Engaging students with remote labs using an active learning pedagogy
Engaging students with remote labs using an active learning pedagogy
Dr Suzanne Groothuijsen and Antoine van den Beemt
What is the idea?
Labs are an essential part of engineering education. They are a form of experiential learning with the twofold aim to engage students and promote active transfer from theory to practice. In education on machine control techniques, students conduct lab experiments in which they have to control, for example, valves in a system of three interconnected fluid tanks, the position of a metal ball in an electromagnetic field, or the movements of a robotic arm. The past decade saw an increasing move from physical on-campus labs to online, i.e. virtual and remote, labs (Grodotzki et al., 2018). Virtual labs deliver experiments in a virtual environment through simulations; remote labs provide online access to physical labs to conduct experiments with real-world equipment (Bhute et al., 2021).
Following from the specific characteristics of online labs, reconsideration of teaching and learning activities is necessary to promote and retain student engagement and consequent transfer from theory to practice. A remote lab assignment for experiments with machine control techniques in higher engineering education was developed with the aim of promoting students’ engagement with the remote lab. The lab assignment is based on principles of active learning and consists of a specific order of activities to promote engagement.
Why this idea?
A major advantage of virtual and remote labs is that they are accessible to students at any time and from any place (Bhute et al., 2021). For students, this creates opportunities to conduct lab experiments from anywhere, whenever and as often as they want, at their own pace. For teachers, online labs create new opportunities to include lab activities in their education. Overall, virtual and remote labs create new and more opportunities for lab education where opportunities for experimentation in traditional labs are limited or non-existent, for example following limitations in terms of time, space and available lab equipment.
Available evidence shows that engagement with online labs contributes to students’ learning outcomes (Broisin et al., 2017; Morgan et al., 2012; Post et al., 2019; Viegas et al., 2018). This suggests that it is worthwhile to stimulate students’ engagement with an online lab. However, the major advantage of time and place independent experimentation simultaneously poses a serious challenge to students’ engagement with virtual and remote labs. In contrast to traditional physical labs, the innovative online labs do not have a designated time and place to conduct experiments. Students can access virtual and remote labs 24/7 from anyplace. As a result they also lack the presence of teachers or lab assistants that can support and motivate students during lab experiments.
Building on existing lab pedagogies and principles of active learning, a remote lab assignment was designed to su