Comparing A Distance Learning And A Traditional Offering Of An Autonomous Robotics Practicum: Lessons And Observations

Introductory classes in the design and programming of mobile autonomous robots offer entertaining and engaging educational experiences that introduce students to the kinds of openended design problems faced daily by engineers. Nonetheless, these classes often require some prior computer programming experience, which raises the threshold of entry for early-career students who might most benefit from the extra motivation of solving deep, open-ended problems. In previous work, we discussed minimizing dollar cost and maximizing physical access to a robot by creating a WWW/webcam-based infrastructure with open-sourced robot simulation software. In this paper, we present our observations on the relative benefits and drawbacks of offering such practicum courses remotely, in light of our prior experience teaching similar robotics practica both remotely (using our WWW infrastructure) and in a traditional inperson laboratory setting. We compare and contrast examples of student work, including criteria for richness of interpersonal interaction, quality of engineered artifacts, and overall quality of student documentation and journals. We conclude with concrete suggestions to further improve online practicum courses in general, as well as a plan to test these suggestions in future offerings of our own online robotics practicum.