A scheduling system for shared online laboratory resources

Online educational laboratories are increasingly deployed in traditional on-campus as well as Web-based distance-learning classes around the world. Recently, various educational institutions have attempted to leverage their online laboratory developments by broadly sharing them across institutional boundaries. While virtual experiments represent scalable software simulations, hardware-based remote experiments can only be used by one person or group of persons at a time. This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of a scheduling system for shared online laboratory resources, which can be employed to coordinate reservations of usage time for multiple geographically dispersed users. This scheduling system facilitates various priority levels for user requests, thus allowing different modes of usage, such as experimental demonstrations during a live class by an instructor and experiments carried out either individually by one user or collaboratively by multiple users. This software module can also be integrated into a more general resource management system, which enables the standardized description of and efficient search for online resources. Collectively, such tools have the potential for leading to fundamental changes in engineering and science laboratory education.

[1]  Andrzej Maziewski,et al.  Remote Teaching Experiments on Magnetic Domains in Thin Films , 2007 .

[2]  Jorge Pomares,et al.  A virtual laboratory for teaching robotics , 2003 .

[3]  Yaoye Li,et al.  Classification of and search for online laboratory resources using a coding approach , 2007, 2007 37th Annual Frontiers In Education Conference - Global Engineering: Knowledge Without Borders, Opportunities Without Passports.

[4]  Sven K. Esche,et al.  An Architecture for Real-time Remote Laboratories , 2007 .

[5]  Ingvar Gustavsson,et al.  Remote Operation and Control of Traditional Laboratory Equipment , 2006, Int. J. Online Eng..

[6]  Anup Kumar Gogoi,et al.  Remote Communication Engineering Experiments Through Internet , 2006, Int. J. Online Eng..

[7]  H. Artail,et al.  Remote lab experiments models: A comparative study , 2006 .

[8]  Jim Henry,et al.  Modern Engineering Laboratories at a Distance , 2003 .

[9]  Jeffrey V. Nickerson,et al.  Constructing reality: A study of remote, hands-on, and simulated laboratories , 2007, TCHI.

[10]  Srinivas Palanki,et al.  Simulation of Control of a CSTR Process , 2003 .

[11]  Sven K. Esche,et al.  A Virtual Laboratory On Fluid Mechanics , 2006 .

[12]  Sven K. Esche,et al.  A Web Services Approach for Sharing Remote Laboratory Resources , 2006 .

[13]  James Trevelyan,et al.  Lessons learned from 10 years experience with remote laboratories , 2004 .

[14]  Sven K. Esche,et al.  A Framework for Sharing Online Laboratory Resources , 2007 .