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Session 2359

A Signal Processing Laboratory Employing On-Line Teaming for Remote Experiments

Keith E. Holbert, Mihaela M. Albu

Arizona State University/University Politehnica Bucharest

Abstract

The impact of distance learning (DL) is increasing daily. Such an educational delivery mode intends to serve the desire of both students and their instructors for scheduling freedom. Further, engineering education also has a costly component that is not directly time related: the use of sophisticated equipment. A subset of DL efforts is that of web-based laboratory experiments. Most investigators are delivering experiments via the Internet, but targeted to a single on-line user. Presented here is a different approach that stimulates teaming, even when simultaneous remote users are geographically dispersed. Students do not share the same physical location, but rather a virtual one: a multi-user laboratory platform. Within the paper, this philosophical approach and the implementation details (including chat, video, archiving, hardware and software platforms) are explained. One of the main advantages offered by a virtual laboratory is that students from all over the world can use the equipment located in a particular physical laboratory. The particular hardware employed here is organized around a spectrum analyzer.

1. Introduction

Distance learning (DL) is already part of many university programs, and its impact is increasing daily. Such an educational delivery mode intends to serve the desire of both students and their instructors for increased scheduling freedom. Presently there is a technology gap between non- laboratory and laboratory classes, because the lecture-only courses were the first addressed by distance learning (since the conversion is more straightforward). Further, engineering education also has a costly component that is not directly time related: the use of sophisticated (and oftentimes expensive) equipment. A subset of DL efforts is that of web-based laboratory experiments.

This paper first examines the work of others in establishing remote instrumentation-based (versus simulation) experiments. There are many examples of simulation-based remote laboratories, but few cases of using actual hardware. Most investigators are delivering experiments via the Internet, but targeted to a single on-line user. Motivated by perceived shortcomings of present approaches, we propose a different approach that stimulates teaming, even when simultaneous remote users are geographically dispersed. Students do not share the same physical location, but rather a virtual one: a multi-user laboratory platform. In addition, we propose that web-based laboratory experiments can be more economical. Within the paper, this

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Albu, M., & Holbert, K. (2003, June), A Signal Processing Laboratory Employing Online Teaming For Remote Experiments Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11681