VirTUal remoTe labORatories Management System (TUTORES): Using Cloud Computing to Acquire University Practical Skills

Abstract

The use of practical laboratories is a key in engineering education in order to provide our students with the resources needed to acquire practical skills. This is specially true in the case of distance education, where no physical interactions between lecturers and students take place, so virtual or remote laboratories must be used. UNED has developed a system to create and manage virtual remote laboratories, aimed at improving the way how practical exercises are conducted. This system is based on cloud computing and virtualization concepts. These Virtual Remote Laboratories (VRLabs) combine features of traditional virtual and remote laboratories but with clear differences over them, among others, VRLabs do not necessarily access real physical devices but are not based on simulations either. Each student is provided with a virtual remote laboratory based on virtualization that he/she will access through the Internet and will use to implement his/her practical assignments. We present details on how these laboratories are implemented for a subject in a post-degree program in our University. Furthermore, we also present an evaluation of the system used on such subject aiming at assessing the quality of the system regarding three different concepts, namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived interaction. This evaluation is twofold, first, we have conducted a survey over the students of the subject, and second, we have performed another survey over the teaching team of the subject, both have been performed for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years.

Academic staff perspectives on technology for assessment (TfA) in higher education: A systematic literature review

“…For example, in class Clicker use allowed engagement with and understanding of the coursework (Flosason et al , ) and before class polling was suggested to allow for a better prepared student (Sun, Martinez, & Seli, ). There was findings from two studies that student activity visibility and monitoring in a VLE improved the academics potential to diagnose and deal with students’ problems more efficiently, though with academic staff time implications (Caminero et al , ; Lafuente Martínez et al , ).…”

“…Transparency and visibility-student work There was an aspirational sense that efficiencies may be generated through enhanced ability of academic staff to monitor student activity (Caminero et al, 2016;Flosason et al, 2015;Lafuente Martínez et al, 2015;Zou, 2013). For example, in class Clicker use allowed engagement with and understanding of the coursework (Flosason et al, 2015) and before class polling was suggested to allow for a better prepared student (Sun, Martinez, & Seli, 2014).…”

A Virtual Learning Architecture Enhanced by Fog Computing and Big Data Streams

“…Such a technological choice allows for a centralized virtualization and re-use of low-performing legacy computers, as well as deploying applications without the need to buy many licenses. Moreover, some cloud-based learning environments have been devised ad hoc for virtual laboratories in different fields [18,20], thus allowing institutions, after specific agreements, to exploit laboratories of other universities or research centers. Nevertheless, the cloud could raise some issues, such as the inability to implement a pay-per-use scheme and open-source solutions or what is called vendor lock-in.…”

“…The proposed solution sheds light on the importance of carefully adapting, on the part of a dedicated IT staff, the different layers of the cloud to the specific laboratory, with particular care to micro-controllers, local servers, pieces of middleware, appropriate operating systems and devices (Arduino, Raspberry Pie, etc.). In [20], another system for virtual laboratories is presented. This solution takes advantage of remote access to virtual machines (Virtual Remote Labs) and needs IT staff to isolate virtual machines during certain time frames, when they have to be connected to actual physical devices or with network equipment.…”

Construction of Education Management Information System Based on Cloud Computing

“…For example, in the course selection node system, the system server is often unable to withstand high traffic, leading to the phenomenon of course selection congestion, which affects the orderly teaching work [5].…”