Virtualizing Cyber-Physical Systems: Bringing CPS to Online Education

Abstract

Abstract—The advent of the massive open online course promises to bring world-class education to anyone with internet access. Instructors use blended models of education to deliver course content via video, text, interactive assignments, exams, wikis, and discussion forums. Courses with largely theoretical content are readily adapted to blended models for online audiences, but significant challenges arise when incorporating projectbased learning and interactive experiments. Cyber-physical systems courses commonly include experiments that explore the interplay between computation and physics and are especially subject to the challenges of bringing experimentation and projectbased learning to online audiences. We describe technical aspects of embedded and cyber-physical systems laboratory exercises used at the University of California, Berkeley, and investigate avenues for adapting this content to a massive open online course. I.