This document discusses a learning management system (LMS) that integrates remote laboratory experiments on measurement instrumentation.
The proposed system combines an off-the-shelf LMS with remote access to real instruments located in different laboratories. This allows students to conduct hands-on experiments without needing specialized software. The LMS tracks student progress and supports collaborative learning activities.
Virtual instruments developed in LabVIEW are used to control the remote equipment. Students can perform the experiments through a thin client interface without downloading heavy software packages. This integrated LMS and remote laboratory system aims to provide comprehensive electric and electronic measurement courses online.
Models and instruments for assessing Technology Enhanced Learning Environment...Sérgio André Ferreira
The Bologna Process calls for a substantive change in the pedagogical model of teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on the acquisition of skills by students and not the mere accumulation of knowledge. Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELE) are seen as a fundamental support in teaching reengineering, and may support a more effective approach to constructive educational philosophies. The evaluation of TELE, as a means of certifying its quality, is giving rise to several initiatives and European experiences. However, the mechanisms for defining quality parameters vary according to different contexts. If assessment aims to function as a management tool, it should seek specific criteria and indicators that would allow it to respond to questions of well-defined contexts. In this study, which stems from a literature review, we present basic guidelines for TELE continuous assessment (as a management tool). Throughout this article the importance of ongoing, in-context evaluation is emphasized. Models, methods and tools to collect data that permit institutions to develop a properly contextualized assessment process are presented.
Models and instruments for assessing Technology Enhanced Learning Environment...Sérgio André Ferreira
The Bologna Process calls for a substantive change in the pedagogical model of teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on the acquisition of skills by students and not the mere accumulation of knowledge. Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELE) are seen as a fundamental support in teaching reengineering, and may support a more effective approach to constructive educational philosophies. The evaluation of TELE, as a means of certifying its quality, is giving rise to several initiatives and European experiences. However, the mechanisms for defining quality parameters vary according to different contexts. If assessment aims to function as a management tool, it should seek specific criteria and indicators that would allow it to respond to questions of well-defined contexts. In this study, which stems from a literature review, we present basic guidelines for TELE continuous assessment (as a management tool). Throughout this article the importance of ongoing, in-context evaluation is emphasized. Models, methods and tools to collect data that permit institutions to develop a properly contextualized assessment process are presented.
It is recognised that the standard of teaching ICT has improved significantly in recent years. However, high quality ICT teaching is far from universal. This session will explore, from several perspectives, what is meant by ‘good practice.’
We also explore some ideas for incorporating ICT in art and design, and you engage in a practical task on the theme of self portraits.
You reflect on this work with your partner, uploading a recording of your discussion to your site.
We conclude with a discussion of interactive whiteboard practice in schools.
IN-SESSION TASK 2
• Create a self portrait using ICT tools – your tutor will model one or more approaches to this task, but you are welcome to work independently using ideas of your own
• Upload your finished portrait to your Google site.
• Record a brief conversation with your partner about this task and upload this to your site.
TO FOLLOW UP
• Read Higgins et al (2007), whilst reflecting on your own or your class teacher’s use of the interactive whiteboard.
• You may wish to practice your own IWB skills over lunchtime using one of the Lulham ICT Centre boards, or IWBs available for student use in the Library.
• Watch Jen Deyenberg’s online presentation on geocaching, http://www.trailsoptional.com/2010/10/k-12-online-conference-presentation-gps-and-geocaching-k12online10/
It is recognised that the standard of teaching ICT has improved significantly in recent years. However, high quality ICT teaching is far from universal. This session will explore, from several perspectives, what is meant by ‘good practice.’
We also explore some ideas for incorporating ICT in art and design, and you engage in a practical task on the theme of self portraits.
You reflect on this work with your partner, uploading a recording of your discussion to your site.
We conclude with a discussion of interactive whiteboard practice in schools.
IN-SESSION TASK 2
• Create a self portrait using ICT tools – your tutor will model one or more approaches to this task, but you are welcome to work independently using ideas of your own
• Upload your finished portrait to your Google site.
• Record a brief conversation with your partner about this task and upload this to your site.
TO FOLLOW UP
• Read Higgins et al (2007), whilst reflecting on your own or your class teacher’s use of the interactive whiteboard.
• You may wish to practice your own IWB skills over lunchtime using one of the Lulham ICT Centre boards, or IWBs available for student use in the Library.
• Watch Jen Deyenberg’s online presentation on geocaching, http://www.trailsoptional.com/2010/10/k-12-online-conference-presentation-gps-and-geocaching-k12online10/
Recent Trends in E-Learning and Technologies IIJSRJournal
This work centers around the various advances accessible to help instructing and learning in e-Learning frameworks whose significance for schooling educators and framework designers is obvious. It is important to decide the most fitting e-learning advances to help the individual necessities in instructing, which make it conceivable to give the best learning freedoms to understudies, considering the current circumstance where instructive frameworks have quick requests got from the Covid 19 pandemic, which makes homeroom based instructive practices offer way to far off exercises. There are as of now drifts in the improvement of an assortment of accessible advances which might be outlined in Web environments and Virtual Reality among other arising advances; subsequently, the choice to utilize a specific innovation should be founded on strong exploration and obvious proof. This article audits a considerable lot of these e-Learning framework innovations and gives data, about their utilization, openings and patterns being developed.
Involving students in managing their own learningeLearning Papers
The primary function of universities is to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to prosper throughout their professional career. Today, to be successful, students will need to continually enhance their knowledge and skills, in order to address immediate problems and to participate in a process of continuing vocational and professional development.
Authors: Malinka Ivanova, Tatyana Ivanova
Developing a Computer-Assisted Instruction Model for Vocational High Schoolsinventy
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Science is published by the group of young academic and industrial researchers with 12 Issues per year. It is an online as well as print version open access journal that provides rapid publication (monthly) of articles in all areas of the subject such as: civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic and computer engineering as well as production and information technology. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published by rapid process within 20 days after acceptance and peer review process takes only 7 days. All articles published in Research Inventy will be peer-reviewed.
Online Teaching Learning (OTL) systems are the future of the education system due to the rapid development in the field of Information Technology. Many existing OTL systems provide distance education services in the present context as well. In this paper, several types of existing OTL systems are explored in order to identify their key features, needs, working, defects and sectors for future development. For this, different aspects, types, processes, impacts, and teaching–learning strategies of various OTL systems were studied. In addition, the paper concludes with some future insights and personal interest in the further development of OTLs on the basis of previous research performed.
Academic Staff Development in the Area of Technology Enhanced Learning in UK ...eLearning Papers
This paper reports on a study on staff development in the area of technology enhanced learning in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that took place in November, 2011. Data for this study were gathered via an online survey emailed to the Heads of e-Learning Forum (HeLF) which is a network comprised of one senior staff member per UK institution, leading the enhancement of learning and teaching through the use of technology. Prior to the survey, desk-based research on some universities’ publicly available websites gathered similar information about staff development in the area of technology enhanced learning. The online survey received 27 responses, approaching a quarter of all UK HEIs subscribed to the Heads of e-Learning forum list (118 is the total number). Both pre-1992 (16 in number) and post-1992 Universities (11 in number) were represented in the survey and findings indicate the way this sample of UK HEIs are approaching staff development in the area of TEL.
A Survey on E-Learning System with Data MiningIIRindia
E-learning process has been widely used in university campus and educational institutions are playing vital role to enhance the skill set of students. Modern E-learning done by many electronic devices, such as smartphones, Tabs, and so on, on existing E-learning tools is insufficient to achieve the purpose of online training of education. This paper presents a survey of online e-Learning authoring tools for creating and integrating reusable e-learning tool for generation and enhancing existing learning resources with them. The work concentrates on evaluation of the existing e-learning tools a, and authoring tools that have shown good performance in the past for online learners. This survey work takes more than 20 online tools that deal with the educational sector mechanism, for the purpose of observations, and the outcome were analyzed. The findings of this paper are the main reason for developing a new tool, and it shows that educators can enhance existing learning resources by adding assessment resources, if suitable authoring tools are provided. Finally, the different factors that assure the reusability of the created new e-learning tool has been analysed in this paper.E-learning environment is a guide for both students and tutorial management system. The useful on the e-learning system for apart from students and distance learning students. The purpose of using e-learning environment for online education system, developed in data mining for more number of clustering servers and resource chain has been good.
E-Learning Project Write Up Case Study Ogun State Institute Of Technologydamilola isaac
Over the last decade, researchers and practitioners have developed a wide range of knowledge related to electronic learning or e-learning. This movement has affected different elements and components; infrastructures, tools, content-oriented applications, human-computer interactions, pedagogical issues, methodologies and models, case studies and projects. This chapter briefly describes the overall idea of the development of e-learning system for OGITECH by using Apache, PHP and MySQL. This chapter includes objectives of the project, scope of work, problem statement and features of project before developed the own sites.
E-Learning has its historical background in about 30 years of development in computer based on the training and education. With the growth of the internet this kind of training became much more accepted and the creation of multimedia contents and systems to manage learning activities went on faster. Additional e-learning is based on a long tradition of teaching and learning experience. The larger worlds Information Technology and Education and Training influenced the new term e-learning and so e-learning became a subset of both of them.
Nowadays, e-learning refers to learning that is delivered or enabled via electronic technology. It encompasses learning delivered via a range of technologies such as the internet, television, videotape, and computer-based training. In principle, e-learning is a kind of distance learning. Learning materials can be accessed from the web or intranet via a computer and tutors and learners can communicate with each other using e-mail, chat or discussion forums.
Therefore, it can be used as the main method of delivery of training or as a combined approach with classroom-based training. It can be valuable when used as a part of well-planned and properly supported education and training environment, but e-learning is not a magic bullet that replaces existing pedagogical theories and approaches.
Nevertheless, it has almost everything that those theories need to get implemented.
Many learning and technology professionals believe that e-learning will have become state of the art when we will stop referring to it by a separate name and begin considering it as an integral part of a complete learning environment.
Using Ontology in Electronic Evaluation for Personalization of eLearning Systemsinfopapers
I. Pah, F. Stoica, L. F. Cacovean, E. M. Popa, Using Ontology in Electronic Evaluation for Personalization of eLearning Systems, Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS International Conference on APPLIED INFORMATICS and COMMUNICATIONS (AIC’08), Rhodes, Greece, August 20-22, ISSN: 1790-5109, ISBN: 978-960-6766-94-7, pp. 332-337, 2008
The utilization of virtual learning environment (vle) to improve mathematics ...STEPHEN ONUH OLA
TITLE PAGE
THE UTILIZATION OF VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (VLE) TO IMPROVE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN MATHEMATICS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, MAKURDI
BY
OLA STEPHEN ONUH
(UE/24294/12)
A RESEARCHWORK PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, MAKURDI, BENUE STATE.
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE EDUCATION DEREEIN BSC(ED) MATHEMATICS/STATISTICS.
Basavarajeeyam is an important text for ayurvedic physician belonging to andhra pradehs. It is a popular compendium in various parts of our country as well as in andhra pradesh. The content of the text was presented in sanskrit and telugu language (Bilingual). One of the most famous book in ayurvedic pharmaceutics and therapeutics. This book contains 25 chapters called as prakaranas. Many rasaoushadis were explained, pioneer of dhatu druti, nadi pareeksha, mutra pareeksha etc. Belongs to the period of 15-16 century. New diseases like upadamsha, phiranga rogas are explained.
Recomendações da OMS sobre cuidados maternos e neonatais para uma experiência pós-natal positiva.
Em consonância com os ODS – Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável e a Estratégia Global para a Saúde das Mulheres, Crianças e Adolescentes, e aplicando uma abordagem baseada nos direitos humanos, os esforços de cuidados pós-natais devem expandir-se para além da cobertura e da simples sobrevivência, de modo a incluir cuidados de qualidade.
Estas diretrizes visam melhorar a qualidade dos cuidados pós-natais essenciais e de rotina prestados às mulheres e aos recém-nascidos, com o objetivo final de melhorar a saúde e o bem-estar materno e neonatal.
Uma “experiência pós-natal positiva” é um resultado importante para todas as mulheres que dão à luz e para os seus recém-nascidos, estabelecendo as bases para a melhoria da saúde e do bem-estar a curto e longo prazo. Uma experiência pós-natal positiva é definida como aquela em que as mulheres, pessoas que gestam, os recém-nascidos, os casais, os pais, os cuidadores e as famílias recebem informação consistente, garantia e apoio de profissionais de saúde motivados; e onde um sistema de saúde flexível e com recursos reconheça as necessidades das mulheres e dos bebês e respeite o seu contexto cultural.
Estas diretrizes consolidadas apresentam algumas recomendações novas e já bem fundamentadas sobre cuidados pós-natais de rotina para mulheres e neonatos que recebem cuidados no pós-parto em unidades de saúde ou na comunidade, independentemente dos recursos disponíveis.
É fornecido um conjunto abrangente de recomendações para cuidados durante o período puerperal, com ênfase nos cuidados essenciais que todas as mulheres e recém-nascidos devem receber, e com a devida atenção à qualidade dos cuidados; isto é, a entrega e a experiência do cuidado recebido. Estas diretrizes atualizam e ampliam as recomendações da OMS de 2014 sobre cuidados pós-natais da mãe e do recém-nascido e complementam as atuais diretrizes da OMS sobre a gestão de complicações pós-natais.
O estabelecimento da amamentação e o manejo das principais intercorrências é contemplada.
Recomendamos muito.
Vamos discutir essas recomendações no nosso curso de pós-graduação em Aleitamento no Instituto Ciclos.
Esta publicação só está disponível em inglês até o momento.
Prof. Marcus Renato de Carvalho
www.agostodourado.com
Title: Sense of Smell
Presenter: Dr. Faiza, Assistant Professor of Physiology
Qualifications:
MBBS (Best Graduate, AIMC Lahore)
FCPS Physiology
ICMT, CHPE, DHPE (STMU)
MPH (GC University, Faisalabad)
MBA (Virtual University of Pakistan)
Learning Objectives:
Describe the primary categories of smells and the concept of odor blindness.
Explain the structure and location of the olfactory membrane and mucosa, including the types and roles of cells involved in olfaction.
Describe the pathway and mechanisms of olfactory signal transmission from the olfactory receptors to the brain.
Illustrate the biochemical cascade triggered by odorant binding to olfactory receptors, including the role of G-proteins and second messengers in generating an action potential.
Identify different types of olfactory disorders such as anosmia, hyposmia, hyperosmia, and dysosmia, including their potential causes.
Key Topics:
Olfactory Genes:
3% of the human genome accounts for olfactory genes.
400 genes for odorant receptors.
Olfactory Membrane:
Located in the superior part of the nasal cavity.
Medially: Folds downward along the superior septum.
Laterally: Folds over the superior turbinate and upper surface of the middle turbinate.
Total surface area: 5-10 square centimeters.
Olfactory Mucosa:
Olfactory Cells: Bipolar nerve cells derived from the CNS (100 million), with 4-25 olfactory cilia per cell.
Sustentacular Cells: Produce mucus and maintain ionic and molecular environment.
Basal Cells: Replace worn-out olfactory cells with an average lifespan of 1-2 months.
Bowman’s Gland: Secretes mucus.
Stimulation of Olfactory Cells:
Odorant dissolves in mucus and attaches to receptors on olfactory cilia.
Involves a cascade effect through G-proteins and second messengers, leading to depolarization and action potential generation in the olfactory nerve.
Quality of a Good Odorant:
Small (3-20 Carbon atoms), volatile, water-soluble, and lipid-soluble.
Facilitated by odorant-binding proteins in mucus.
Membrane Potential and Action Potential:
Resting membrane potential: -55mV.
Action potential frequency in the olfactory nerve increases with odorant strength.
Adaptation Towards the Sense of Smell:
Rapid adaptation within the first second, with further slow adaptation.
Psychological adaptation greater than receptor adaptation, involving feedback inhibition from the central nervous system.
Primary Sensations of Smell:
Camphoraceous, Musky, Floral, Pepperminty, Ethereal, Pungent, Putrid.
Odor Detection Threshold:
Examples: Hydrogen sulfide (0.0005 ppm), Methyl-mercaptan (0.002 ppm).
Some toxic substances are odorless at lethal concentrations.
Characteristics of Smell:
Odor blindness for single substances due to lack of appropriate receptor protein.
Behavioral and emotional influences of smell.
Transmission of Olfactory Signals:
From olfactory cells to glomeruli in the olfactory bulb, involving lateral inhibition.
Primitive, less old, and new olfactory systems with different path
Best Ayurvedic medicine for Gas and IndigestionSwastikAyurveda
Here is the updated list of Top Best Ayurvedic medicine for Gas and Indigestion and those are Gas-O-Go Syp for Dyspepsia | Lavizyme Syrup for Acidity | Yumzyme Hepatoprotective Capsules etc
Integrating Ayurveda into Parkinson’s Management: A Holistic ApproachAyurveda ForAll
Explore the benefits of combining Ayurveda with conventional Parkinson's treatments. Learn how a holistic approach can manage symptoms, enhance well-being, and balance body energies. Discover the steps to safely integrate Ayurvedic practices into your Parkinson’s care plan, including expert guidance on diet, herbal remedies, and lifestyle modifications.
These lecture slides, by Dr Sidra Arshad, offer a quick overview of the physiological basis of a normal electrocardiogram.
Learning objectives:
1. Define an electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrocardiography
2. Describe how dipoles generated by the heart produce the waveforms of the ECG
3. Describe the components of a normal electrocardiogram of a typical bipolar lead (limb II)
4. Differentiate between intervals and segments
5. Enlist some common indications for obtaining an ECG
6. Describe the flow of current around the heart during the cardiac cycle
7. Discuss the placement and polarity of the leads of electrocardiograph
8. Describe the normal electrocardiograms recorded from the limb leads and explain the physiological basis of the different records that are obtained
9. Define mean electrical vector (axis) of the heart and give the normal range
10. Define the mean QRS vector
11. Describe the axes of leads (hexagonal reference system)
12. Comprehend the vectorial analysis of the normal ECG
13. Determine the mean electrical axis of the ventricular QRS and appreciate the mean axis deviation
14. Explain the concepts of current of injury, J point, and their significance
Study Resources:
1. Chapter 11, Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology, 14th edition
2. Chapter 9, Human Physiology - From Cells to Systems, Lauralee Sherwood, 9th edition
3. Chapter 29, Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology, 26th edition
4. Electrocardiogram, StatPearls - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549803/
5. ECG in Medical Practice by ABM Abdullah, 4th edition
6. Chapter 3, Cardiology Explained, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2214/
7. ECG Basics, http://www.nataliescasebook.com/tag/e-c-g-basics
NVBDCP.pptx Nation vector borne disease control programSapna Thakur
NVBDCP was launched in 2003-2004 . Vector-Borne Disease: Disease that results from an infection transmitted to humans and other animals by blood-feeding arthropods, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. Examples of vector-borne diseases include Dengue fever, West Nile Virus, Lyme disease, and malaria.
Tom Selleck Health: A Comprehensive Look at the Iconic Actor’s Wellness Journeygreendigital
Tom Selleck, an enduring figure in Hollywood. has captivated audiences for decades with his rugged charm, iconic moustache. and memorable roles in television and film. From his breakout role as Thomas Magnum in Magnum P.I. to his current portrayal of Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods. Selleck's career has spanned over 50 years. But beyond his professional achievements. fans have often been curious about Tom Selleck Health. especially as he has aged in the public eye.
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Introduction
Many have been interested in Tom Selleck health. not only because of his enduring presence on screen but also because of the challenges. and lifestyle choices he has faced and made over the years. This article delves into the various aspects of Tom Selleck health. exploring his fitness regimen, diet, mental health. and the challenges he has encountered as he ages. We'll look at how he maintains his well-being. the health issues he has faced, and his approach to ageing .
Early Life and Career
Childhood and Athletic Beginnings
Tom Selleck was born on January 29, 1945, in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Sherman Oaks, California. From an early age, he was involved in sports, particularly basketball. which played a significant role in his physical development. His athletic pursuits continued into college. where he attended the University of Southern California (USC) on a basketball scholarship. This early involvement in sports laid a strong foundation for his physical health and disciplined lifestyle.
Transition to Acting
Selleck's transition from an athlete to an actor came with its physical demands. His first significant role in "Magnum P.I." required him to perform various stunts and maintain a fit appearance. This role, which he played from 1980 to 1988. necessitated a rigorous fitness routine to meet the show's demands. setting the stage for his long-term commitment to health and wellness.
Fitness Regimen
Workout Routine
Tom Selleck health and fitness regimen has evolved. adapting to his changing roles and age. During his "Magnum, P.I." days. Selleck's workouts were intense and focused on building and maintaining muscle mass. His routine included weightlifting, cardiovascular exercises. and specific training for the stunts he performed on the show.
Selleck adjusted his fitness routine as he aged to suit his body's needs. Today, his workouts focus on maintaining flexibility, strength, and cardiovascular health. He incorporates low-impact exercises such as swimming, walking, and light weightlifting. This balanced approach helps him stay fit without putting undue strain on his joints and muscles.
Importance of Flexibility and Mobility
In recent years, Selleck has emphasized the importance of flexibility and mobility in his fitness regimen. Understanding the natural decline in muscle mass and joint flexibility with age. he includes stretching and yoga in his routine. These practices help prevent injuries, improve posture, and maintain mobilit
Local Advanced Lung Cancer: Artificial Intelligence, Synergetics, Complex Sys...Oleg Kshivets
Overall life span (LS) was 1671.7±1721.6 days and cumulative 5YS reached 62.4%, 10 years – 50.4%, 20 years – 44.6%. 94 LCP lived more than 5 years without cancer (LS=2958.6±1723.6 days), 22 – more than 10 years (LS=5571±1841.8 days). 67 LCP died because of LC (LS=471.9±344 days). AT significantly improved 5YS (68% vs. 53.7%) (P=0.028 by log-rank test). Cox modeling displayed that 5YS of LCP significantly depended on: N0-N12, T3-4, blood cell circuit, cell ratio factors (ratio between cancer cells-CC and blood cells subpopulations), LC cell dynamics, recalcification time, heparin tolerance, prothrombin index, protein, AT, procedure type (P=0.000-0.031). Neural networks, genetic algorithm selection and bootstrap simulation revealed relationships between 5YS and N0-12 (rank=1), thrombocytes/CC (rank=2), segmented neutrophils/CC (3), eosinophils/CC (4), erythrocytes/CC (5), healthy cells/CC (6), lymphocytes/CC (7), stick neutrophils/CC (8), leucocytes/CC (9), monocytes/CC (10). Correct prediction of 5YS was 100% by neural networks computing (error=0.000; area under ROC curve=1.0).
2. 1758 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2006
However, electric and electronic measurement laboratories II. LMS S
(both public and private) are not widespread, due mainly to their
A general agreement seems to exist regarding roles played
costs, and this complicates the life-long learning of specialized
by people in a learning environment as well as regarding the
technicians, especially in the field of process control, quality
core functionality of modern e-learning platforms [13]–[15].
control, and testing engineering.
The main players in these systems are the “learners” and the
None of the above-quoted proposals of remote laboratories
“authors”; others include trainers and administrators.
for electric and electronic measurement teaching includes the
Authors (which may be teachers or instructional designers)
noticeable support that an LMS could give to learner-centric
create content, which is stored under the control of an LMS
didiactic approaches. In particular, concerning the students, it
and typically in a database [14], [16]. Existing content can be
is not possible to self-design their own learning process or updated, and it can also be exchanged with other systems. The
carry out a collaborative or PBL. Concerning teachers, it is LMS is managed by an administrator, and it interacts with a
not possible to track the activities of students or carry out an runtime environment that is addressed by learners, who in turn
interactive experiment in a virtual classroom. may be coached by a trainer. These three components of the
In this paper, a distributed didactic platform based on an e-learning system can be logically and physically distributed,
LMS is proposed to provide full courses of electric and elec- i.e., installed on distinct machines in different sites, and pro-
tronic measurements including theory as well as practical vided by different vendors or content suppliers [13]. To make
experiments on real instrumentation. The proposed solution such a distribution feasible, standards such as the Aviation In-
integrates the advantages provided by the off-the-shelf LMS, dustry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) [17] and
which is compliant with international standards for Web-based the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) guidelines [18],
training, and a new approach for providing remote experi- the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) [19],
ments on measurement instrumentation, based on the thin-client and the Learning Object Metadata (LOM) [15] specifications
paradigm. The proposed approach relies on VIs developed try to ensure plug-and-play compatibility and enable interop-
in LabVIEW and ensures that the students access the instru- erability, accessibility, and reusability of Web-based learning
mentation without downloading heavy plug-ins (software pack- content.
ages required for executing the VIs on the client side that E-learning systems may be implemented in such a way that
need long download, powerful processors, or high memory a customization of features and appearance to a particular
capacity). learner’s need is supported. Learners vary significantly in their
The work described in this paper has been carried out within prerequisites, abilities, goals for approaching a learning sys-
the LADIRE project financed by the Italian Ministry of Ed- tem, pace of learning, way of learning, and the time they are
ucation and University in the National Operating Programme able to spend on learning. Thus, the target group of learners
(PON) 2000–2006 [11]. The project aims to realize a national is typically very heterogeneous. A system is ideally able to
measurement laboratory that will operatively provide the stu- provide and present content for all (or at least several of) these
dents of electric and electronic measurement courses with the groups to be suitable, for example, for a student who wants
access to remote measurement laboratories that deliver different to learn about database concepts or for a company employee
didactic activities related to measurement experiments. The who wants to become familiar with company-internal processes
initial infrastructure is composed of the laboratories at the and their execution. To fulfill the needs of a flexible system,
University of Sannio and at the University of Reggio Calabria a learning platform has to meet a number of requirements,
“Mediterranea” under the patronage of the National Research including the integration of a variety of materials, the potential
Association on Electric and Electronic Measurement (GMEE) deviation from predetermined sequences of actions, person-
and the collaboration of about 20 Italian universities and some alization, and adaptation, and the verifiability of work and
specialized instrumentation, e-learning, and publishing compa- accomplishments [13].
nies such as National Instruments, Tektronix, Agilent Technolo- Content consumed by learners and created by authors is
gies, Yokogawa, Keithley, Rockwell Automation, Didagroup, commonly handled, stored, and exchanged in units of learning
and Augusta Publishing. objects (LOs). Basically, LOs are units of study, exercise, or
Moreover, the work carried out until now has led to a second practice that can be consumed in a single session, and they
project, financed by the Italian Space Agency, aiming to design represent reusable granules that can be authored independently
a distance learning system that uses satellite networks as the of the delivery medium and accessed dynamically, e.g., over
backbone, providing Web-based training to mobile as well the Web [16]. Ideally, LOs can be exchanged between different
as home/office learners located in all of Europe and North LMSs and plugged together to build classes that are intended to
Africa [12]. serve a particular purpose or goal.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the LOs can be stored in a relational or an object-relational
main functions and the trends in the development of LMSs. database and are typically broken down into a collection of
Section III summarizes the most recent proposals realizing attributes, some of which are mandatory and some of which
remote laboratories for didactic purposes. Section IV describes are optional; a more concrete proposal appears in [16]. In a
the overall architecture of the proposed platform and delivered similar way, other information relevant to a learning system
functionalities, system architecture, and its hardware and soft- (e.g., learner personal data, learner profiles, course maps, LO
ware components. Section V illustrates the first evaluation of sequencing or presentation information, and general user data)
the proposed approach on real instruments. can be mapped to common database structures. This does not
3. RAPUANO AND ZOINO: LMS INCLUDING LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION 1759
only make interoperability feasible but also allows for a process Collaborative teaching techniques are a typical example
support inside an e-learning system that can interact with the of that kind of education strategy. PBL, for example, is a
underlying database appropriately [13]. Indeed, the area of teaching/learning model that involves students in problem-
e-learning consists of a multiplicity of complex activities that solving tasks, allows students to actively build and manage their
can be modeled as processes or workflows and can be attributed own learning, and results in student-built realistic deliverables.
to and associated with the various components of a learning This approach is characterized by the following features: a
platform. project centered curriculum, largely autonomous students, au-
By using a workflow management system, for example, one thentic tasks, active learning, preponderant role of feedback,
can think of a college degree program that is fully supervised and development of generic skills. Projects are used as a teach-
by an electronic system [13]. Currently, in Italy, there are some ing/learning method. Students work on concrete, close to real-
examples of universities providing college degree programs at world tasks and produce realistic products. The requirements
distance that have been certified by the Ministry of Education and the learning outcomes also vary considerably.
and University, e.g., the “Guglielmo Marconi” University [20]. Teachers carefully define the content of the project, its
Much research has been focused on e-learning technologies, objectives, assessment, and support, among other things. The
and many topics have been presented covering accessibility, students work in a synchronized way [2].
interoperability, durability, and reusability of components [21]. Another drawback of typical virtual learning environments
A Web service-oriented framework also gives flexibility to the is the lack of practical experience on actual instrumentation.
design of an LMS and hides the implementation complexity As e-learning environments have been originally developed for
from programmers, thus speeding up the design process. Ap- teaching of computer-science-related topics, their concept of
plying Web service technologies to a SCORM-compatible LMS PBL is related to software projects. Today, LMSs and LCMSs
simplifies the implementation and maintenance of the LMS and are widely used to teach every kind of topic; however, their
allows service consumers more choices in finding the service practical experience on instrumentation is still mainly limited
they require [21]. A deep review of a wide number of LMSs to simulations.
on the market can be found in [22], where a guide to choosing
among their functionalities is also provided.
III. R EMOTE L ABORATORIES
From the realization point of view, there are many e-learning
products that are implemented using different platforms that To understand the measurement procedures and measure-
are not compatible with each other. For example, distributed ment system design, it is necessary to repeat the same expe-
object systems such as Microsoft COM family and the Common rience of actual measurements of physical phenomena many
Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard did times to make all learners able to operate measuring instrumen-
not interoperate. Each platform presented numerous security tation [25]–[27].
and administration challenges when deployed over the Internet, Some drawbacks make it difficult to provide a complete set
and neither quite met the scalability expectations created by of updated workbenches to every learner. The most relevant are
the Web. Web Services provide a standard means of com- 1) the high cost of measurement equipment and, in general,
munication among different software applications running on of experimental laboratories in educational sites and industry;
a variety of platforms and/or frameworks. Web services are 2) the growing number of students and specialized technicians;
designed as a reference architecture to promote interoperability 3) the reduced number of laboratory technical staff; and 4) the
end extensibility among these applications, as well as to allow continuous evolution of involved measurement instrumentation,
them to be combined to perform more complex operations. In which makes it difficult and very expensive to keep technical
particular, [23] focuses on how to integrate Web services on the staff up-to-date.
e-learning application domain. The potentiality of remote teaching for scientific disciplines
One possible drawback of the virtual learning environments, [28], and in particular the use of the Internet as a channel
such as those based on LMSs, is that they could be content to reach the students or workers at their homes, was soon
centric. Many instructors simply move all their teaching ma- recognized [29]–[31]. Therefore, currently, a lot of teaching
terials to the system. The materials are presented uniformly to material can be found as 1) Web-based lectures and seminars
all learners regardless of their background, learning styles, and that are sometimes interactive, provided by hardware or
preferences. software producers, and mainly directed to professionals that
Nowadays, the trend in education strategies goes in the want to reduce the time to market for a new application [32];
direction of learner-centric learning. Learner-centric learning 2) Web support to university courses, including slides of
places the learner at its heart. Learners are expected to ac- lectures and exercises [33], [34]; 3) simulation of actual
tively engage in the learning process to construct their own experiments to be executed either remotely or on student’s PC
learning. Thus, they have more responsibility for their own [35], [36]; and, more rarely, 4) remotely accessible laboratories,
learning. Instructors are still responsible for learners’ learning, where the learners can access real instrumentation through a
but they play the role of a “facilitator,” who guides the learning Web page [9], [10], [37]–[39].
process instead of being the sole information provider. Learner- As off-the-shelf LMSs are usually closed proprietary soft-
centric learning will give learners a deeper and richer learning ware systems that are often not customizable at all, the research
experience, as there is greater participation and involvement in carried out by scientists to provide teaching of electric and
learning [24]. electronic measurement including experiments did not take
4. 1760 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2006
into account the possibility of integrating remote laboratories
and LMSs.
The focus of their activity, instead, was the development of
the remote laboratory itself, eventually adding scheduling and
user account management modules. The theoretical support to
the experiences was provided by traditional classroom lectures
or lecture notes delivered by Web sites from the realization
point of view; the solutions found in the literature, except for
[37], require that the software enabling the remote control of the
instrumentation (called virtual instrument or VI) is developed
almost from scratch in C, C++, and Java languages. When a
standard communication structure is not used, the reusability
and the interoperability of a VI are greatly limited to the specific
laboratory application, and the expandability of the system
is bound from the availability of skilled technicians who can
develop new VIs to be included in that system. The project [38], Fig. 1. Synchronous virtual laboratory/experiment visualization.
following the research trend in [8], [9], and [40], reverses the
problem, relying on the use of LabVIEW from National Instru-
ments, which is a standard language for VI development for including user authentication and management and tracking of
producing VIs and the software AppletView from Nacimiento learning process at the user level. Moreover, it provides several
for producing Java applets that constitute a remote interface innovative functionalities, encapsulating in specific LOs the
of LabVIEW VIs. In such a way, it is possible to reuse the remote control of measurement instrumentation. This objective
wide number of already developed VIs for integrating existing has been achieved by developing an additive module for the
instrumentation in a remote laboratory without developing new LMS Inform@ from Didagroup [41]. The module ensures the
software. Java applet ensures the compatibility of the laboratory integration of VIs written in LabVIEW in the LMS as LOs to
with every operating system and does not oblige the student enable remote users to get control of a measurement instrument
to download heavy plug-ins from the Internet. Moreover, most transparently and to display the measurement results within the
of the solutions found in the literature require the development normal learning activities. Therefore, the students’ activities are
of the accessory software applications enabling the sharing of tracked at the LO level.
the laboratory instrumentation, such as scheduling and security The remote laboratory is distributed on a geographical scale
policy. The main limit of the new solution is the impossibility since the measurement instruments are located physically in
of developing learners’ own VI. laboratories belonging to different universities. At the moment,
Following the same approach found in the LMS-oriented two laboratories are involved: One is located at the University
research, in the last few years, a new trend started for ensuring of Sannio in Benevento, and the other is located at the “Mediter-
the VI interoperability and reusability using eXtensible Markup ranea” University of Reggio Calabria. The access requests
Language (XML) and Simple Object Addressable Protocol to the measurement instruments are handled by a scheduling
(SOAP). The VIs are realized and could be accessed as Web system that connects, through specific policies, the user to a
services [8], [10]. The main advantage of these solutions is specific physical laboratory in which the required measurement
that they can be easily integrated in LOs for existing LMSs. instruments are available.
However, in these cases, the language used to develop the VIs Different users’ profiles are managed by the system: “stu-
is C++ or J2EE; thus, the existing LabVIEW VIs cannot be dent,” “teacher,” and “administrator.”
reused. The main services delivered by the remote measurement
laboratory module to the student are the following:
IV. I NTEGRATING THE L ABORATORY AND THE LMS 1) Synchronous Virtual Laboratory: This service allows the
student to follow online a laboratory activity held by
This paper proposes a new distance learning environment the teacher of the course. The student obtains the dis-
to teach electric and electronic measurement that integrates an play on his/her computer of the server desktop used
off-the-shelf LMS and a geographically distributed laboratory. by the teacher to control the measurement instruments
The next sections describe the main services provided, focusing involved in the experiment. The experiment is carried
on the distributed laboratory accessed through the LMS. In out on the front panel of a LabVIEW VI, controlling
particular, it will describe the distributed system, its architec- all the involved instrumentation. In Fig. 1, the control
ture and innovative functions, as well as its integration with panel of a VXI oscilloscope is connected to the Mea-
the LMS. surement Server (MS) by means of an MXI-2 inter-
face card.
2) Experiment Visualization: This service allows the student
A. Delivered Services
to observe the automatic execution of an experiment
The developed distance learning environment delivers the and to acquire an accurate knowledge concerning the
typical functionalities of a common LMS described above, operations and the possible results (see Fig. 1).
5. RAPUANO AND ZOINO: LMS INCLUDING LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION 1761
test, and the VI has only to be copied in a specific directory in
the PC used as a control unit called MS. Also, if the hardware
setup has to be carried out in the laboratory, the VI can be
produced in the teacher’s workplace and then transferred to the
MS by means of the above-quoted services.
Finally, the administrator is responsible for the correct oper-
ation of the overall distributed system and for handling the user
profiles.
B. Architecture of the Distributed Laboratory
To allow a student to access a remote and geographically
distributed didactic laboratory, this paper proposes a Web-based
multitier distributed architecture centered on the LMS that can
be considered as the core component of the overall system.
The module designed to manage the remote laboratory is
based on a scheduling system that manages the catalog of
Fig. 2. Experiment control. available measurement instrumentation and redirects the user
request to the measurement laboratory, which is chosen among
the partner laboratories, in which is the required instrument is
currently available. Moreover, it enables the requestor to gain
control of a measurement instrument by the LabVIEW software
environment without requiring that it be installed on the client
side (Figs. 4 and 5).
The proposed multitier architecture is composed of three
tiers.
1) “The presentation tier” manages the Experiment Visual-
ization on the client side. It is based on standard Web
browsers, with no need for specific software compo-
nents (no specific operating system is required). The
only software component needed is the Java 2 Runtime
Environment, which is used to employ the Java Applet
technology for experiment access and control from the
client machine.
2) “The middle tier” manages the system logic on the server
Fig. 3. Experiment creation. side. It includes the following components.
a) The LMS is executed on a central server of the overall
3) Experiment Control: This service allows the student to e-learning environment, called “Laboratory Portal.”
perform an experiment controlling remotely one or more The LMS interfaces to the users through a Web Server
instruments and observing them by means of a camera. that is hosted on the same machine.
The student can choose a specific experiment in a set b) A Laboratory Server (LS) is used to interface a lab-
of predefined ones, and he can run it only if the re- oratory with the rest of the distributed architecture.
quired measurement instruments are currently available There is an LS for each measurement laboratory of the
(see Fig. 2). universities involved in the project. It delivers access
4) Experiment Creation: This service allows the student to and control to the measurement equipment through a
create remotely an experiment interacting directly with service called “Bridge Service.” Moreover, the LS is
specialized software executed on the servers used to con- the only machine in a laboratory directly accessible
trol the measurement instruments. This feature enables from the Internet, while the other servers are con-
the adoption of PBL as a didactic model. Under the super- nected in a private local network. For this reason, the
vision of the teacher, the students can develop a specific LS can also be used for security purposes to monitor
project producing, in an individual or collaborative man- access to the measurement laboratory and to protect it
ner, a VI to control a set of real instruments (see Fig. 3). against malicious accesses.
The services delivered to a teacher are related to the remote c) An MS is a PC enabling the interaction with one or
handling of the available experiments: remote creation, updat- more instruments. The MS is physically connected to
ing, and removal of experiments. Currently, the experiments are a set of different programmable instruments through
created as VIs realized by the teacher or the tutor. The setup of an interface card. Currently, the General-Purpose
an experiment is the same as if it is carried out locally. The Interface Bus (GPIB) interface is used for all the MSs,
instruments should be connected to the circuit or device under while one of them also includes an MXI-2 interface
6. 1762 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2006
Fig. 4. Hardware components of the proposed architecture.
C. Remote Access to the VIs
One of the most relevant problems in designing the labora-
tory subsystem is remote access to the experiment.
The main design objectives taken into account to provide the
remote access to the VIs were the following.
1) Portability: The visualization environment has to be
portable on different hardware platforms and operating
systems.
2) Usability and accessibility: The visualization and man-
agement of an experiment have to be easy to understand
and to perform, even for users that are not expert infor-
mation technologists, and the system features have to be
accessed easily and homogeneously by students operating
at university laboratories or at home.
Fig. 5. Software layers of the components of the laboratory architecture.
3) Maintenance: The maintenance costs should be re-
for connecting VXI instrumentation. The connection duced to the minimum. This can be made through a
with the circuit or the device under test is assured client–server approach that eliminates the need for in-
by the instruments or by means of a data acquisition stalling and upgrading application code and data on client
(DAQ) board (see Fig. 4). The used VIs are stored in a computers.
database of the MS, where the LabVIEW environment 4) Client-side common technologies: Students have access
is installed. No adjustment is necessary to include a to the system using their desktop computers based on
VI in the virtual learning environment; therefore, the common hardware and software technologies, with no
wide number of existing VIs can be reused without need for powerful processors or high memory capacity,
requiring additive work. and connecting to the Internet through low-speed dial-up
3) “The storage tier” performs the data management related, connections.
for example, to the user profiles and the distributed 5) Security: The remote access of the students through the
management of the data related to the available experi- Internet must preserve the integrity of recorded and trans-
ments at different measurement laboratories. It is based mitted data and of the system as a whole.
on a series of geographically distributed databases, man- 6) Scalability: System performance must not degrade with
aged using the Relational Database Management System the growing number of connected users.
(RDBMS). To achieve these objectives, the thin-client model, instead
To overcome the well-known security weakness of of the classic client–server one, has been chosen. The student
Microsoft-based networks, each laboratory is protected by a obtains on his/her computer the display of the application
Linux-based gateway machine that operates firewalling and executed on the MS and used to control the instrumentation
Network Address Translation (NAT). for the requested experiment. Moreover, it has been chosen to
7. RAPUANO AND ZOINO: LMS INCLUDING LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION 1763
use the Web and Java technologies. These technologies, in fact,
can be opportunely used to allow a student, using exclusively
a common Web browser with a Java Virtual Machine, the
remote visualization and control of an experiment, ensuring
high system portability and usability and the fulfillment of the
other objectives described above.
A “thin-client model” is based on a distributed computing
paradigm in which the network separates the presentation of
the user interface from the application logic. It is a client–server
architecture in which the application execution and data man-
agement is performed on the server, called “Terminal Server.”
The user interacts with a lightweight client, called “Presentation
Client,” that is generally responsible only for handling user in-
put and output, such as sending user input back to the server and
Fig. 6. Remote visualization interactions.
receiving screen display updates over a network connection.
As a result, the client generally does not need many resources
and can have a simple configuration, reducing support and
maintenance costs. By using thin-client technologies, students It is worth noting that in the Experiment Creation phase,
are also able to use limited hardware devices: the so-called once a project has been assigned to a student, the involved
“thin-client devices” [43] equipped only with a processor and instrumentation is already known. The main difference between
a Flash memory (no hard disk or other storage units) such as the Experiment Control and the Experiment Creation is that
personal data assistant (PDAs), handheld devices, and mobile the student only has access to a VI front panel or to the whole
phones. This solution extends the class of possible learners to LabVIEW development environment on the MS.
mobile users, owning a smart phone, a PDA, or a notebook with To allow a client to access the system without the need of
a modem or a wireless LAN adapter. preinstalled software, a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client
The thin-client paradigm allows the platform to visualize and has been used, allowing the MS desktop to be visualized on the
control a remote device through the interaction flow among the client side using a standard Web browser. In particular, on the
distributed system components described in the following. client side, the Terminal Server Advanced Client (TSAC) re-
1) The student executes the authentication phase on the LMS leased by Microsoft, which is a Win32-based ActiveX control,
using a login and a password, interacting with the Web can be used to run Terminal Services sessions within Microsoft
Server used by the LMS. Internet Explorer.
2) The student chooses a service (i.e., Synchronous Virtual However, the fulfillment of the main goals of the experimen-
Laboratory, Experiment Visualization, Experiment Con- tal section of the LMS for measurement teaching required the
trol, or Experiment Creation). design and implementation of a specific client compliant with
3) The student visualizes on his/her desktop the VI front Microsoft RDP. A specific important goal is that the student, af-
panel on the MS to which he/she is connected. ter the authentication phase on the LMS platform, has to obtain
If the chosen service is the Synchronous Virtual Laboratory the remote visualization and control of the required experiment
executed in the LabVIEW environment on the appropriate MS
1) the student is connected to the LS where the teacher is through the Bridge Service component of the respective LS
performing the experiment; (see Fig. 6). Moreover, to avoid malicious attacks on the system,
2) the Bridge Service of the LS finds the MS that is currently the student has to obtain the remote visualization of the VI front
used by the teacher and allows the student to connect to panel without the privilege of a full user account on the MS,
the related Terminal Server to visualize the experiment on which is, instead, necessary to exploit the functionalities of the
his/her own computer. Terminal Server executed on that machine.
If the chosen service is the Experiment Visualization, Exper- This result has been achieved through the insertion, made by
iment Control, or Experiment Creation means of the Bridge Service component, of a valid username
1) the student chooses an experiment among a list of avail- and password in the connection request made by the RDP
able ones; client.
2) on the basis of the required experiment, the student is Because of the legacy nature of the TSAC, it is not suited
connected to an LS of a partner university, which is to modify at runtime the RDP connection request to insert the
equipped with the required measurement instrumentation valid username and password. A specific RDP client that uses
available for the deployment of the experiment, chosen the Java Applet technology has been developed for this reason.
by the scheduling system of the LMS; In this way, it is possible to exploit all the advantages of the
3) the Bridge Service of the LS finds the MS that is Java language that are particularly suitable for programming
connected to the required measurement instruments and in distributed and heterogeneous computing environments. In
allows the student to connect themselves to the related particular, its direct support to many programming aspects
Terminal Server to visualize, manage, or develop a new such as multithreading, code mobility, and security has been
VI from his/her own computer. considered very useful.
8. 1764 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2006
Italian Association of Electric and Electronic Measurement
Researchers (AGMEE) is providing the didactic contents as
well as several measurement experiments. Some others are
currently being developed at the LESIM.
To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach for
the remote control of the instrumentation, its capability of
providing access to the remote laboratories by means of a
common 56-kb/s dial-up connection has been asserted. There-
fore, the RDP clients based on ActiveX and Java Applet tech-
nology have been used, measuring the bandwidth occupation
of the client–server interactions during the remote execution
of an experiment. Because thin-client platforms are designed
and used very differently from traditional desktop systems,
quantifying and measuring their performance effectively is a
very difficult task [43]. Many determining factors, in fact,
can influence a performance comparison. Some of these are
the use of optional mechanisms of the thin-client protocol
(such as persistent caching and compression for the RDP
Fig. 7. Web portal realized to enable the authoring of didactic content from
other universities. protocol), the application executed on the server, the network
bandwidth, and the kind of traffic that shares the bandwidth
segment, etc.
To carry out the performance evaluations for the project, a
The applet permits the connection and the automatic authen- reference experiment has been used, i.e., the Spectrum Mea-
tication on the Terminal Server of the chosen MS. Some of surement VI provided as a LabVIEW example from National
the features of the developed RDP client, called Laboratory Instruments. It does not control any instrument; thus, the
Applet, are bandwidth measurement is independent from the programmer’s
efficiency and from the GIPB communication latencies.
— “compression” of transmitted data to minimize the
The server configuration on which the Terminal Server is
network traffic;
executed is one of the MSs already set up in the labora-
— choice of the “cache dimension” on the client side
tory in Benevento; its characteristics are CPU Pentium IV at
(not available for TSAC client that limits the cache
2.80 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, and a Windows 2003 server.
dimension to 10 MB);
Its network bandwidth toward the Internet is currently about
— choice of “load-balancing” option: the possibility to
768 kb/s. The client was located at the site of Didagroup in San
use a load-balancing solution for Terminal Server based
Giorgio del Sannio: a town near Benevento. The configuration
on server farms so that the client can be connected to
of the client is a CPU Pentium IV at 2.0 GHz, 256 MB of
the least loaded available server, in terms of bandwidth
RAM, and Windows XP Professional. Its bandwidth toward the
occupation, number of opened sessions, CPU load, and
Internet is 56 kb/s.
memory occupation.
Using the ActiveX-based client during the time interval
in which the user performs some operations on the VI, the
bandwidth is nearly entirely occupied. Outside these time
V. F IRST R ESULTS
intervals, due to the use of the compression and persistent
The proposed learning environment, called LADIRE [43], caching mechanisms of the RDP protocol, the bandwidth oc-
has been realized in its software components and is cur- cupation decreases up to about 5.6 kb/s. Using the developed
rently being deployed at the Laboratory of Signal Processing Java RDP client, a similar performance has been achieved.
and Measurement Information (LESIM), University of Sannio This is made possible mainly by using the same persistent
[35]. Referring to the architecture described in Section IV-B, caching mechanism of the RDP and by opportunely changing
LADIRE has been realized with one LS, one firewall/NAT, ten the cache dimension on the client side. In particular, during
MSs, and 40 measurement instruments going from simple Agi- the time intervals in which the user performs some actions
lent 6.5 digit multimeters to the most up-to date Tektronix TDS on the VI, the bandwidth occupation is included between 32 and
7704 oscilloscope and LeCroy SDA 6000 serial data analyzer, 56 kb/s. The other time, the bandwidth occupation decreases
including spectrum analyzers, impedance meters, power me- to about 5.2 kb/s. Relying on such bandwidth occupation,
ters, signal generators, and power supplies. The enhanced LMS the hardware requirements on the client side are limited to a
has also been installed on a Dell PowerEdge server, located in 56-kb/s modem. On the laboratory side, 768 kb/s is enough to
the same LESIM, and a Web portal [42] (see Fig. 7) has been manage ten different experiments that are contemporarily active
realized to enable the authoring of didactic contents from other in the Experiment Control or Experiment Creation modes. As
universities. the LMS already supports multicast communication, the labo-
The collaboration of electric and electronic measurement ratory bandwidth is not a problem in the Experiment Visual-
professors coming from about 20 Italian universities and the ization mode.
9. RAPUANO AND ZOINO: LMS INCLUDING LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION 1765
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10. 1766 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 55, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2006
Sergio Rapuano (M’00) received the Master’s Francesco Zoino was born in Benevento, Italy, on
degree in electronic engineering (cum laude) and the August 8, 1976. He received the Master’s degree in
Ph.D. degree in computer science, telecommunica- software engineering from the University of Sannio,
tions and applied electromagnetism from the Uni- Benevento, in 2004 with his thesis entitled “A new
versity of Salerno, Salerno, Italy, in 1999 and 2003, method for the detection of harmonics in the power
respectively. quality.” He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
In 1999, he joined the research activities carried degree in software engineering at the Laboratory
out at the Laboratory of Signal Processing and Mea- of Signal Processing and Measurement Information
surement Information, University of Sannio, Ben- (LESIM), University of Sannio.
evento, Italy. In 2002, he joined the Faculty of He is currently with the LESIM, University of
Engineering, University of Sannio, as an Assistant Sannio. His current research interest includes remote
Professor of electric and electronic measurement. He is currently developing control of measurement instrumentation over the Internet.
his research work in digital processing for measurement in telecommunications,
data converters, distributed measurement systems and virtual laboratories, and
medical measurement.
Prof. Rapuano is a member of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement
Society TC-10 and the Secretary of the TC-23 Working Group on “e-tools for
Education in Instrumentation and Measurement.”