction (I-I), referring to students listening or observing and learning to interactions in which they are not direct participants: either other students interactions between themselves or with the teacher (Lal et al, 2019;Wei et al, 2019). In a handson laboratory, where all these elements are present at the same physical space, all of them occur.…”

“…It is up to the teacher to foment collaboration and interaction, not only between the students themselves, but also with the teachers and the lab equipment. In fact, students can learn from all the former type of interactions and also by interactions in which they are not direct participants -indirect-interaction (I-I)-considering students' learning by listening and observing other students' interactions between themselves or with the teacher (Lal et al, 2019(Lal et al, , 2018Lowe et al, 2009;Wei et al, 2019). This cooperation and interaction, particularly the S-S and the I-I interactions, may have implications in VISIR usage-they learn from each other and from what they observe in other students' interactions and do not fell so much the need to use itand also in their VISIR perception.…”