2006 ASEE Southeast Section Conference The Feasibility of Online Laboratories

Abstract – Higher education is a market economy in which students seek value. State universities and colleges have long been bargains. However, online/distance learning can be delivered from anywhere on the planet to everyone where they reside. The computer hardware, software, and communication infrastructure including fiber-optic cable and communication satellites provide fast communication between computers around the world. Thus, there is a powerful economic and convenience incentive to utilize online/distance learning. The effect on education is that many courses are now available online from virtually all educational institutions. However, there is a barrier to technical online/distance learning – laboratories. Funding for laboratory equipment continues to be a problem for engineering and technology education. Replacing old lab equipment is difficult because it is often not research equipment. There are two general types of laboratories – skill labs and knowledge labs. Soldering an integrated circuit onto a circuit board requires hands-on motor skills and hand to eye coordination. Just knowledge of how to do it is insufficient. However, many technical labs do not require learning a skill and are information transfer experiences. If a student misses an “information transfer ” lab, a good video tape of the lab would be a reasonable substitute. Could the video tape be used for all students? Economically, the benefit to cost ratio would be very large. Modern laboratory equipment at private labs or other institutions could be used and the experience could actually be better than a face-to-face laboratory on outdated equipment. In addition, labs could be presented using equipment not available at the institution. Thus, online/distance laboratory experiments using audio-video and other more sophisticated information transfer methods can substitute for some laboratories and improve the variety of available experiments