E-learning is now widely used at university level to replace traditional lectures and exercises by digital document reading, quizzes, tutorials, videos, demos and simulations. However the most challenging part is to replace hands-on labs by virtual or remote labs. The difficulty is not only tied to technology (real-time synchronism, scheduling 24/24-7/7, security, mobility, interaction) but also to psychology and cognition aspects. Indeed in distance learning, there is no physical presence of a teacher or tutor to supervise students and drive their motivation, so that the student-teaching process becomes an open loop. Therefore there is a need to find a substitute for the teacher, thanks to technology help, in order to make it a closed-loop process, that is regulated even if there is no teacher in the loop. One needs to be able to evaluate the student mood (concentrated, bored, amused, perplexed...) and to boost the motivation in learning with appropriate tools (immersion, gaming, feedback).As regards the pedagogical strategy, a game-like approach is implemented: it is based both on the use of a Top 10 (best anserws to questions during the measurement real-time activity) and on the use of a track-game to find the right solution to an unknown circuit. This is inspired by e-games scenario (levels, lives, points, timer).Before and after the learning activity, the students answer questionnaires about satisfaction, motivation and psychological profile. From those questionnaires and from the scores obtained in the lab, we analyse the impact of game, robot, drone and camera video processing on the teaching process. We show that the behavior of students is highly affected by these tools, in a positive way as regards motivation.

No abstract

Technology is affecting students' life in different ways. Nowadays, students are more interested in social media, games and Internet of Things. On the other hand, most current teaching techniques appear outdated and uninteresting to students due to the fact that they do not follow the technological advances. For these reasons, students nowadays do not show much interest in education and learning. On the other hand, there is an urgent need for new learning approaches that take into account both the interests of today's students and the technological advances in several fields like telecommunication and gaming. Particularly for STEM curricula (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), labs play a crucial role to help students fully understand the material given during lectures. However, traditional hands-on labs are tied to space-time constraints: a student must perform the lab activity in a pre-scheduled time and in a given space. Furthermore, traditional labs are not suited for all students: some students may need more help and more motivating factors in order to take the most of the lab experience and to enhance their learning outcomes. This is not always best done in hands-on labs due to large number of students and to the presence of only one teacher that has to do lots of effort to adapt to each student's needs. Remote labs provide an alternative experience to the traditional lab, eliminating time-space constraints and introducing students to a new way of working by manipulating hardware remotely, which is used frequently in industry (SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). It can also be adapted to each student's needs if one is capable to infer student's mood, emotion and competence. In this paper we present the implementation of a remote lab in electronics, called LaboREM, which takes advantage of the technological advances in telecommunication and takes into consideration what current students are interested in. It is based on three parts: a remote laboratory, a learning management system and a game-like approach. The remote laboratory consists of remotely-controlled measurement devices, plus a simple robotic arm that mimics the student hand to construct electronic circuits. The robotic arm picks up electronics components equipped with magnets and places them on a breadboard. A wide angle camera is installed in order that students see what is physically happening in the lab. The electronic lab activity consists of short-time experiments (mainly tests on active filters) that last less than 5 minutes. The scenario is based on a game-like approach: a treasure hunt and a Top 10. Furthermore, a mini drone that can be controlled by the student remotely complements the static camera to add more immersion to the lab experience. The student can send specific requests to the drone in order to see some electronic instruments in a more interesting way. Moreover image processing and pattern recognition techniques are also used to infer student mood, concentration and motivation. Clues of boredom, lack of ...

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.