Pablo Losada

VISIR deployment in undergraduate engineering practices

Practical sessions are the backbone of qualification in engineering education. It leads to a better understanding and allows mastering scientific concepts and theories. The lack of the availability of practical sessions at many universities and institutions owing to the cost and the unavailability of instructors the most of the time caused a significant decline in experimentation in engineering education over the last decades. Recently, with the progress of computer-based learning, remote laboratories have been proven to be the best alternative to the traditional ones, regarding to its low cost and ubiquity. Some universities have already started to deploy remote labs in their practical sessions. This contribution compiles diverse experiences based on the deployment of the remote laboratory, Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR), on the practices of undergraduate engineering grades at various universities within the VISIR community. It aims to show the impact of its usage on engineering education concerning the assessments of students and teachers as well.

Remote laboratories for electrical & electronic subjects in new engineering grades

This paper discusses a new technology for making electric and electronic circuit experiments remotely. Virtual Instrument System in Reality (VISIR) has been implemented at the Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED) for new engineering grades distance laboratories. It gives a brief update of the project and its implementation, on the other hand, discusses its role at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UNED.

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.

Application of modern simulation tools to electronic teaching and its dissemination

The advance and reduction in the price that PCs have experienced make possible the development and dissemination of some software programs that before were exclusive of big companies or professionals that worked to a specific task. These simulation programs are powerful analysis tools that are essential to the professionals dedicated to the design in electric and electronic engineering. These tools permit users to analyze different effects produced when a parameter of the circuit or system will be changed, and all without the risk of damage to some device. It is necessary to make the maximum dissemination of this kind of tool, teaching its handling and the possibilities that they offer to the technical degree students, the future professionals of electric and electronic field. This is the main objective pursued in this paper.

Online Experiments With DC/DC Converters Using the VISIR Remote Laboratory

This paper shows the development of two new experimental exercises that are at the top of the state-of-the-art platforms for setting up, wiring, and measuring electronic circuits online, virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR), allowing: 1) non-isolated linear regulated dc/dc converter and 2) non-isolated switching-regulated dc/dc converter. Those experiments are part of a new setup in the VISIR oriented to master as well as experienced students and users that would like to increase their experience in industrial electronics and power components management. The development of the two experiments is explained along with the necessary configuration to the core-platform VISIR. This is preceded by a brief overview of VISIR, including its hardware and software components. Finally, the remote experimental results obtained are presented.

Work in progress - advanced programming through problem-based learning

The way people learn out of university has much more in common with self-learning and problems-guided learning than with the classical way of teaching, with a teacher speaking in a class and all the students listening with a passive attitude. This paper proposes an exercise to motivate students to learn and use some advanced programming concepts such as the use of well-formed and valid XML documents; how to transform these documents into ldquohuman-readablerdquo documents with XSLT style-sheets; communication protocols such as TCP/IP; application level protocols such as HTTP 1.1; and mash-up systems. The problem is intended to improve the mobility in universities with very spread and distributed campuses such as Universities for Distance Education, where this exercise is proposed. For that reason, this subject is especially motivating for these students, due to the fact they dasiasufferpsila the consequences of study in a university where mobility plays a relevant role. Through this exercise students will guide their own learning, constructing the mental structures and understanding the programming concepts needed to solve the future programming problems they will find in their careers.

InnoEscuela, innovation in secondary school technical studies

InnoEscuela is more than a learning experience, a programmed methodology to implement courses related to Technology and Computing which follows an innovative way of teaching. The methodology focuses on Project-based learning and team work. Students organize themselves in teams which are called innovative enterprises and they have to decide to create a solution to a social disadvantage, technical problem, or any other kind of need they perceive. Thats why the core of the courses is focused to practice the whole Technological Innovation process.

Work in progress - new project “Internet-based Performance-centered Learning Environment for Curriculum Support” (IPLECS)

This project answers to the need of development of a complete master degree program at the point of intersection between information technology and communications. The innovative performance-centered approach has been developed, tested and implemented and our partnership experience returned strong positive results - it has been proven to be more effective than the traditional lecture-practice-test (expository inductive) in training higher order skills, for preparing learners for self-learning, improving and adapting for changing jobs.