EDUCON2018_P1876_Saliah-Hassane_Final.pptx

1. The P1876™standardization process for online
laboratories: the scope, the purpose and the progress.?
Hamadou Saliah-Hassane
Professor TELUQ University
Science and Technology Department
Chair of the IEEE-SA P1876 Working Group
hsaliah@ieee.org

2. IEEE SA P1876 Working Group
Chair: Hamadou Saliah-Hassane
Editorial board: John Shokley, Hamadou
Saliah-Hassane, Denis Gillet, Miguel
Rodriguez Artacho, Janusz Zalewski
hsaliah@ieee.org
https://ieee-sa.centraldesktop.com/1876public/
http://sites.ieee.org/sagroups-edusc/
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories

3. IEEE SA P1876™ Working Group
Contributors to this presentation:
Hamadou Saliah-Hassane
• Denis Gillet (EPFL), John Shockley (ARM),
Manuel Castro (UNED), Luis Felipe Zapata
(FAU), Miguel Rodriguez Artacho (UNED),
Lucas Mellos Carlos (UFSC), Zuzana
Fabusova (Quanser). Wissam Halimi
(EPLF), Maria-Larondo Petrie (FAU),
Christopje Salzmann (EPFL), Elio San
Cristobal (UNED). Pedro Preredes (UNED),
José Pedro Schardosim Simão, João Paulo
Cardoso de Lima, Gustavo Alves, Juarez
Bento Silva and João Bosco da Mota Alves
http://sites.ieee.org/sagroups-edusc/
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories

4. IEEE SA P1876 Working Group Member
PROFILES (Groups & Consortiums)
• PROLEARN: European Project in the framework of FP7
• Interoperability for searching Learning Object Repositories: The ProLearn Query
Language – Metadata for Learning Object
• GOLC: Global Online Laboratory Consortium (2009 -) -"The mission of the
consortium is the creation of sharable, online experimental environments which
increase the educational and scientific value of learning which may not be
accessible, scalable or efficient through traditional methods.“
• http://www.online-engineering.org/GOLC_about.php - The International
Association of Online Engineering (IAOE) – Development of Online
Engineering
• LiLa: Library of Labs; an initiative of eight universities and three enterprises, for
the mutual exchange of and access to Online Labs
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories

5. IEEE SA P1876 Working Group Member
PROFILES (Groups & Consortiums)
• LORNET: Pan Canadian Project Founded by NSERC
• Interoperability of Learning Object – LO Repositories – TELOS – Instructional
Design Software - Online Labs integration for Distance Education and Research
• Go-Lab: Lab by Experience - “The Go-Lab project aims to encourage
young people to engage in science topics, acquire scientific inquiry skills,
and experience the culture of doing science by undertaking active guided
experimentation”; http://www.go-lab-project.eu/
• RexLab: Remote Experimental Lab – (1997 -) the Remote at the Federal
University of Santa Catarina in Brazil (UFSC) http://rexlab.ufsc.br/en/
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories

6. IEEE SA P1876 Working Group Member
PROFILES (Services, Software & Hardware)
Individual members of the group use products and services they
developed or mutally developed by their partners in our choosen
approach of Research & Development of the P1876™ Draft.
iLab – Shared Architecture (ISA) - First developed at MIT
VISIR –Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality - First developed at Blekinge
Institute of Technology http://openlabs.bth.se/
WebLab Deusto – Labsland - http://weblab.deusto.es/website/
GRAASP – Developed at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - http://graasp.eu/
Insdustrial Partners: ARM: https://www.arm.com/research-education/university ; NI: ni.com;
MathWorks™… & Cloud Software Providers
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories

7.  Sharing Resources
• Lab Equipment (affordance)
• Managers /Teachers / Lab Tutors / Facilitators
• Students /Learners
• Contents and Learning Scenarios
 Collaborative Learning / Teaching / Flippled Classrooms/
Pedagogical Sound
• Delivery Environments (Moodle, WebCT, Sakaï etc)
• Communication Tools: Knowledge Modelers, White Boards, Email,
Chat etc.
 Federation – Brokerage of Online Labs
• Networking – Security – Management – Pedagocical needs
• Cyber physical Systems – Online or Networked Embedded Systems
– Complex Systems – Interoperability – Compliance
(manufacturers)
Why a Standard for Online Laboratories for
Education

8. Scope of P1876™ Standard

9. Scope of P1876™
The standard defines methods for storing and retrieving
learning objects for online laboratories. The standard will also
define methods for linking learning objects to design and
implement smart learning environments for remote online
laboratories. These objects are, for example, interfaces for
devices connected to user computers over computers
networks and the devices themselves. They are also learning
scenarios or collaboration tools for communications necessary
to conduct an activity of practical online laboratory work; to
design and implement mechanisms that make smart learning
environment formed by the ad hoc aggregation of learning
objects taking into account the pedagogical context for their
use.

10. Laboratory Typology
Local lab: physical location that accommodates users while
allowing them to perform their tasks using equipment or not.
The equipment is often referred to as the experiment (the
object of experimentation). The place may be designated a
room or a natural environment.

11. Laboratory Typology (cont)
Distributed interactive simulations: it carries clusters of
networked computers to provide users with a learning
environment otherwise unattainable in a context of self-
study using a single computer. Here, the simulation can
represent systems to predict their behavior in various
contexts of use. In general, interactive simulations, design,
analysis and visualization assisted by computers go together.

12. Laboratory Typology (cont)
Virtual Lab: modular experimental simulations of scenarios designed
to be implemented from one or more computers. Mathematical models are put
to work to get as close to the credibility of simulations representing theoretical
concepts or real devices. In some cases, it is not possible to simulate scenarios
and experimental behavior of real devices. This is where mathematical models
are too complex, lack of availability of computing power or when the computer
processing time is long. We then use the remote laboratory

13. Laboratory Typology (Cont)
Remote laboratory: a set of network-connected
physical devices that can be observed and controlled at
distance over computer networks. It makes posible
collaborative experiments by interacting with real devices
that are either instruments and / or remote real
mechanisms. A physical object remotely accessible and being
the focus of the observation and / or the experimentation

14. Smart Adaptive Remote
Laboratories Basic Use Cases

15. Online Laboratories accessible through e-Books (forwarding action to
e-books’ LRS).

17. Traffic cross light demo experiment
(Programming activities)

18. Traffic cross light demo experiment
(Circuit Design Activities)

19. Block.ino: Online Programming an Embedded
System – RExLab (UFSC) in Brazil

21. Lab@Home Concept – Mobile labs

22. Lab@Home
• Students access and manipulate the labs, create laboratory
in order to share devices and interact with other users
during the experimentation process. The workspaces are
created by the own students, who can also edit
information and add other members.
• Among the functionalities available in the collaboratories
are user management (user status, adding and removing),
file sharing, chat room and tasks management (creating,
assigning, completing and due to).

23. Lab@Home
• The collaboratories can also be created from project
templates defined by teachers, with specific tasks and files.
• A specific interface for the laboratory can also be defined
by the teacher in the project creation, so in an assignment,
for example, all students in a course can have the same
resources.

24. Mobile laboratories as an alternative to
conventional remote laboratories
Hamadou Saliah-Hassane, José Pedro Schardosim Simão,
João Paulo Cardoso de Lima, Gustavo Alves, Juarez Bento Silva and João
Bosco da Mota Alves
LACCEI 2017 – The OAS Summit of Engineering for the Americas

25. • The concept around mobile laboratories has been explored
for quite some time now, and interpreted in different ways
by researchers.
• One of the recurring approaches is associated with the
traditional conception of remote experimentation, making
use of mobile devices to access and manipulate labs in
different locations through the internet.
• On the other hand, the idea we have of mobile labs is
more related to the device under control being mobile,
and hosted by the student.
Mobile Laboratories

26. IEEE Standard Development Process Flow
Study Group /
Industry?
Connection
Initiative?
Project
Authorization
Request
PAR

27. IEEE Standard Development Life Cycle
https://standards.ieee.org/develop/index.html

28. IEEE Standard Development Life Cycle
P1876™ is Sponsored
by IEEE Education
Society since 2011
Individual vs Entity

29. IEEE Standard Development Life Cycle (3)
• Volunteers
collaborative 1st
draft
• Editorial Board
• Frequent online and
face to face meetings
& Workshops
• Editor in Chief from
ARM
https://standards.ieee.org/develop/index.html

30. New Trends: Mobile Laboratories
• By using mobile laboratories in collaborative scenarios,
multiple groups are able to perform the same experiment
at the same time, users can pause sessions and resume at
any time without resetting the lab or waiting for other
users.
• In order to develop a common application layer for mobile
laboratories, compatible with different rigs and clients.
• The model Lab as a Service (LaaS) proposes that online
laboratories be delivered as a service able to exchange and
use information from different systems and services.

31. New Trend: Mobile
Laboratories
• By using mobile laboratories in collaborative scenarios,
multiple groups are able to perform the same experiment
at the same time, users can pause sessions and resume at
any time without resetting the lab or waiting for other
users.
• In order to develop a common application layer for mobile
laboratories, compatible with different rigs and clients.
• The model Lab as a Service (LaaS) proposes that online
laboratories be delivered as a service able to exchange and
use information from different systems and services.

32. New Tools: Assessing Learning
Experience in Mobile Labs
• Assessing students’ learning outcome is crucial when
performing laboratory activities in online environments.
• In the mobile labs scenario, where the learning experience
is student-centered, the teacher needs feedback in order
to determine if the experiment had the expected outcome
and if the students learned the skills necessary in that
scenario.
• Assessment is also a problem when using labs in large
courses or MOOCs, requiring considerable effort and time
from teachers and tutors.

33. Assessing Student’s Learning
Experience In Mobile Labs
• The use of Experience API (xAPI), previously known as
TinCan API, enables the easy discovery of learning
behavior by making possible the formalization, storage and
retrieval of learning experiences
• A learning experience in xAPI is tracked and formatted into
a statement, in which an actor performed an action in an
object (actor + verb + activity + additional properties).
• This statement is then stored in a Learning Record Store
(LRS), from where it can be posteriorly retrieved and
analyzed.

34. Solution Prototype
• The proposed solution is composed by four main
components: Smart Device, Lab Gateway, Learning Record
Store (LRS), using a Lab@Home Concept, a collaborative
learning environment (aggregation of required
components).

35. Educational Perspective
Laboratory as a Service
Laboratory as an Educational Resource

36. Laboratory as a Service (LaaS)
Metadata
• General information on the online lab, including its name,
description or contact information.
• List of APIs to access the services (i.e., actuators service).
• The authorization mechanisms, to allow access to the
described services only by the granted users.
• The concurrent access mechanisms, to manage multiple
access at the same time to the same resource

37. Laboratory as a Service (LaaS)
Functionalities
• Authentication functionality
• Self and known state functionality
• Security and local control
• Logging and alarms
Protocols
• HTTP (to get metadata)
• WebSocket (for interaction with the online lab)

38. The Learning Object model and the
Online Laboratories
• In the e-learning arena, online laboratories could be linked with
the general concept of learning activity: “any activities of an
individual organized with the intention to improve his/her
knowledge, skills and competence”.
• There are standards and specifications that cover the
interoperability of a subset of the following specific features of the
learning objects:
• Description and tagging: metadata;
• Content structuring and packaging;
• Communication;
• Sequencing;
• Learning tools and services interoperability;
• Learning Design.

39. Metadata
• Services (Operational)
Operational metadata for services and
functionalities
• Resources (Educational)
–Description
Consider Metadata for Learning Repository
(MLR) as metadata schema --> +
extensions
–Interoperability
• Outcomes
xAPI1 LRS statements
1 © U.S. Government © Advanced Disdtributed Learning (ADL)

40. xAPI Learner Experience
Learning activity described using ADL Training and
Learning Architecture (TLA)
Student activity stored in LRS (Learning Record Store)
LRS and LMS communicate through API called eXperience
API (xAPI)
http://sites.ieee.org/sagroups-ltsc/
https://www.tagxapi.org/

41. Embedded lab in LMS (layer 3)
LMS Online lab
LRS
(Call via URL)
xAPI
statements
xAPI statements
(CMI5 spec, in
progress)

42. xAPI
The Remote Laboratory Management System uses the LRS to store the collected
data. The information is sent in a statement including: actor, verb and object.
Actors defined for the prototype are:
• Student A
• Student B
The basic verbs (using ADL Verbs) reported for the lab are:
• Logged-in
• Logged-out
• Interacted
Objects:
• Pole, LED0, LED1, LED2, Reset)
• Python Code
• LAB X Activity Y

43. IEEE-SA Industry Connection Initiative
The IC program offers an efficient, economical environment for
building consensus and producing shared results. Industry
Connections empowers groups with a customizable menu of IEEE
and IEEE-SA resources to produce "fast-track" content and
deliverables such as:
Proposals for standards
• White papers
• Peer-reviewed guides and position papers
• Conferences, workshops and other events
• Databases and registration services
• Software, tools and web services
• Other jointly developed results

44. IEEE SA P1876™ Industry Collaboration
http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/
Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA)
Industry Connections (IC) program helps
incubate new standards and related
products and services by facilitating
collaboration among organizations and
individuals as they hone and refine their
thinking on rapidly changing technologies.