2017 |
Garcia-Zubia, Javier; Cuadros, Jordi; Romero, Susana; Hernández, U; Orduña, Pablo; Guenaga, Mariluz; Gonzalez-Sabate, Lucinio; Gustavsson, Ingvar Empirical Analysis of the Use of the VISIR Remote Lab in Teaching Analog Electronics Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Education, 60 (2), pp. 149-156, 2017, ISSN: 0018-9359. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Current measurement, Education, Electrical resistance measurement, Internet, Remote laboratories, Resistors @article{etalal2017, title = {Empirical Analysis of the Use of the VISIR Remote Lab in Teaching Analog Electronics}, author = {Javier Garcia-Zubia and Jordi Cuadros and Susana Romero and U. Hernández and Pablo Orduña and Mariluz Guenaga and Lucinio Gonzalez-Sabate and Ingvar Gustavsson}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7582459/}, doi = {10.1109/TE.2016.2608790}, issn = {0018-9359}, year = {2017}, date = {2017-05-02}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Education}, volume = {60}, number = {2}, pages = {149-156}, abstract = {Remote laboratories give students the opportunity of experimenting in STEM by using the Internet to control and measure an experimental setting. Remote laboratories are increasingly used in the classroom to complement, or substitute for, hands-on laboratories, so it is important to know its learning value. While many authors approach this question through qualitative analyses, this paper reports a replicated quantitative study that evaluates the teaching performance of one of these resources, the virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR) remote laboratory. VISIR, described here, is the most popular remote laboratory for basic analog electronics. This paper hypothesizes that use of a remote laboratory has a positive effect on students' learning process. This report analyzes the effect of the use of VISIR in five different groups of students from two different academic years (2013-2014 and 2014-2015), with three teachers and at two educational levels. The empirical experience focuses on Ohm's Law. The results obtained are reported using a pretest and post-test design. The tests were carefully designed and analyzed, and their reliability and validity were assessed. The analysis of knowledge test question results shows that the post-test scores are higher that the pretest. The difference is significant according to Wilcoxon test (p <; 0.001), and produces a Cohen effect size of 1.0. The VISIR remote laboratory's positive effect on students' learning processes indicates that remote laboratories can produce a positive effect in students' learning if an appropriate activity is used.}, keywords = {Current measurement, Education, Electrical resistance measurement, Internet, Remote laboratories, Resistors}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Remote laboratories give students the opportunity of experimenting in STEM by using the Internet to control and measure an experimental setting. Remote laboratories are increasingly used in the classroom to complement, or substitute for, hands-on laboratories, so it is important to know its learning value. While many authors approach this question through qualitative analyses, this paper reports a replicated quantitative study that evaluates the teaching performance of one of these resources, the virtual instrument systems in reality (VISIR) remote laboratory. VISIR, described here, is the most popular remote laboratory for basic analog electronics. This paper hypothesizes that use of a remote laboratory has a positive effect on students' learning process. This report analyzes the effect of the use of VISIR in five different groups of students from two different academic years (2013-2014 and 2014-2015), with three teachers and at two educational levels. The empirical experience focuses on Ohm's Law. The results obtained are reported using a pretest and post-test design. The tests were carefully designed and analyzed, and their reliability and validity were assessed. The analysis of knowledge test question results shows that the post-test scores are higher that the pretest. The difference is significant according to Wilcoxon test (p <; 0.001), and produces a Cohen effect size of 1.0. The VISIR remote laboratory's positive effect on students' learning processes indicates that remote laboratories can produce a positive effect in students' learning if an appropriate activity is used. |
2014 |
Orduña, Pablo; Almeida, Aitor; Lopez-de-Ipiña, Diego; Garcia-Zubia, Javier Learning Analytics on federated remote laboratories: tips and techniques Conference Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2014 IEEE, IEEE, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-4799-3191-0. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: context, educational institutions, Engineering Education, Internet, protocols, Remote laboratories @conference{Orduña2014e, title = {Learning Analytics on federated remote laboratories: tips and techniques}, author = {Pablo Orduña and Aitor Almeida and Diego Lopez-de-Ipiña and Javier Garcia-Zubia}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6826107/}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON.2014.6826107}, isbn = {978-1-4799-3191-0}, year = {2014}, date = {2014-04-05}, booktitle = {Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2014 IEEE}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {A remote laboratory is a software and hardware tool which enables students to use real equipment -located in an educational institution- through the Internet. This way, students can experiment as if they were using the laboratories with their own hands. And, depending on the design, instructors can later see the results of these students. During the last decade, federation protocols to share remote laboratories have emerged. The focus of these protocols is to be make remote laboratories of one institution available in other in an automated manner, through institutional contracts. And these federation protocols usually rely on existing Remote Laboratory Management Systems (RLMS), which usually provide APIs for tracking student usage. At the same time, the interest on Learning Analytics is increasing. Learning Analytics focuses on the measurement and analysis of data about learners in their context. In the particular context of federated remote laboratories, new challenges arise: on the one hand, remote laboratories must be prepared to track insightful information from the student session so as to extract patterns, and on the other hand, the usage of a federated environment requires different degrees of anonymity. This contribution describes the new Learning Analytics dashboard of WebLab-Deusto, detailing what information can be extracted and how the usage of a RLMS simplifies the development of such tools in a federated environment. }, keywords = {context, educational institutions, Engineering Education, Internet, protocols, Remote laboratories}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {conference} } A remote laboratory is a software and hardware tool which enables students to use real equipment -located in an educational institution- through the Internet. This way, students can experiment as if they were using the laboratories with their own hands. And, depending on the design, instructors can later see the results of these students. During the last decade, federation protocols to share remote laboratories have emerged. The focus of these protocols is to be make remote laboratories of one institution available in other in an automated manner, through institutional contracts. And these federation protocols usually rely on existing Remote Laboratory Management Systems (RLMS), which usually provide APIs for tracking student usage. At the same time, the interest on Learning Analytics is increasing. Learning Analytics focuses on the measurement and analysis of data about learners in their context. In the particular context of federated remote laboratories, new challenges arise: on the one hand, remote laboratories must be prepared to track insightful information from the student session so as to extract patterns, and on the other hand, the usage of a federated environment requires different degrees of anonymity. This contribution describes the new Learning Analytics dashboard of WebLab-Deusto, detailing what information can be extracted and how the usage of a RLMS simplifies the development of such tools in a federated environment. |
2013 |
Garaizar, Pablo; Vadillo, Miguel A; Lopez-de-Ipiña, Diego Benefits and Pitfalls of Using HTML5 APIs for Online Experiments and Simulations Conference Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation, IEEE, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-4673-2542-4. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: application programming interface, best practices, Internet, standards @conference{Garaizar2013b, title = {Benefits and Pitfalls of Using HTML5 APIs for Online Experiments and Simulations}, author = {Pablo Garaizar and Miguel A. Vadillo and Diego Lopez-de-Ipiña }, url = {http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/garaizar/papers/IJOE2012-PG-MAV-DLI.pdf}, doi = {10.3991/ijoe.v8iS3.2254}, isbn = {978-1-4673-2542-4}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-01-01}, booktitle = {Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {The most recent advances in the architecture of the Web allow using it as an excellent platform to deliver experiments and simulations over the Internet. However, there are still some challenges related to the animations? accuracy, to user input collection or to real-time communications that have to be accomplished to properly port native application- based experiments and simulations to the Web. The limitations of the standards preceding HTML5 have forced web developers to embed non-HTML objects using a wide range of non-standard plugins and causing an extremely fragmented execution environment where features must be implemented several times in different programming languages to guarantee full compliance with every user-agent. As HTML5 provides a standard -yet fully-featured- environment to develop and execute applications, web user-agents are now more similar to application players than to simple Internet browsers. In this paper we analyze the benefits and pitfalls of these new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), providing examples of both good and bad instances of research-related use.}, keywords = {application programming interface, best practices, Internet, standards}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {conference} } The most recent advances in the architecture of the Web allow using it as an excellent platform to deliver experiments and simulations over the Internet. However, there are still some challenges related to the animations? accuracy, to user input collection or to real-time communications that have to be accomplished to properly port native application- based experiments and simulations to the Web. The limitations of the standards preceding HTML5 have forced web developers to embed non-HTML objects using a wide range of non-standard plugins and causing an extremely fragmented execution environment where features must be implemented several times in different programming languages to guarantee full compliance with every user-agent. As HTML5 provides a standard -yet fully-featured- environment to develop and execute applications, web user-agents are now more similar to application players than to simple Internet browsers. In this paper we analyze the benefits and pitfalls of these new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), providing examples of both good and bad instances of research-related use. |