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In the past years, virtual lab software applications seem to be adopted everywhere in the education world. Physical Labs play a vital role in the learning of physics. This study aims to introduce a systematic platform of experiments that are practically not possible to conduct in our physical labs. Here, we are presenting an overview of virtual labs in the field of relativity. Here, the user can experience real-time relativity (RTR) while sitting in the classrooms. Keeping in mind that students get the full liberty of committing mistakes, we are designing the experiment in the same manner. An evaluation system is being introduced to monitor the understanding of students in the respective lab. This evaluation system consists of pre and pro-test. These tests consist of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and problems on the particular subject area. After successful completion of the experiment, Users get awarded a certificate to merit his/her performance. This paper presents the virtual lab concept on time dilation effect and ultimately simulates the same in a relativistic virtual environment. In the future, the same method could be employed to study other relativistic phenomena virtually using a virtual lab.

The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an inquiry-based virtual reality (VR) science lab used in junior high school science classes. The Scientific Investigation VR Lab (SIVRLAB) is designed for 9th-grade students to learn about electrochemical cells. It is situated in a guided problem-solving context, where learners need to review the concept of oxidation-reduction reactions and assemble a voltaic cell to save a robot. The SIVRLAB features several cognitive supports and guides for students to plan and record experiments and resolve the problem. It has both a head-mounted display (HMD) version and a desktop VR version. The study recruited 66 9th graders from three classes to evaluate the two versions of the SIVRLAB. The students were assigned to one of three conditions, namely, (1) using immersive HMD SIVRLAB individually, (2) using desktop SIVRLAB individually, and (3) observing one student use immersive HMD SIVRLAB. The students were briefly introduced to the concept of electrochemical cells in the first class and were instructed to use the SIVRLAB sessions in the next class. The results from knowledge pre- and post-tests, a user experience survey, and students’ reflections were collected and analyzed qualitatively. The findings revealed that students who used the desktop VR obtained the highest test scores among the three groups. However, in the follow-up physical laboratory test, the performance of the students in the original HMD VR experimental group was better than those in the desktop VR experimental group. The paper also discusses student feedback and teacher observations regarding the design and interaction with immersive VR. Lastly, the implications of the study and recommendations for future studies are presented.

The article describes the types and structures of innovative teaching materials with computer support, the class of practical training tools, as well as the functions and significance of virtual laboratories, new information technologies, the possibilities of new information technologies, the main types of educational activities using new technologies, the goals of innovative training, current forms and methods of cooperation between teachers and students in order to activate their intellectual and creative resources.

Nowadays, e-learning and virtual labs have gained substantial popularity in science education. Amid the COVID-19 shutdowns, regular in-person classroom teaching and lab courses are suspended in several countries worldwide. In this scenario, virtual classes and online resources could serve more effectively as a possible alternative way of learning science from home.

Research and teaching on renewable energies are very important topics worldwide. Most of the renewable energy processes are quite complex to analyze and to study. For that reason, educational resources as support for the teaching and learning of these processes dynamics are very useful. Thus, this paper presents a virtual lab as support to the modeling and control concepts of a solar collector field, as these kind of solar plants are widely used at industrial level requiring control skills. This interactive tool is used as part of several subjects in a Master on Solar Energy at the University of Almeria, Spain. Examples about open and closed-loop exercises are presented.

У статті розглядається можливості використання спеціалізованих програм (віртуальні лабораторії та тренажери, програмне забезпечення для моделювання природних процесів) та загального (мови програмування та бібліотеки, таблиці, CAS) у шкільних дослідженнях. Таке програмне забезпечення, як віртуальні лабораторії, програмне забезпечення для моделювання природних процесів, мови програмування й бібліотеки в шкільних дослідженнях, можна використовувати для моделювання явищ, яких неможливо вивчити в шкільній лабораторії (наприклад, для моделювання радіоактивного розпаду або для демонстрації станів релятивістської механіки). Також віртуальні лабораторії в шкільній практиці зазвичай використовуються в тих випадках, коли учні не можуть виконати експеримент у реальних лабораторіях. Наприклад, це зручно для дистанційного навчання. Використання мов програмування та бібліотек у навчальних фізичних дослідженнях вимагає як дослідницьких компетенцій студентів, так і компетенцій програмування. Ось чому використання цього програмного забезпечення на уроках фізики навряд чи можна рекомендувати. Однак мови програмування та бібліотеки можуть стати потужним інструментом формування й розвитку дослідницьких компетентностей студентів з фізики у позакласній навчальній діяльності. Впровадження електронної таблиці та CAS у шкільних фізичних дослідженнях є найпростішим і має свої переваги.

Process control is an essential aspect in chemical engineering, which has been emphasized in Dynamic and Control Process course (KKKR 3684) the-oretically and through a conventional laboratory experimental, A2 (Tuning and Control) for hands-on learning. The tank level is chosen as the con-trolled variable to introduce control scheme to students. This conventional lab uses an old version facility and requires constant maintenance resulting lab schedule being postponed several times. Besides that, every experiment must be carried out in a group of four to five students thus the access and learning time per student is limited. As an alternative to this conventional laboratory, a mobile-based virtual lab has been designed to cater the limita-tions using a mobile application. The proposed virtual lab is known as MyAras and is developed using Android Studio software of version 2.3.3, which also a strategy to facing the 4.0 Industrial revolution. MyAras is a mobile virtual application and time independent, cost-effective, easy access and provides unlimited self-learning period for all students. Level 1 means the mobile virtual lab is still in the development stage and has not been fully launched to students. A questionnaire has been given to students and lectur-ers regarding their awareness and the importance of mobile virtual lab prior to its development. Preliminary study has found that 81% of students have shown their interest in running the virtual lab and 38.1% of students had never used such application as their practical learning tool.

The paper presents an application for virtual didactic laboratory dedicated for instrumentation classes using blockchain technology for saving students measurements data in order to ensure their uniqueness. The application is developed in Labview and it does both, the lab simulation and the data saving using blockchain technology in a local private wallet. The laboratory part is dedicated to a multimeter verification using an adjustable voltage source. The adjustable voltage source is based on a Feussner compensator and on a Weston standard. The blockchain part is connecting to the teacher private wallet and saves the data as a blockchain transaction every time when the student press the button. The application is delivered to the student as an executable program, so he does not know where and how the data is sent. Further, the lab part of the present application can be modified to use remote controlled instruments, except the comparator that can be replaced with a modern adjustable voltage source. The paper presents at the beginning the used blockchain technology, how the transaction are performed, how the traceability can be verified, how the data is organized within a transaction. Further, the lab part of the application is described. Each simulated instrument respects the construction error limits provided in their datasheets, while each individual run of the instrument will generate a uniquely random value within this interval. In the end some demo acquired data and discussions are provided.

The analysis of existing virtual laboratories for engineering education is carried out. It is shown that virtual laboratories are an effective alternative to real laboratories. Users can get access to such laboratories at any time and from any place. Typically, virtual labs are cheaper than real ones. Such laboratories allow users to change operating parameters over a wide range while carrying out experiments, to conduct virtual experiments with hazardous substances or such that are practically impossible to carry out in real conditions or require significant financial resources. At the same time, the disadvantages of virtual laboratories are reviewed. In addition, an analysis of current trends in the development of virtual laboratories for engineering education is presented. Conclusions are made that blended learning can serve as a promising one.

Laboratory experimentation isan important ingredient of every undergraduate program in science education. The use of virtual and remote laboratories (VRLs) offers several benefits to students, teachers, and instructors. It can mitigate the high costs of procurement of apparatus in traditional labs and can support distance and blended learning. The recent outbreak of Covid-19 has resulted in isolating the students from labs which have made such online laboratories imperative even in the traditional offline education system. They offer a possible alternative to conventional hands-on labs. Such online mode imparts freedom to teachers as well as students to define their experimental goals and objectives. This paper tests the efficacy of the Virtual Labs platform for conducting simulated experiments onlinein the field of Optics. The learning outcome of the students who employ the same to simulate experiments online is analyzed. The main objective is to explore the limitations posed to the users of such an online lab platform in terms of designing the experimentsand visualization of the experiment results and offer suggestions to make such VRLs more efficacious, versatile, and user-friendly. &nbsp

In this paper we introduce a novel integrated educational learning development web-based environment intended for learning and teaching, CORP (Collaborative Online Robotics Platform). CORP combines the potential of the Google web-based platform with the educational robot technology of the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Kit. Designed for students in primary and high school, CORP allows students from different locations to collaboratively interact through a shared Google Slide document with a custom add-on developed to connect to the EV3 robot. In addition to their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, students also work on their social emotional learning (SEL) skills. Moreover, teachers can analyse log files generated by the platform for insights into student learning.

The SARS-COV-2 imposed dramatically changes in our lives, habits, lifestyles, relationships, jobs. A strategic sector heavily affected by the pandemic is the education one. Although several distance learning initiatives supported the training courses activities, practical sessions have been greatly penalized. In this paper, a solution to remotely perform experiments on an IoT device, namely an Arduino Uno R3 board, is proposed. The novelty of our approach is to remotely allow not only the software deployment over a specific hardware configuration, but also to set the hardware configuration of the IoT device.

The aim of this research is to develop Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) to diagnose the breast cancer using infrared thermal images. Four DCNN models (AlexNet, VGGNet, ResNet50 and GoogleNet) have been evaluated for cancer diagnosis using the Virtual Lab database and they have demonstrated their high performance in terms of medical image classification. The binary decision corresponds to two classes: malignant cancer and benign cancer. We have found that the considered DCNNs are providing very good accuracy in the breast cancer diagnosis using infrared thermography.

This article discusses challenges and opportunities for virtualizing laboratory exercises in university courses in order to allow for remote teaching. Besides addressing the design of such virtual laboratories in general, it also highlights the impact of urgent needs for course re-structuring resulting from the Corona pandemic. Two case studies for entry-level and major courses in Power Engineering are presented.

The educational courses that fall into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) category require an extensive practical training in laboratories, in order to build and strengthen students' skills, thereby preparing them for a future job market. In particular, the significant advancements in computer science and engineering press an urgent need to rethink the core of the existing academic courses, their objectives, and the tools for the practical work, due to the need to maintain the balance between the knowledge that academia provides to the students and the actual requirements for students' future job vacancies. To this end, our educational research includes the design and development of two different types of laboratories, i.e., a low-cost Raspberry Pi-based laboratory, and a laboratory in the cloud, for the practical teaching of the course Distributed systems. In this paper, we present the valuable feedback from our undergraduate students for both types of the aforementioned experimentation approaches, thereby unraveling the pros and cons of both, and analyzing the existing challenges that still need to be properly tackled.

With unprecedented amounts of materials data generated from experiments as well as high-throughput density functional theory calculations, machine learning techniques has the potential to greatly accelerate materials discovery and design. Here, we review our efforts in the Materials Virtual Lab to integrate software automation, data generation and curation and machine learning to (i) design and optimize technological materials for energy storage, energy efficiency and high-temperature alloys; (ii) develop scalable quantum-accurate models, and (iii) enhance the speed and accuracy in interpreting characterization spectra.

In the framework of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), hands-on activities play a crucial role for allowing students to acquire skills and competences. PBL is particularly suitable for teaching advanced courses including topics such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data. In order to carry out practical activities, students may need specific computing and storage infrastructures, that may be not physically available in the laboratories. Thus, virtualization tools and cloud computing are often adopted for building Virtual Lab for teaching purposes.

Lab-based education has always played an important role in teaching students. Making remote and virtual labs communicate with one another by creating networks of labs can enhance the traditional way of learning as well as reduce the costs of implementing and using labs. This paper provides a review of the literature on non-traditional labs and lab network initiatives up to 2020. With the term ‘non-traditional labs’, we mean virtual, remote and hybrid labs, whereas with the term ‘lab network’, we indicate a set of two or more cooperating labs typically connected through the internet. In this study, we used a recent and comprehensive framework for data collection, organization and analysis to gather information on 40 non-traditional labs and lab network initiatives. Thanks to this framework, the outcomes of our work highlight interesting trends of lab-based education, which pertain to didactical, organizational and technical aspects.

This chapter provides recommendations for the implementation of the virtual labs considered in Chapter 1. This chapter is to be used when encountering difficulties in Chapter 1. The instructions contain the necessary reference material that is needed to complete the tasks. For each lab from the Chapter 1, there are guidelines and recommendations on how to construct the diagrams of component models and to perform the model simulation. In addition, example answers to the tasks set in each lab are provided.

The current shift from a traditional classroom laboratory to a partial remote virtual lab is mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic. This pedagogical change is forcing academic institutions to rethink and redesign their lab courses. VR is promising technology to support this change. This study reviews current literature of the VR systems applied in higher education, clarifies some technical terms related to VR technology, and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of this technology. After a semi-interview with faculty members and students in the Chemistry department at a US university, we propose a new hybrid lab design with VR technology based on the literature review and interview results.

SARS-CoV2 pandemic stressed the need to increase adoption of remote teaching. Technical courses, specifically electronic engineering ones, suffered the miss of real lab experiments directly carried out by students. In this paper a new approach is presented, based on the usage of very low cost experimental boards, which act both as a measurement instrument and a programmable prototype circuit. A first board, targeted to analog and digital electronics courses experiments, has been designed, and is described in this paper.

Many technical courses mainly in engineering, science and technology, have always been taught using very expensive equipment usually stationed in a particular lab setup in the university with students accessing these labs in groups. The problem is even compounded further in the case where the number of students is high in a class. This paper discusses the use of an e-kit, which is an Arduino based virtual lab kit, to undertake simulation practicals in the fields of engineering, science and technology a case study of digital electronics, digital practicum and hardware & software practicum that are done by students in these fields. The study involved the development of virtual Arduino based labs using the Autodesk Tinkercad circuits web-based simulator. For full implementation, a laptop or desktop computer with internet access are also required. The first group of students, who were requested to do an evaluation of the kit at the end of the semester, was undertaking computer science. The results were quite positive where the majority of the students indicated that the kit could be introduced in all the other related subjects to make them more enjoyable and easier to understand.

Article provides guidance on how to implement an introductory course at university during one semester for future cybersecurity analysts, built on the basis of the Cisco Certified CyberOps course. The article presents the implementation of the course Management of cybersecurity incidents in the virtual laboratory in GNS3. Topologies in virtual laboratories are actual in today's covid-19 pandemic times, because many universities are forced to use live online or hybrid teaching.

With increasing computing power, capacity and internet connectivity, the ability to learn has crossed classroom boundaries in the form of online learning. The adoption rate and effectiveness of online learning continues to be an area of research. Collaborative and Cooperative (CoCo) learning involves a joint effort by students to understand and solve problems or tasks. Adoption of open source software has also increased with technology-aided collaboration and cooperation. Leveraging the practices of crowdsourced software development, we propose CoCo Learning approach for technical education using virtual labs. About 145 undergraduate engineering students from various institutes participated in our study for a period of one full semester. About 92% of the students conducted an average of 24 virtual experiments with this approach. Nearly 90% of the faculty from these institutes also confirmed that their students' understanding of courses has improved while delivering tangible software artifacts as outcomes.

With the growing need for skilled cybersecurity professionals and cyber awareness many universities are creating cybersecurity programmes and many companies are investing in cybersecurity training of their employees. At the same time, there is a growing number of cybersecurity platforms for education and training, that vary broadly in their solution offering and cost. This paper provides an overview and proposes a classification of these platforms. The paper also describes the design and implementation of an innovative personalised group-based assessments into a postgraduate network security and penetration testing module, to show how educators can leverage such platforms to better equip students with practical cybersecurity skills as well as transferable skills that are much needed in the workplace. Results from a survey with students show that the personalised assessment received statistically significant higher ratings as compared with a traditional non-personalised assessment.

Teaching materials for electronic blood circulation systems based on electronic books were developed based on the lack of learning resources and media available in schools. This product development will make students learn independently and use learning resources that can be used anytime and anywhere. This study aims to produce products in the form of teaching materials for electronic bookbased circulatory systems in which there are media in the form of text, images, videos, virtual labs that are done through e-learning media (bioedukasi.com) and are valid. Electronic book-based teaching material developed using the Kvisoft application so that the display of teaching materials is like a printed book in general. The fundamental differences in teaching materials developed have a variety of media in the form of videos that can be played directly in teaching materials. The development research model conducted refers to the four D (4D) model initiated by Thiagarajan. Model four D (4D) consists of the defining stage (define), the design phase (design), the stage of development (develop) and the stage of deployment (disseminate). Based on the research results obtained that the product in the form of teaching materials based on electronic books and e-learning media (bioedukasi.com) is valid. The valid value of the teaching material obtained is 4.36 while the valid value of e-learning is 4.43. The two products produced are valid so it is feasible to use. Keywords: teaching materials, electronic books, virtual Labs, elearning

The major problem engineering instructors have when they wish to effectively integrate any educational technology such as virtual laboratories is the lack of comprehensive guidelines. This paper discusses the design and development of the experiment design guidelines, which enable engineering instructors to design effective virtual laboratory experiments. The instructors follow a step-by-step process for the scientific design of various virtual laboratory experiments and the online SDVIcE tool provides scaffolds with description of various aspects of the experiment design. The effectiveness of the SDVIcE tool is established with the help of a quasi-experimental study carried out with 39 UG engineering students. The students were divided into two groups. The control group students perform the experiment in virtual lab using the traditional experiment design and the students from the experiment group perform experiments designed using the SDVIcE tool. The results of the study indicate that the laboratory learning outcomes and skills developed are improved when they perform experiment in the virtual laboratory with experiment designs carried out using the SDVIcE tool. So it can be claimed that the SDVIcE tool is effective in improving the quality of the virtual laboratory experiment designs.

Alongside Teaching and Research, Italian universities are also committed to Public Engagement activities featuring teaching and cultural initiatives for a non-academic audience. At the University of Ferrara, this commitment was translated into an exhibition in April 2019, originating from a virtuous union of cultural heritage and teaching activities. The creation of the “Natura Naturata” exhibition involved the synthesis of taught courses and research by the University of Ferrara's Industrial Product Design students together with their teachers, in collaboration with librarians. In the Product Design 2 Workshop, students develop exhibition projects, starting from the curatorial concept, through the construction, up to the graphic-communicative aspects and the creation of information and teaching tools. The exhibition was created based on the study of rules used to properly protect library assets so that students could gain specific skills for the preparation of bibliographic exhibitions. It took shape in the Chemistry and Life Sciences Library Santa Maria delle Grazie to emphasize the importance of the University's tangible and intangible cultural heritage with the intention of conveying the 'world' of library collections – and also the University's historical and architectural heritage - to students, scholars, and citizens.

[EN] The development of active-learning methods is strongly proliferating nowadays in Higher Education studies. Roughly speaking, active learning can be understood as a way of learning in which students are more directly involved in the learning process. It is commonly accepted that, in contrast to traditional methods, substantial improvement of the own learning process is achieved through active methodologies. In particular, teachers must address an extra effort to engage the interest of students when faced with subjects provided with strong theoretical background (such as automatic control related topics). Indeed, one of the main drawbacks reported by the own students is their difficulty to connect real engineering application and theoretical lessons. In this paper, we present an active learning method conceived for automatic control subjects with the aid of virtual laboratories compatible with a wide range of web browsers for this end. In a first stage, some real engineering problems for students in the classroom are raised. Through a suitable follow-up of intermediate results and the appropriate discussions, teachers will be able to obtain an immediate feedback while evaluating the quality of learning at each stage. It is worthwhile mentioning that virtual labs are developed using the standard web interactive programming language HTML and Javascript, which only requires a web browser to be executed. Hence, in comparison to previous academic years, it is expected to better promote the usefulness of the control engineering for the students¿ careers with high degree of autonomy for self-scheduling homework and low cost resources, while improving the self-motivation and long-term quality of learning., This work is supported by the Universidad de Zaragoza project PIIDUZ_19_342 Desarrollo e implantación de un modelo basado en aula invertida y metodologías activas para asignaturas de informática e ingeniería de sistemas.

This paper uses Matlab/Simulink as a software tool to design virtual lab used in automation control theory. To make the virtual labs easy in the course of automation control for Sino-Italian cooperation education project, a module based virtual lab design model is proposed. Virtual lab architecture for system performance in automation control theory is designed. Performance analysis in time domain and frequency domain is conducted. Two classes of experiments included in virtual experiment architecture are introduced. Then module based virtual lab design model is introduced in practice. Case study of typical virtual labs about system performance analysis is conducted. To validate the model proposed in this paper, steady-state error analysis, steady-state error analysis of the system is designed and further conducted by specific diagrams plotted in Matlab/Simulink software.

Virtual labs are increasingly used for STEM education as they enable students to conduct experiments in a controlled environment at their own pace. While there was much research on personalisation in technology enhanced learning, most existing virtual labs lack personalisation features. This chapter presents results from a small-scale pilot from two secondary schools in Ireland, that was conducted to evaluate the Atomic Structure interactive personalised virtual lab as part of the NEWTON project. The research methodology followed a multidimensional pedagogical assessment approach, to evaluate the benefits of the lab in terms of learning outcomes, learner motivation and lab usability. The students were divided between an experimental group that learned with the lab and a control group that attended a traditional class. The results analysis show that the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of both learning achievement and motivation dimensions such as interest, confidence, engagement and enjoyment.

We propose a convenient method to run online economic experiments via z-Tree, should a virtual lab with a file server exist. Assuming these technologies are already available in many universities, this method does not require any additional tool or resource. Once the setup is completed, a researcher can run any type of experiment (including interactive tasks) with subjects participating in real time. With the virtual lab architecture, a researcher finds the very same desktop she has in a physical lab; therefore, she does not need to adapt to any different platform. The researcher only needs additional software to communicate with the subjects (e.g., Zoom), but this is probably not a burden since most have already adapted to these applications during the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the use of z-Tree through a virtual lab, necessitated by the current lack of access to physical subjects, will continue to provide a convenient method for running online experiments with z-Tree during the pandemic as well as beyond.

In this paper, we present the first steps towards realizing a digital twin with integrated virtual laboratory possibilities, for a newly established Energy Analytics and Solution lab, using the Unity3D game development platform. The presented example is a case study that shows the possibilities of such development environment for creating a fully connectable digital twin of an energy analytics lab and other more complex industrial environments.

Online Labs (OLabs) is a major Digital India initiative with over 135 online experiments mapped to high school curriculum. For each experiment, OLabs provides background on the theory, animations, simulations, videos, viva voce questions, and links to additional resources. OLabs has been translated to multiple Indian languages. As part of scaling OLabs to the nation, over 16,000 teachers in all Indian states have been trained across India. The current manuscript presents a survey of 112 teachers who attended OLabs workshops and uses OLabs in the classroom. The study’s purpose is to understand the effective implementation of teacher training, to understand how OLabs is used in school laboratory experiments, and to understand how OLabs can supplement or replace real laboratories. A majority of teachers agree that repetition of OLabs experiments helps improve understanding of the concepts. There exists a strong correlation between the teachers’ perception of the quality of videos and animations and the teachers’ attitude on the usefulness of virtual laboratory software. Whether or not teachers feel that virtual laboratory software is useful to students is strongly associated with whether or not teachers feel that software is sufficiently fast and responsive. With regard to the workshops, teachers place high emphasis on the importance of establishing a clear agenda during the workshops. Finally, almost all teachers agree that OLabs can be an effective supplement to real laboratories.

Cyber security is one of the most relevant parts of modern information and communications technology (ICT) deployments and it will further grow in importance in the future. Therefore it is necessary to develop proper courses and educational tools to train students with the required sets of skill. From the educational point of view, due to the international perspective of cyber security, encouraging collaboration among students from different nations is desirable. To address these challenges, we present the International Virtual Lab on Information Security, which uses and extends a revamped earlier lab infrastructure. The main goal of the lab is to enrich the student experience not only related to cyber security but also address cultural aspects which in distance education are seldom possible. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed platform, we performed tests with students from three different nations.

Online education has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, however not all courses can easily be translated to the online mode of delivery, including those that require substantial academic research support and infrastructure, such as a traditional research project. To overcome this challenge, Monash University’s School of Psychological Sciences developed the Research Portal, a fully online research system, initially to support its fully online Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA). The pioneering, expandable, and transferable Research Portal is a convenient and comprehensive one-stop capacity for scoping, designing, conducting, analysing, storing, and writing-up a research project fully online. One of the unique features of the Research Portal is the Virtual Lab which allows users to select and/or create psychological measurement tools, and to acquire human research data by conducting and contributing to the development of online experiments, surveys, and databases. This chapter describes the context, development, course application, and utilisation of the Research Portal. The chapter also presents findings from an evaluation of the usability and user satisfaction of the Research Portal. The Research Portal has bridged the gap between online and traditional research, which substantially benefits on-campus as well as online education and research. This world-first research teaching support system has made a type of course previously thought impossible, the GDPA, a reality.

Our upper-division course in Signals and Systems at UC Berkeley comprises primarily sophomore and junior undergraduates, and assumes only a basic background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. We’ve introduced Jupyter Notebook Python labs to complement the theoretical material covered in more traditional lectures and homeworks. Courses at other institutions have created labs with a similar goal in mind. However, many have a hardware component or involve in-person lab sections that require teaching staff to monitor progress. This presents a significant barrier for deployment in larger courses. Virtual labs—in particular, pure software assignments using the Jupyter Notebook framework—recently emerged as a solution to this problem. Some courses use programming-only labs that lack the modularity and rich user interface of Jupyter Notebook’s cell-based design. Other labs based on the Jupyter Notebook have not yet tapped the full potential of its versatile features. Our labs (1) demonstrate real-life applications; (2) cultivate computational literacy; and (3) are structured to be self-contained. These design principles reduce overhead for teaching staff and give students relevant experience for research and industry.

O ensino por meio de tecnologias da informação e comunicação tem sido um campo ainda pouco explorado por professores, mas já abundante em recursos metodológicos de diversos níveis e áreas da Química. Baseando-se nisto, este artigo faz um levantamento bibliográfico dos mais variados materiais que podem ser utilizados no ensino de Química e que se encontram facilmente disponíveis na internet. Na pesquisa realizada, aplicativos como laboratório virtual, jogos e calculadora química foram encontrados de maneira gratuita e facilmente acessíveis. Entretanto, para essas ferramentas serem utilizadas em favor da aprendizagem é necessário atingir objetivos pedagógicos através de planejamento e eficiente método de ensino-aprendizagem aplicável ao público-alvo. Havendo reflexão, organização e ressignificação da prática pedagógica pelo professor, pode-se utilizar esses recursos em diferentes modalidades de ensino (presencial ou a distância) e nos mais variados níveis (fundamental, médio ou superior), podendo possuir cunho experimental, teórico e/ou lúdico. Portanto, a tecnologia ajuda a difundir informação, trazendo uma diversidade de assuntos por meio dos mais modernos aparatos utilizados para a sua transmissão. Palavras-chave: Ensino de química. Tecnologia da informação e comunicação. Ferramenta educacional.

Virtual Labs is an MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development, India) initiative in which over 1100 virtual experiments are freely available to engineering students across India and the rest of the globe to access and learn. Until the beginning of 2018, the lab usages by students were mostly in the push mode during the workshops. The average usage per workshop was significantly low, at about 8 usages per student. Interventions were proposed in the process to improve the usage by enhancing 'Arousal' and 'Choices' as students' motivation. Qualitative observation of the results shows that students conducted more than the requested 15 experiments, along with the expectation of instant appreciation and recognition. This change in the process to create extrinsic motivation increased the usage per student from 8.62 to 19.7. self-reported motivation levels of students after doing the experiments improved from 5 to 8, 10 being the highest on the scale. There was a reduced variability represented by the coefficient of variation changing from 51.9% to 21.39%.

Physical laboratory experiments are built to provide students with hands-on opportunities and have long been crucial for engineering training. However, due to the rapid growth in number of enrollments, limited and shared space, undergraduate students have experienced an increasing difficulty gaining valuable hands on experience in the lab. While traditional lab should never be abandoned, adding virtual labs to assist with it could benefit students without the limitation of enrollment capacity or lab availability. In this paper, we discussed a pilot study of developing a virtual fluid mechanics laboratory to supplement existing physical lab exercises. The virtual lab was designed to enrich students’ lab experience, stimulate interests, and bring more individual exercise time. It was developed to contain two components: a virtual lab tour and a virtual reality (VR) simulated pump experiment. The virtual tours served as a pre-lab instruction tool that provided students with an overview of the fluid mechanics lab. The VR pump experiment replicated the physical experience of performing the physical lab. Preliminary feedbacks were positive for both components of the virtual lab. Students considered that the virtual tours were very informative and useful, while that the VR pump lab was intuitive and time-saving. This proved that with realistic lab simulations, the virtual lab had great potential to provide students more flexibility to perform hands-on experiment and to develop technical acumen outside of the physical classroom. Further improvement was discussed to implement in the next stage to create more immersive experience in assistance of the lab instruction.

This study aims to determine the differences in chemistry learning outcomes and students' creative thinking abilities, as well as the correlation between the two students who are taught using the PjBL learning model using Real Lab media and Virtual Lab. While students' creative thinking skills use observation sheets. The data obtained from the results of the study, namely: (1) To test the hypothesis of student learning outcomes obtained tcount = 2.15 while ttable = 1.998 (2) To test the hypothesis of creative thinking abilities students obtained tcount = 3.40 while ttable = 1.998 ( 3) To test the correlation of creative thinking abilities on student learning outcomes obtained rtable = 0.339 while r1 = 0.391 and r2 = 0.403 with contributions of = 15.26% and 16.27% in each class, the rest is influenced by other variables. So that the conclusion is drawn that there is a difference between learning outcomes and students 'creative thinking abilities that are learned using PjBL learning models by using Real Lab media and Virtual Lab media. There is a positive and significant correlation between students' creative thinking abilities and student learning outcomes in each experimental class.

Interactive is a Modelica library whose goal is to facilitate the implementation of virtual labs based on Modelica models quickly and with little effort. Modelica is a free object-oriented modeling language. The implementation of a virtual lab for air pollution control developed using Interactive 2.0 is discussed in this manuscript. This virtual lab has been developed to explain the dispersion of pollutants into the atmosphere to undergraduate students of Environmental Chemistry of the Universidad Nacional de Tucuman (Argentina). Main aspects in the virtual lab development process are addressed in this discussion, including: (1) application of a systematic methodology to adapt any Modelica model into a description suitable for interactive simulation; (2) composition of the virtual lab view using Interactive. Additionally, the use of this virtual lab in the Environmental Chemistry course is discussed. Interactive is freely available at www.euclides.dia.uned.es.

The requirements on the education of engineers change with an increasing demand from the industry to drive the transformation of the fourth industrial revolution. A series of education-related research projects was therefore launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF), of which the cooperative project ELLI - “Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Science” is one among the most extensive. Of the three universities involved, namely RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and TU Dortmund University, the last is at the center of the development of remote and virtual labs for mechanical engineering education with a focus on manufacturing technology. A tele-operative material characterization testing cell was conceptualized and implemented, along with a remote lab for incremental tube forming. To make further use of the remote labs, a Massive-Open-Online-Course (MOOC) was created which incorporates remote labs as part of the applied didactic methods. To overcome the limits of remote labs, virtual representations of these labs and a general virtual experimentation lab were developed. They are designed for different devices enabling the students to explore and experiment complex processes visually. All these measures are currently being integrated into various lectures in different study programs. In the second funding phase, ELLI2, the spectrum of the developed labs is broadened by the inclusion of new processes and introduction of technologies, such as Augmented Reality and Additive Manufacturing.

The work presents real-time data acquisition and monitoring of solar photovoltaic modules using LabVIEW. A graphical program has been developed to obtain efficiency and fill factor of solar PV module. A front panel is designed, displaying all the acquired data such as; voltage, current, solar radiation, ambient temperature, humidity, Current vs. Voltage and Power vs. Voltage graphs which make it very useful to understand the performance behavior of the solar photovoltaic module in real time. Data acquisition and monitoring for solar panels of different ratings are carried out. This tool is an effective platform for experimental study in the laboratory of different solar photovoltaic modules with access to real-time data. Keywords: Photovoltaic, Instruments, Labview software, Characteristics, Sensors