Past experience and current trends in developing and deploying remote labs in engineering education

1. LiLa Conference • April 11, 2011 • 12:10 - 12:30 • Cambridge • UK
Remote Labs 2.0: Social Media & Smart Devices
A Decade of Remote Experimentation & Evaluation
Denis Gillet and Christophe Salzmann
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
Switzerland
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2. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
u Blended & active learning LMS-free framework
u Unique infrastructure supporting local & remote
laboratory activities 24/7 since 2001 (24 setups)
u Flexible access to collaborative Web-based
experimentation environments (e-Learning)
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3. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
u High-level competences: Project management,
autonomy, teamwork, engineering methodology
Collaborative
analysis, design,
implementation
and validation
System modeling,
data acquisition, Teleoperation as a e-learning
identification and paradigm and a subject matter
real-time control to be studied and applied
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4. Remote Labs at EPFL - 1992
Computer-based control
Replaces
LabVIEW and associated
the analog signal generator,
the analog controller DAQ drivers drastically
and the oscilloscope speed up the controller
with a development
computer and a DAQ board

5. Remote Labs at EPFL - 1996
LAN access
Video feed
Webcam
Add a webcam +
streaming software
Add a communication layer +
deported GUI
Ex-cathedra demonstration

6. Remote Labs at EPFL - 1997
Internet access
Many clients
Online reservation and allocation
system
Synchronized information streams
(data + video)

7. Remote Labs at EPFL -2002
Web Deployment and collaboration
First batch of students to access the remote
lab 24/7
Outside lab activities > 50 %
Collaborative learning support Integration into eMersion,
on-click data transfer to eJournal a collaborative environment

8. Remote Labs at EPFL - 2005
Additional online services
• Integration to other environments
cross deployment with UNED, EJS
• Integration of external tools
shared space, analysis tools, video chat
• User acceptance assessment!
Improvements needed (complexity)
• Drastic student increase (30 to >100)

9. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
Current Challenges
u Only a few experiments are openly available,
especially at the end of the supporting projects
u Limited spreading due to
u high development overhead, especially for the GUI
u high exploitation costs and low scalability
u low academic incentive to share
u difficult to adapt in other institutions
u dedicated sensing devices and actuators, legacy
u Incompatible with smart phones, eBooks, iPads, …
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10. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
u Invite both learners and remote labs in social
media platforms to enable interaction for learning
u Exploit the underlying technologies of the Web of
People (social media)
and the Internet
of Things (smart
devices) to ease
Remote Labs
development
& deployment
u Each lab has
an email address
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11. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
Smart Devices Paradigm
u Online intelligent, autonomous and networked
devices, such as sensors and actuators
u integrating hardware and software, as well
as advanced and versatile communication
capabilities
u supporting identification, initialization, control
and diagnostic at distance
u interpreting incoming requests and adapting
responses using low or high level protocols
u supporting pull or push, active or passive modes
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12. Remote Labs at EPFL
What else ? Interaction
Smart Devices Paradigm
SMS Alarm
Visualization
Widget
Smart Device
email
batch
retrieval
RSS Feed
iPad
access
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13. Social Media Platforms
What else ? Interaction
u Deconstruction of Java Applet
the virtual and
remote lab
environments
u From Applets
to Widgets
u Ease customization
and repurposing
u Cross browser
u Cross social media Meta Widget
platforms or mash-up
in the Graaasp PLE
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14. Social Media Platforms
Graaasp contextual aggregator
with recommendation of entities
(people, spaces, assets and tools)
dug in various online repositories
http://graaasp.epfl.ch
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15. Social Media Platforms
What else ? Interaction
u Turn you remote or virtual labs into
Smart Devices
u Deconstruct your virtual or remote lab
Apps into Widgets
u Agile development of plastic personal
environments
u Simplification ➚ Standardization ➘
u Share and reuse
u Enjoy !
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16. Contact & Links
What else ? Interaction
u denis.gillet@epfl.ch
u http://interaction.epfl.ch
u http://graaasp.epfl.ch
u http://www.stellarnet.eu
u http://www.role-project.eu
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