Access to an instructional control laboratory experiment through the World Wide Web

The software for "second best to being there", a distance learning application that allows a remotely-located user to conduct experiments in the Control Engineering Laboratory at Oregon State University, has been redesigned and implemented in the Java/sup TM/ programming language. This permits the experiments to be run via the World Wide Web. Access requires only a basic Web browser that runs Java and is possible from most computer platforms. User authentication, security, and automatic logging of student laboratory activity have been added, and the user interface design improved, to turn this demonstration product into courseware.