Online Delivery of Electrical Engineering Laboratory Courses

Abstract

Abstract Online Delivery of Electrical Engineering Laboratory CoursesThis paper presents our experiences and results in developing and delivering new laboratoryexperiments for the sophomore level Electric Circuits Lab, and Introduction to Digital Logicdesign courses completely online. The paper will clearly outline how we utilized a newpedagogy to re-write our laboratory experiments so that they can be completed by face-to-faceand/or online students using new portable laboratory instrumentation devices, such as the MobileStudioTM board. We also present detailed descriptions on how we used the Adobe ConnectTMsoftware to allow the students to demonstrate their design and laboratory experiment circuits tothe course instructor from a remote location.We have successfully developed and delivered over 10 laboratory experiments completely onlinefor the two sophomore level courses during the Spring 2011 semester. The laboratoryexperiments have been updated in the Fall 2011 semester with the addition of new Agilent X-Series Oscilloscopes with integrated Function Generators. The new oscilloscopes have optionalLAN connection modules that allow students to control every feature of the oscilloscopesremotely using a web browser on their personal computer (PC) through a virtual front panel thatlooks and operates the same way as the real front panel of the scopes with the same associatedkeys and knobs. This implies that students who are conducting ECE laboratory experimentsonline will have access to the same type of equipment that is used by the students enrolled in theface-to-face laboratory courses.The results have shown that the students were able to conduct most of the design and laboratoryexperiments required in the online lab courses without the need to be on campus. This newapproach represents a major paradigm shift in the way higher education institutions should thinkwhen delivering Electrical Engineering education.