Antonio Colmenar

Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR) for Remote Wiring and Measurement of Electronic Circuits on Breadboard

This paper reports on a state-of-the-art remote laboratory project called Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR). VISIR allows wiring and measuring of electronic circuits remotely on a virtual workbench that replicates physical circuit breadboards. The wiring mechanism is developed by means of a relay switching matrix connected to a PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) instrumentation platform. The entire equipment is controlled by LabVIEW server software, in addition to a measurement server software that protects the equipment from hazard connections by verifying input circuit designs, sent by students, before being executed. This paper addresses other approaches such as remote labs based on Data Acquisition Cards (DAQs), NetLab, and RemotElectLab, comparing them with VISIR in order to emphasize its singularity. Topics discussed are as follows: the technical description, software, operation cycle, features, and provided services. In addition, the feedback received by students at several universities and the encountered drawbacks along with the proposed solutions are highlighted. The paper finally addresses the ongoing and future challenges within the VISIR community including its integration with Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and iLab Shared Architecture (ISA), its new hardware version release that is based on LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation (LXI), and its new open platform version that supports federated access.

Examples of distance learning projects in the European Community

The innovation brought by the introduction of new technologies in our modern society has also started to appear in education. The biggest efforts come from the institutions involved in distance education, partly due to the characteristics of the educational system they represent. In order to improve the technology development there are a large number of projects being developed inside the European Union. This paper discusses the current situation of distance learning and the technological resources available including e-mail, video conferencing, Internet and the World Wide Web and virtual teaching-learning environment. Some of the European Projects including new technologies in distance learning are also discussed.

State of Art, Initiatives and New Challenges for Virtual and Remote Labs

Until a few decades ago, face to face classrooms and hand-on laboratories were the common solution for teaching theory and practice. But, new e-Learning tools have emerged and learning methodologies such as blended and distance learning have taken an important space in learning initiatives. Among them are virtual and remote Labs which provide student with a learning environment where can carry out the experiments through Internet and acquire the needed skills to develop his future jobs. This paper describes the importance of virtual and remote labs and their usage in learning scenarios.

A Method Based on Petri Nets and a Matrix Model to Implement Reconfigurable Logic Controllers

This paper presents a method to implement reconfigurable logic controllers (RLCs) using a new matrix model to describe Petri nets (PNs). The method obtains the general equations and directly translates them into a hardware description language (HDL) to configure a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). To achieve a generalized model in a comprehensible way, several PN examples including timers, counters, and hierarchical subnets are described in detail. The working principles and robustness of the method are validated by simulating each example and by their practical implementation in an RLC.

Trends of use of technology in engineering education

This paper analyzes new trends on the use of technology in engineering education having as main source the Horizon Report. We discuss and analyze the predictions of this source and also other different views of the current situation in the use of technology based in the previous forecasts and the experience in distance, on-line and on-class engineering education.

Integration of Internet Based Labs and Open Source LMS

Nowadays there are a great number of universities and organizations working on developing virtual labs. These virtual labs allow students to carry out their experiments and acquire practical knowledge. At the same time these universities are using one or several learning management systems that allow professors to display and organize theoretical content. A good solution is the integration of learning management system and virtual labs. That is what we are going to describe in this paper. We are working on a middleware that allows using the LMSs services together with the virtual labs.

Challenges of applying online learning tools in distance learning courses

Online learning tools, such as courseware, learning management system, assessment tools, virtual, and remote laboratories are used in blended and distance learning. These online tools, Apart from being able to provide learning activities, allow displaying learning resources such as web pages, pdf or doc files and multimedia contents. This paper describes some online learning tools and the challenges to apply them in distance learning.

Multimedia design and development for distance teaching of electronics

Distance teaching and learning involve some definite problems. One of them has to deal with the loneliness that the student faces and that he has to assume the whole responsibility of the learning process. This requires considerable motivation and a strong tendency to exert himself. The CAEE workgroup in the Electric Engineering and Computer Department of the Spanish University for Distance Education is working to design and develop multimedia applications for distance teaching of electronics engineering and checking its appropriateness. The main target of this work is to profit from the advantages of the multimedia applications to the transfer of information and to the learning process. It is verified that a correctly designed multimedia application produces reinforcement, and a greater and better assimilation in the learning process. Therefore, in order to ensure the correct profit of the multimedia applications advantages, developers must be very careful in using the right methodology.

Packing and reusing virtual web laboratories as Sharable Content Object in wide range of educational fields

One of the key issues in the education field is the acquisition of skills. This practical knowledge was usually acquired through traditional labs or standalone simulation programs. The World Wide Web and the advance in web programming language have allowed teachers to create online learning applications, such as virtual web laboratories which can be displayed by Web browser, at any time and everywhere. Currently, a large amount of virtual Web labs can be found in the World Wide Web, and these are able to cover a wide range of educational fields such as physic, chemistry, electronic, medicine, mathematics and languages. This paper describes the process of searching of these laboratories and their packing in Sharable Content Object, following the e-learning standard called SCORM.

Future of distance education through EHEA

This article provides with updated information of the implementation of new Learning Technologies in the Engineering Education inside the new European Higher Education Area that is evolving to allow a new framework of University education inside Europe. The article shows the way developed from early distance institutions to online learning changing concepts from class and mail learning to blended learning and ubiquitous learning that are challenging our Learning Space with a new set of services that are improve learning capabilities. It has taken a step closer to this evolution personalized and closed the user, based on learning by services. The new learning concept (s-learning), which continues with the philosophy of re-usable educative objects to create encapsulated and re-usable educative services to be easily integrated in Learning Management Systems. In broad terms, this new e-learning philosophy is described through several examples of advanced services that can be integrated into a Learning Management System.