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Accelerated by current research on the Internet of Things, working with virtual models and things has taken a significant step forward. The term digital twins refers to the development of virtual models of processes, products or services that allow the simulation of system behavior and the early detection of problems before the real system exists. Simulations have been state of the art for a long time, but with the service-oriented possibilities of the Internet a new quality of simulation results. In the meantime, it has become possible, for example, to configure a virtual computer on the Internet and run algorithms on it without this computer in fact existing, see e.g. AWS (AMAZON web services). This paper discusses possibilities that the digital twin concept can offer to educational purposes in remote and virtual laboratories.

The following article describes a hybrid online lab that was developed at the TU Ilmenau and is used in basic education for technical computer science as well as in further education. Based on the tasks that can be solved with its help, an overview is given of learning scenarios in which the lab is used, and it is shown what benefits students can derive from it. The hardware and software architecture underlying the lab as a platform is briefly described. Special features here are the communication structure based on web services and the interactive tools belonging to the lab, which can also be integrated into learning management systems as Interactive Content Objects (ICO). Cloud-based networking guarantees the easy maintainability of the instances of the GOLDi-Lab (GOLDi—Grid of Online Devices Ilmenau), which are currently distributed among ten international universities. The exchange in this international network leads to new ideas for the further development of the laboratory, which are presented in a concluding section.

Enforced by current results of research in the field of the Internet of Things, working with virtual models has taken a significant step forward. To use such technologies in interactive collaborative and blended learning scenarios, virtual, remote and hybrid online labs has a long tradition in the engineering education process. In virtual or hybrid labs, parts of the experiments take place not on real, but on virtual instruments. In the paper, we present virtual design tools, used in a hybrid online lab that supports a course in designing combinational and sequential logic for control systems. We describe a new integrated hardware-oriented design tool called BEAST (Block-diagram Editing And Simulation Tool) supporting a circuit-oriented design process and works as virtual control unit in a hybrid online lab. We also discuss in which learning scenarios virtual control units have proven themselves.

The acceptance of digitally supported teaching has increased considerably in recent years. At the same time, however, the demands on availability, usability, and granularity of the offerings are also increasing. Especially in the study of STEM subjects, the combination of theoretically taught basics and their application and consolidation in the form of internships in the basic subjects is unfavorable in terms of time, as these are usually subject to a tight time schedule and do not provide opportunities for individual learning processes in terms of either space or time. The EIFEL project aims to develop and test the basis for the digital support of learning processes in computer science within the framework of a fellowship. On the one hand, this will allow new forms of teaching such as flipped classroom, problem-based learning with the help of virtual and remote-controlled laboratory experiments, and on the other hand, individual practice-oriented learning through flexible access to experiments in terms of time and place. It is one of eight projects supported by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society and the German Stifterverband.

Within two TEMPUS projects, we implemented the GOLDi remote lab infrastructure at ten universities in Armenia, Georgia, Germany and Ukraine. Our interactive hybrid online lab – called GOLDi (Grid of Online Lab Devices Ilmenau) – stands for a grid concept to realize a universal remote lab platform. In addition to the actual use as a remote lab for educational purposes, maintenance is of crucial importance - especially if the lab is part of a cluster of distributed labs.

The GOLDi-Lab is a cloud-based grid of online labs for teaching design and verification of digital control systems in hardware and software. The paper presents a concept of enhancing this lab with IoT- features to make it more flexible and to prepare learners for the Internet of Things (IoT).

PurposeThe content, provided in learning management systems (LMS), is often text oriented as in a usual textbook, extended by some animations and links. Hands on activities and experiments are not possible. The paper aims to give an overview about the concept to couple smart simulation and assessment tools with an LMS to provide a more explorative approach to the learning content.Design/methodology/approachInteractive components, such as smart design tools and online laboratories are added to an LMS that allow exploring the learned content additionally to text parts interactively. The objective of this teaching concept is to empower the students to solve complex design tasks for digital systems and to validate the results. This requires on the one hand site knowledge about the mathematical background of the algorithms used by design tools, and on the other hand, experience from as much as possible examples. Commercial tools are too complex for teaching purposes and hide mostly the algorithms they use for the several design steps. That is why we have developed smart special tailored tools for each single design step that should be learned during a lesson.FindingsThese smart tools are very useful to support the process of understanding and learning by doing. Learners can explore the several design steps with own examples and get immediately feedback about the correct solutions.Practical implicationsThe connection to an LMS allows us to record all students' relevant actions in the design process and to evaluate the student or to give individual tailored hints.Originality/valueThe paper introduces a new teaching concept that allows exploring the learned content interactively additionally to text parts.

Based on the grid concept of an interactive hybrid online laboratory, called GOLDI which was demonstrated at exp'at15 in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal in June 2015, we will describe some new extensions to this infrastructure. After a short discussion of the GOLDi remote lab infrastructure, the new experiment control panel (ECP) and the integrated Graphical Interactive Finite State Machine toolset (GIFT) main focus of the demonstration will be the interconnection of multiple remote labs (based on the GOLDi infrastructure) to a remote lab cloud. Within two running TEMPUS projects ten remote labs in four countries can be used worldwide. Based on this cloud structure it is necessary to adapt the complex GOLDi access control system. With this new reservation system possibilities for an effective worldwide experiment management will be available, which will also be demonstrated.

With the project "FIPS" (Ferngesteuertes Internet Praktikum Schaltsysteme—in English: remote controlled laboratory for the course “Digital Logic Design”) this contribution introduces a concept of a Web-Based Laboratory with several experiments offering controlling, observing, and analysing features via internet. All single steps of the laboratory process—starting with the design of control algorithms up to the web-based validation—will be presented on the basis of the existing laboratory experiment “Travelling Trolley". Derived from that, the required system architecture of the project “FIPS" will be shown and different kinds of realization will be compared regarding the execution of the designed control algorithm.

This paper describes a new holistic approach to integrate remote and virtual laboratories in the educational process. Aim of the integration is to test students' knowledge not only on lower levels as usual multiple choice tests and the like are doing, but also on higher-order thinking skills. Based on these tests the students should get a detailed feedback about their strengths, weaknesses or mis-conceptions. Therefore Learning Analytics methods are applied to a database, storing learning activities of the students during their online work- phase in the educational process. The paper discusses the actual approach as well as the architecture of a prototype implementation.

AskMe!  Web-based e-assessment system  Traditional question types  Including ICOs  Perfectly tailored feedback  Information visualization Moodle  Open source learning platform  Big community  A lot of modules  Including ICOs Avendoo  Learning platform developed by the company Magh & Boppert  Provision of students’ learning activities RemoteLab  University of Technology Ilmenau offers students real world working environment  Design, verification and implementation of digital circuits  Grid structure Learning Record Store (LRS)  Stores information about students’ learning activities  xAPI interface  Actor-verb-object schema

The education of engineering students focuses not only on acquiring facts and procedures, but more importantly on integrating and using those knowledge to analyze problems, evaluate solutions, etc. The evaluation of these skills using traditional e-assessments is mostly not possible and currently still left to traditional assessment methods. The authors of this paper recognized the need for new e-assessment technologies and have developed a new personalized and interactive e-assessment system called askMe!. The focus of this paper is not only on presenting the askMe! system and its underlying concepts, but also on explaining the use of the system for supporting students in acquiring higher levels of knowledge. Finally, the paper presents an evaluation of the system both from the authors' as well as from the students' point of view.

Based on a grid concept of an interactive hybrid online laboratory we will describe different fields of applications in different learning scenarios. The infrastructure is based on a universal grid concept which guaranties a reliable, flexible as well as robust usage of this online lab. By using the REAL online lab, students are able to design control algorithms with different specification techniques to control electro-mechanical models in the online lab. Additionally, the reconfigurable rapid prototyping platform of the REAL system can be used to test all the taught topics of a given lectures in the field of digital system design. Finally, a special demonstration platform (a ball in a labyrinth on a balance plate) can be used to give the students a better feeling about the possibilities and limitations of remote control and observation via Internet and to evaluate these technologies critically. The implemented online lab infrastructure is based on the iLab architecture of the MIT, which allows to interconnect online labs and to exchange remote lab experiments among different universities worldwide.

Over the last decade, a large number of e-assessment system and tools were developed. However, they all provide assessments that are characterized by a static structure (ordered sequence of questions, predefined start and ending, etc.). This approach does not consider students individual knowledge or characteristics. Instead, each student has to answer the same questions. The work presented in this paper focuses on a personalized e-assessment system (askMe!) that not only identifies, but also supports and even compensates deficits in studentsâ?? individual learning by considering studentsâ?? strengths and preferences. In this paper, the core, the adaptation model of the system is presented that defines what can be adapted, as well as when and how it is to be adapted.

Based on a grid concept of an interactive hybrid online laboratory we will describe different fields of applications in different learning scenarios. This infrastructure guaranties a reliable, flexible as well as robust usage of this online lab. By using GOLDi, students are able to design control algorithms with different specification techniques to control electro-mechanical hardware models in the online lab. Additionally, the reconfigurable rapid prototyping platform of the GOLDi system can be used to test all the taught topics of a given lectures in the field of digital system design. Finally, a special demonstration platform (a ball in a labyrinth on a balance plate) can be used to give the students a better feeling about the possibilities and limitations of remote control and observation via Internet and to evaluate these technologies critically.

The paper describes how remote and virtual laboratories can support problem-based learning scenarios. We actually change from a traditional way of teaching, including lectures, seminars and hands-on laboratories, to a new, problem-based teaching approach. Therefore we use a developed multimedia environment. This environment consists of a set of Java applets, desktop applications and of a web based access to the hardware equipment which can be used in the classroom, for learning at home, in laboratory research and training, or for carrying out testing of students during exams. These educational tools support university courses on digital electronics, computer hardware, VLSI design and architectures, testing and design for testability of digital hardware. The tools are used to support a new approach to bachelor courses following a problem based method and organized as full-day courses.

The content, provided in Learning Management Systems (LMS), is often text oriented as in a usual textbook. We have added interactive components, such as smart design tools and online laboratories, in an LMS that allow exploring the learned content additionally to text parts interactively. The objective of our teaching concept is to empower the students to solve complex design tasks for digital systems and to validate the results. This requires at the one hand site knowledge about the mathematical background of the algorithms used by design tools and at the other hand side the experience from as much as possible examples. Commercial tools are too complex for teaching purposes and hide mostly the algorithms they use for the several design steps. Thatpsilas why we donpsilat use commercial tools. The connection to an LMS allows us to record all studentspsila relevant actions in the design process and to evaluate the student or to give individual tailored hints.

A lot of learning management systems (LMS) were developed in the last ten years since e-learning opens new possibilities in learning scenarios. They offer the possibility to watch any of the students action on the computer, but possibilities to verify the level of knowledge, a student has reached (accordingly to Bloompsilas taxonomy), are very poor. Multiple choice questions and the like can only verify lower levels in this taxonomy. In this paper we discuss a new approach in verifying higher levels of knowledge in connection with interactive teaching software and online laboratories, which are coupled to an LMS. This work is a result of eight years cooperation between the Tallinn University of Technology and the Ilmenau University of Technology.

An environment targeted to e-learning is presented for teaching advanced test issues in digital electronics. Digital circuits and systems are getting more and more complex, and in the same time the requirements for the quality of systems are getting higher and higher. This is the reason why the importance of testing as an engineering task has started to grow extremely fast. An environment which consists of a set of Java applets has been created to help the students to improve their understanding of test. The tools support university courses on digital electronics, computer hardware, testing and design for testability to learn by hands-on exercises how to generate test patterns, and how to analyze their quality. The tasks chosen for hands-on training represent simultaneously real research problems, which allow to foster in students critical thinking, problem solving skills and creativity.

In this paper, we present an overview of latest developments taking place at Tallinn Technical University (TTU) in the area of e-learning supported by European project REASON (REsearch And Training Action for System On Chip DesigN) [8].

The paper presents a conception of how to improve the skills of the students studying digital design and test related topics. A learning method based on using the so-called "living pictures" is applied. The goal of this method is to put interactive teaching modules on the Internet so that they can be used in asynchronous-mode learning of digital design and test. The system is implemented in the form of Java applets and can be freely accessed through the Internet. The principal message of the conception is to inspire students to learn, and to prepare them for developing problem-solving strategies.

A new teaching concept for teaching testing issues in digital design, which supports the possibility of distance learning as well as a Web-based computer-aided teaching is presented. It offers a set of tools ("interactive modules") to inspect the teaching topics and to carry out laboratory research. The interactive modules are focused on easy action and reaction, learning by doing, a game-like use, and fostering students in critical thinking, problem solving skills and creativity.

The Ilmenau Interactive Hybrid Online Lab offers several fields of application. In this article an enhancement of the existing Online Lab will be described to provide additional functionalities for a Web-based rapid prototyping of digital systems as well as the Web-based verification of such systems. For this new operation mode of the online lab a special rapid-prototyping board for digital systems was developed to fulfill the design tasks of digital systems. All the components of the rapid prototyping board will be described in detail. The implemented online lab infrastructure allows to interconnect online labs and to exchange remote lab experiments among different universities worldwide.

The Internet and multimedia open new possibilities for learning methods. We want to present a learning method uses so-called living pictures. On one hand teachers can show more complex examples and immediate demonstrate the influence of changing parameters by using computer simulated living pictures in their lessons. On the other hand students can use the same simulations on their home computer, if the living pictures are available on the Internet. We demonstrate an example of a living picture, dealing with digital electronics and test.

Based on a grid concept of an interactive hybrid online laboratory we will describe different fields of applications in different learning scenarios. The infrastructure is based on a universal grid concept which guaranties a reliable, flexible as well as robust usage of this online lab. By using the online lab, students are able to design control algorithms with different specification techniques to control electro-mechanical models in the online lab. Additionally, the reconfigurable rapid prototyping platform of the REAL system can be used to test all the taught topics of a given lectures in the field of digital system design. Finally, a special demonstration platform (a ball in a labyrinth on a balance plate) can be used to give the students a better feeling about the possibilities and limitations of remote control and observation via Internet and to evaluate these technologies critically. The implemented online lab infrastructure is based on the iLab architecture of the MIT, which allows to interconnect online labs and to exchange remote lab experiments among different universities worldwide.

This paper presents a new teaching concept supporting the learning process by several features. It supports the possibility of distance learning as well as a Web-based computer-aided teaching, offers a set of tools ("interactive modules") to inspect the teaching topics and carries out laboratory research. A big reservoir of examples and the possibility to generate others makes the learning process more interesting and allows learning at an individual depth and duration. The interactive modules are focused on correct solutions, easy action and reaction, multilingual descriptions, learning by doing, a game-like use, and fostering students in critical thinking, problem solving skills and creativity.

Teaching technical basics in computer science typically requires explaining complex interdependence and dynamic processes. Design methods as well as methods to verify the design have to be taught in a way that students can understand the algorithms behind and use them during a design process. We discuss a set of learning modules, developed during the last four years, which can be used as tools during the design process of digital circuits. In that way we realize a form of "learning by doing" via the Internet.