Dhanush Kumar

Remote triggered photovoltaic solar cell lab: Effective implementation strategies for Virtual Labs

Remote triggered laboratories are an excellent way to provide access to costly labs and equipment for students in areas without such facilities. A novel remote triggered photovoltaic solar cell experiment is presented here. This experiment enables the student to learn in a hands-on, practical way about the fundamental characteristics of photovoltaic solar cells. The experiment has a web interface in which the student can turn a number of light bulbs on and off, adjust the load voltage of the solar cell, and view the experiment in real-time via a web-cam. In addition, the characteristics of the solar cells under these various conditions are measured and displayed on the web interface in a spreadsheet and are plotted in a novel and learning-effective manner. This experiment has been hosted on our Virtual Labs website for over a year, with a large number of students using the site. This paper presents implementation strategies and methods used which have proven effective for Virtual Labs, along with a technical description of the experiment and the system used to create and host the experiment.

Implementing a Remote-Triggered Light Microscope: Enabling Lab Access via VALUE Virtual labs

Biotechnology and biology education has been known to show declining student interest due to classroom environments and instructor teaching styles, hence we introduced virtual labs as an interactive self-learning material in a blended environment. With ICT-based education becoming ubiquitous, virtual and remote triggered labs have become a novel platform that helps users to engage in a proactive learning process. A promisingly new trend in virtual labs-based education is the development of remote laboratories that are available over the internet and can be accessed by students and teachers. We implemented and deployed a low-cost light microscope using a simple front-end to enable users to have anytime-anywhere access. This paper reports the implementation, deployment and user-case studies on the learning and usage based on the remote-triggered virtual lab. This study also focuses on the analysis of using remote-triggered experiments as supplementary laboratory resources for overcoming the problems faced in a traditional lab environment. The study used online feedback surveys for evaluating the learning outcome and the flexibility of user-interactions with the remote labs and reports the status of usage of remote triggered techniques in biology courses. The statistical analysis suggests that remote labs are an easy learning and interactive platform for users from different places.

Assessing students and teachers experience on simulation and remote biotechnology virtual labs: A case study with a light microscopy experiment

With recent trends of using Information and Communication Technologies in education, virtual labs have become more prevalent in classrooms of most schools and universities, especially in South India. The purpose of this paper was to perform a comparative analysis of virtual learning components such as animations, simulations and real-time remotely controlled experiments. As a part of this study, we conducted a series of biotechnology virtual lab workshops for University-level users within India and collected feedback related to the usage of virtual labs via direct approach. The survey amongst the students and teachers suggested simulation-based labs were more preferred in enhancing teaching and learning strategy compared to graphics-mediated animations and remotely controlled experiments. This paper also reports some of the issues faced by virtual lab users. Studies indicated that even though the web-based technologies are a new venture in education, it still poses adaptability issues.

Mobile learning and biotechnology education via remote labs: Deployment-based study on real time shared resources

With recent advances in ICT, virtual and remote laboratories have become ubiquitous as a complementary tool allowing student users to access a mobile platform and utilize real-time shared equipment over the internet. In this paper, we explore the role of biotechnology remotely controlled labs in augmenting student education via allowing real time shared resources. We deployed 23 virtual laboratories with 218 virtual experiments in biotechnology to provide an online laboratory experience that allowed students and teachers to share and augment conceptual and practical knowledge. Student users reported high usability and repeatability of experimental process and suggested virtual labs as complementing tool for augmenting students perception in an active learning scenario. Hybrid approaches in mobile learning indicated student users preferred a blended learning role via classrooms. We also observed that performance in examinations improved with those students using remote labs. We also evaluated the role of virtual labs as a teaching tool for university teachers.

Role of Biotechnology simulation and remotely triggered virtual labs in complementing university education

Blended learning has been popularized in many universities in the last decade due to the rapid advances in computer technologies and relative increase in the usage of internet connectivity. A major constraint in providing high quality laboratory resources in some universities and in economically challenged countries is high costs, training personnel, training time and maintenance-related issues. Virtual and remote labs complement the real laboratory resources with virtually defined techniques including simulations, animations, remote triggering of the actual equipment and videos that facilitate user interactions. Our goal was to analyze the effectiveness of biotechnology virtual labs in integrating learning process among school and university students of ages 12-15 years and 17-24 years respectively within India. These labs were developed as part of a National mission on Education through ICT. We also focused on the use of virtual and remote labs as a new pedagogy for distance and mobile learning courses and the context of usage outside scheduled classroom timings. The evaluation of biotechnology virtual labs was performed via surveys, including online and manual feedback reports for analyzing the learning process of various student groups. Studies amongst students of different age groups suggested that virtualization helped their active learning in a traditional classroom scenario. Feedback from student users also indicated virtual and remote labs aided, mobile learning by improving their academic performance, after using virtual and remote labs (post usage) as education platform. Feedback statistics showed 90% of students used biotechnology virtual lab techniques and that helped them to get an actual feel of the experiment. All participants scored more than 70% in the post-test, improving the class average from the pre-test scenario. 91% of teachers who participated in the workshops indicated that they could use virtual and remote labs in their daily teaching process as teaching material thereby reducing their lecture preparation time. Feedback analysis also indicated improved student performance enhancing laboratory education.

Online bio-robotics labs: Open hardware models and architecture

This paper is on free and open source software architecture (FOSS) for remote labs in order to address the affordability and scalability of robotic education technology for sustainable deployments. The proposed Raspberry Pi-Arduino-based model architecture ensures lower cost while allowing some scalability, interoperability, portability and interchangeability to the low-cost online laboratory. Remotely controlled lab provides training skills in bio-inspired robotics. Our previous studies had shown that the implementation of remotely controlled online labs in the curriculum improved active learning among students, collaboration, and augmented problem solving skills. The preliminary implementation involved proprietary software, as the remote experiment accessibility platform, which was later replaced with FOSS technology. The advantages with FOSS included a significantly lower cost and scalability for concurrent usage. The paper also reports on usage analysis and common issues in both cases of implementations.

Implementing a Web-Based Simulator with Explicit Neuron and Synapse Models to Aid Experimental Neuroscience and Theoretical Biophysics Education

In this paper, we implemented a virtual laboratory of neurons and synapses via dynamical models on a web-based platform to aid neurophysiology and computational neuroscience education. Online labs are one of the best alternatives to many universities confronting socio-economic issues in maintaining infrastructure for good laboratory practice. The neural network virtual laboratory was implemented using HTML5 and JQuery, which allowed users to access the lab as a browser-based app. The simulator allows reconstructions of population code and biophysics of single neuron firing dynamics and hence will allow experimentalists to explore its use for hypothesis-based predictions. Such tools as educational aids allow an interrelationship of cognitive, social, and teaching presence. We found students could easily reproduce the common voltage and current clamp protocols on such models without significant instructor assistance and the platform was developed to allow further extensions like raster plots, network computations using extensions to code modules. With new technologies, we foresee a potential redesign of the use of such virtual labs for large-scale modeling as teaching and learning tools in blended learning environments.

Role of ICT-enabled virtual laboratories in biotechnology education: Case studies on blended and remote learning

Virtual labs are popularized as a visual education tool that offers diverse analysis of experiments through different components like graphics mediated animations, mathematically modeled simulations, user-interactive emulations, remote-triggered experiments and the use of augmented perception haptic devices. With the advances in ICT-based education, virtual labs have become a novel platform that helps users to engage in their proactive learning process. Our goal was to analyze the effective role of biotechnology virtual labs in improving academic performance of students and complementing classroom education. We tested the adaptability, perceived usefulness and ease of use of biotechnology virtual labs on different user groups in sciences and engineering. This study focuses mainly on the student and teacher groups from different universities across India. Feedback data was collected via a direct approach using organized workshops conducted in the year 2014-2015. 85% of participants suggested perceived usefulness of biotechnology virtual labs helped them to improve their academic performance compared to a traditional classroom scenario. Most users indicated the learning materials provided by virtual lab system were easy to understand, thus suggesting the better adaptability of ICT-enabled techniques amongst different users. This augments the role of virtual labs for remote learners all over the world. For India, such learning methods have helped overcome limitations seen in classroom-based education such as equipment accessibility, location and other economic issues. Through these studies, we construe the usage of virtual labs as a next-gen interactive textbook and as a media-rich learning source of distance and blended education.

Virtual and remote laboratories augment self learning and interactions: Development, deployment and assessments with direct and online feedback

Background. Over the last few decades, in developing nations including India, there have been rapid developments in information and communication technologies with progress towards sustainable development goals facilitating universal access to education. With the aim of augmenting laboratory skill training, India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT), launched Virtual laboratories project, enabling professors and institutions to deliver interactive animations, mathematical simulators and remotely-controlled equipment for online experiments in biosciences and engineering courses. Towards that mission of improving teaching and learning quality and with a focus on improving access to users in geographically remote and economically constrained institutes in India, we developed and deployed over 30 web-based laboratories consisting of over 360 computer-based online experiments. This paper focuses on the design, development, deployment of virtual laboratories and assesses the role of online experiments in providing self-learning and novel pedagogical practices for user communities.

Using Learning Theory for Assessing Effectiveness of Laboratory Education Delivered via a Web-based Platform

Learning styles are defined as a characteristic feature that determines cognitive and psychosocial behavior of learners, perceiving of knowledge, interaction and processing of information in different learning environments. Applying learning style theories in pedagogic concept has brought multiple dimensions in categorizing learning strategies, although such studies on laboratory skill education are limited. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model, has been widely accepted as an efficient pedagogical model of learning. In this paper, we explore the pedagogical basis for designing life sciences laboratory education and applying Kolb’s learning style inventory for classifying learners into different categories. In the context of bioscience laboratory education, most students learners were reflective observers or assimilators (60%) or divergers (20%) and hence seemed most apt for virtual laboratory based education due to acclivity to standard demonstrations and lectures. Only 20% were convergers or accommodators. Unlike in some engineering students, this classification suggests bioscience laboratory education may be complemented using web-based tools and will need better assessments and virtualization methods.