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In this paper we report on the use of the NetLab remote laboratory located in Australia, accessed outside the country, including Sri Lanka, Poland, Singapore and Sweden and other tens of locations. After a review of the current use and the development of NetLab, we concentrate on the overseas applications of the remote laboratory. There is an increasing recognition by students using remote laboratories that their learning experience is comparable with working in real laboratories. Remote laboratories enable working in an international, multicultural environment, becoming more and more important in the era of globalisation. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The focus of the project reported in this article was the carrying out of a technical and economic feasibility study for the design of a microgrid test-bed facility at the University of South Australia (UniSA), in Australia. The designed microgrid meets the electrical and thermal load demands of the building where the test laboratory facility will be located. Activity for the study was the investigating of various power resources, and comparison of the cost of energy (COE), net present value (NPV) and emissions of the microgrid in three different configurations, i.e. grid-only, islanded-microgrid and parallel to grid operation, all available in modern power systems.The study was carried out with a microgrid simulation tool, HOMER, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Remote laboratories provide access to equipment outside of a classroom environment. The NetLab remote laboratory allows students to conduct experiments in electrical engineering from anywhere in the world at any time. The current work focuses on improving the support available to students through the addition of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). Research exists to show that the addition of an ITS to a remote laboratory can improve student learning. In a conventional real laboratory, the laboratory supervisor would be responsible for ensuring the correct functioning of the equipment, as well as warning students if some piece of equipment has become faulty and requires repair or replacement. In this article, the authors describe the development of an automatic verification system, which fulfils these two important roles in the remote laboratory context. It can run batch test scripts on the system at a time when no user is connected, providing early warning of any issues to the teaching staff. Even if the system cannot directly fix all issues, providing instructions to the human supervisory team and the students is potentially very useful. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Remote laboratories provide students with online access to real equipment from anywhere at any time. However it is impossible to provide 24/7 human assistance to students performing experiments. It is envisaged that an online tutor will be a useful addition to almost any remote laboratory. Providing an online tutor is not as much of a problem as providing a 'good' online tutor that will maximize student learning outcomes in the remote laboratory. In this paper we showcase the initial development of software to automate some tasks normally carried out by a human laboratory tutor. Created based on the analysis of students' activities during typical experiments, the software detects wiring mistakes made by students performing an experiment in a remote laboratory. The software also detects any results from the laboratory equipment that do not match results expected from theory. This work is an important step in designing a quality online tutor that will assist students in the way a good teacher would guide them through the discipline knowledge Refereed/Peer-reviewed

With recent advances in technology and the Internet, the concept of teaching and learning have evolved significantly. Conventional face-to-face teaching is becoming a thing of the past as knowledge is everywhere and accessible from anywhere. Thus, a shift to e-learning is gaining momentum. Educational institute,companies, individuals and training organizations are embracing new technology and creating a shared online platform to facilitate learning, referred to as the Learning Management Systems (LMS). LMS are software that provide an online portal to collaborate in teaching and learning seamlessly, making it more productive and engaging. This paper aims to review the top ten LMSs both cloud based and open source with regards to their compatibility, usefulness, security,accessibility, scalability, stability/reliability and de-sign in general with emphasison the recent development of the Moodle and NetLab at University of South Australia (UniSA). The open source online learning platform Moodle is adopted by UniSA to provide educators a space for collaborative learning using the optimized tools to create activities. Moreover, the Netlab online remote laboratory developed at UniSA, provides a platform for academic staff for teaching and demonstrations during lectures and for students to conduct practical experiments remotely on real laboratory equipment. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Remote laboratories (RLs) are increasingly used in engineering and technology education as an alternative to real and virtual laboratories. RLs are relatively inexpensive to run, offer access 24/7 from any location with the Internet access, safety of usage and collaboration in a student group. RLs usually do not provide tutorial support available in real laboratories. This can be addressed by designing and implementing an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The paper analyses the nature and scope of student mistakes in over 1600 circuits configured in the remote laboratory NetLab at the University of South Australia (UniSA). This is required to create an important database for ITS. After a review of some ITS solutions, student actions are analysed systematically, leading to linking them to the proposed ITS Refereed/Peer-reviewed