Real Time Virtual Laboratory Solution Prototype and Evaluation for Online Engineering Degree Programs

Abstract

Online education has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in the field of engineering.However, one of the challenges of online engineering education is providing students with hands-on laboratory experiences that require being at an on-campus laboratory. Virtual laboratory technical solutions have been developed during the last decade to allow learners to simulate engineering systems online or to connect to predesigned systems modules within physical laboratories. However, these predesigned solutions need to be acquired as software and hardware components which would require a certain budget and a training time before they can be used. In addition, these solutions do not concentrate on the construction portion of the systems under experimentation, but rather on testing the predesigned module using a virtual application that connects to it. In this paper we have developed a solution that would enable online learners to build virtual systems step by step at their ends and connect them to real time on-campus labs to perform remote experimentation. We have designed and developed a prototype for a simple, easy to learn and use virtual laboratory model for logic gates systems.. We have used a combination of technologies such as Virtual Networking Computing (VNC) technology, Video Conferencing (VC) technology, and Object-Oriented programming (OOP). Our solution was practically proven using Python programming running on a raspberry PI system to construct sample examples virtual logic gates applications. This allows online students to concentrate on constructing, step by step, logic gates systems virtually, and to control actual physical logic gates systems within an on-campus lab with the help of a webcam. Our solution was tested by group of learners and was proved to be a costeffective alternative to traditional laboratory experiences, as our virtual laboratory can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, eliminating the need for additional expensive equipment and laboratory space.