Postgraduate students' involvement in the development of a remote laboratory for undergraduate teaching

Abstract

It has been widely acknowledged that the maximum learning outcome is achieved if the theory is supported by practical experimental work. Many virtual laboratories have been developed to help students gain the understanding of new concepts by simulating physical systems. Although simulation is a very useful and convenient teaching tool, it is widely perceived as a poor replacement for real experimental work in an engineering laboratory. Until recently, very little has been done to employ the new technology in order to make the experimental work more accessible to students. Last year, a team of four academics from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of South Australia (UniSA), Adelaide, Australia, was awarded one of the three annual Teaching and Learning Improvement Grants of $40,000. The project aimed to develop a remote laboratory called NetLab that would allow students to perform experimental work on real laboratory equipment via the Internet from any distant location. This paper presents the advantages of involving postgraduate students in the development of the system as they created a very friendly working environment where they were able to develop their technical and teamworking skills.