Electronic Laboratory On The Internet

The focus of this paper will be on the usage of an electronics laboratory on the Internet as an alternative or in addition to a physical hardware electronics lab. Software simulators, logistics, cost, security, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and usefulness of the marriage will be discussed. Introduction Research was started to discover what support could be given to a sophomore level basic electronics AC/DC class by using remote resources. Some students need more laboratory time to understand concepts. Some students need laboratory time because they have made mistakes on the first attempts. Some students are not able to handle the physical laboratory because of a disability but they can operate a computer. The initial need for an alternative laboratory came from a student that wanted more laboratory time but didn’t have campus time to spend there. The student commuted and was going to school to enhance their job skills and not for a total change in job type or function. The requirement was to find a way to work on a laboratory assignment from their home when the physical laboratory was closed. Distance learning is the process of bringing the classroom to the student. Chemistry classes have been taught using video tapes and chemicals sent to homes. It is possible but expensive to send a well equipped electronic laboratory to an individual home. This would require a multi-meter, AC-DC signal sources, an oscilloscope, a prototype board, and RLC discrete components. It is possible that given a very good video tape walk-through on all of the equipment and each of the laboratory exercises, the student could learn something and that the equipment might survive. Should this plan be approached, considering the cost, the potential to teach electronics is marginal. The opportunity to make mistakes in the presence of someone who can assist in the recovery from those mistakes is a necessary element of the hands-on-laboratory. A laboratory without the possibility of mistakes is worthless. The detailed video that could allow operation of a new piece of equipment would not solve the need for some method of recovery from errors in connections, operation, or theory. This would cause extreme frustration on the part of the student. A physical laboratory with all of the hardware and an instructor would seem to be the best choice. As an alternative, an electronic simulation of the laboratory and a method of communicating with an instructor is being explored. The Internet is being used as the communication link to an instructor. Electronic Workbench and Current Maker are being used as the laboratory simulation. Students may use the simulators while in or out of the physical laboratory. Disabled students need the simulator in the lab. P ge 336.1 Students working in the laboratory after regular hours can find assistance via an Internet link. Laboratory Electronics classes typically require a lecture and laboratory. It has been recognized that lectures are not necessarily the best way to transmit knowledge . Hands-on education in an applied (1) technology program will require participation in a hardware laboratory. If we view the laboratory as a place to make mistakes, see new situations, realize / prove theory, “touch” the problem, or visualize the associated mathematics, we see the lab as a hands-on lecture. The objective in my basic electronics laboratory is to teach the use of equipment so that descriptive parameters of electronic events can be recorded. Lecture time is used to describe parameters and teach the techniques of calculations. Laboratory time is used to measure these parameters and show that the calculations and measurements correlate. Typically the laboratory is supervised by someone who can answer questions or assist in the recovery from mistakes. The laboratory tends to be a walking lecture for the professor and could be improved if everyone could hear and see what each student asks as a personal clarification question. Since the student is engrossed in his team’s work, questions from other students are often lost in background noise. Each laboratory team may need instruction on instrument operation and in circuit theory. When questions from students repeat, we try to address the answer to all students. This is usually only partially successful because of the distractions in the lab and the fact that students are thinking of other problems at the moment. Grouping the questions and answers on an overhead projector may be a method of passing the information to others. Simulators One of the methods used to assist students in laboratory error recovery are electronic simulators. These provide a method by which the student can verify answers and discover where the error was made. Two of the packages, which I have used, tend to focus in different directions. Electronic Workbench is designed to be a computerized workbench simulation. It contains (2) “components” in racks, has “equipment,” and requires “cable” connections to read the parameters of a circuit. Current Maker is an electronics problem generator with a circuit solutions (3)