SEITI RMLab: A costless and effective remote measurement laboratory in electrical engineering

Abstract

e-Learning emerged as a way for enhancing the quality of education and providing accessible distance learning to allow learners to study beyond regular class time, transcending the mandatory presence of teachers and the availability of classrooms by providing the necessary resources and services. One of the main issues of e-learning, especially in engineering education, is the lack of online educational laboratories. Practical work remains a considerable burden as engineering educational programs focus on handling real equipment. These last are only accessible within a restrictive schedule and might be unaffordable for low budget institutions. The need is clear for interactive platforms that enhance the motivation and controls the regulation of workload for each student. In this paper, an overview about online laboratories is given and a simple approach of remote lab is suggested. The proposal of our research team (Team SEITI) can be used for carrying-out experiments that require neither assembly nor physical changes until the results are obtained unless a technician, that must be present in the laboratory, acts on equipment. The idea is to set up a real-time measurement retrieval laboratory that requires the involvement of a technician to act on instruments and will grant access to a large scale of students.