Design and Development of an Internet Based Physical Laboratory Course within an Undergraduate Program

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Engineering-Engineering Technology (58) The project is designing and developing an Internet based introductory digital electronics laboratory for engineering technology students. The project is using an Internet based facility where laboratory experiments, manufacturing processes, and industrial equipment are available for operation and control. The "hands-on" laboratory for distance learning provides students with an experience that is more like a traditional laboratory and is superior to simulation techniques. The project is identifying essential introductory electronics digital laboratory experiments that are being reconfigured into five independent modules for an on-line delivery that is remotely controlled. Modules that are being developed include logic circuits and gates; design and development of half-adder, full-adder, counter, and shift register; and design of digital circuits. Multiple experiments can be simultaneously accessed. To accomplish this goal, the project team is creating a suitable electronic platform that will hold electronic laboratory components, an interfacing system between the switching mechanism and a PC, a graphical user interface (GUI), and a Java-based software module that interacts between the GUI and the Internet. This approach is providing other investigators with a methodology that they can adapt to create remote Internet laboratories. Assessment of student learning is being conducted by comparing students who take the traditional laboratory and the students who take this remote laboratory. The nature of the software interface of the system is making it feasible to access existing commercially available course offering systems through URL links. The material is being disseminated through a website that is being maintained throughout the project.