Practical experiments are essential for engineering studies. Regarding the acquisition of practical and professional competences in a completely online scenario, the use of technology that allows students to carry out practical experiments is important. This paper presents a remote laboratory designed and developed by the Open University of Catalonia (RLAB-UOC), which allows engineering students studying online to carry out practical experiments anywhere and anytime with real electronic and communications equipment. The features of the remote laboratory and students’ satisfaction with its use are analyzed in real subjects across six semesters using a self-administered questionnaire in an FPGA-based case study. The results for the FPGA-based case study present the perception and satisfaction of students using the proposed remote laboratory in the acquisition of subject competences and content.

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Practical experimentation is essential for electronics learning. As the acquisition of practical and professional competences in full online scenario is concerned, it is very relevant the use of technology that allows students to carry out hands-on experiments. This paper presents Lab@Home, the Open University of Catalonia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC, Barcelona, Spain) hands-on electronics laboratory, which allows online students to carry out practical experiments anywhere and anytime at a reduced cost and with good portability characteristics. Lab@Home features and students satisfaction are analyzed during six consecutive semesters in two different subjects by means of a self-administered questionnaire, showing the benefits of using Lab@Home in the acquisition of the subjects contents and gathering how could be improved students learning experience by using this kind of electronics laboratory.

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Cognitive overload, confusion and disorientation are common drawbacks in e-learning. To cope with these difficulties, this work suggests a course structure focused on the activity. This proposal also tries to help learners by improving guidance and interaction with the structure by means of information visualization techniques, which have proven to be useful in other domains. Students would carry out their learning process through a set of activities, which can be accessed from four information spaces (i.e. competences and objectives, scheduling, table of contents and assessment). Hence, this proposal should help students in their daily work.