Remote laboratories in STEM education : Strategies and methods for implementation

During a substantial part of their time young people of today live in an online world. The medial evolution has also influenced education and today much research work concerns the transfer of the physical world into the online one. One example is laboratories in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education that are available in online rooms. They enable students to be at home in front of a computer and on-screen watch and operate the physical equipment in the laboratory at school. It is a general agreement that laboratory lessons are necessary in subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology. Physical experiments provide a great way for students to learn more about nature and its possibilities as well as limitations. Experimental work can be provided by laboratories in three different categories; 1) hands-on, 2) remote and 3) simulated. This thesis addresses how to implement remote laboratories as a teaching methodology. It presents examples of upper secondary school students’ experimental work and their evaluation of remote laboratories regarding usability, sense of reality and technical problems. In order to gain a better understanding of the situation and needs regarding laboratory activities in an upper secondary school, eight physics teachers were interviewed at six different schools. Furthermore, 165 upper secondary school students answered a questionnaire survey regarding subject preferences, program choices, views on technology and self-ability, and their approach to technology and technology-related situations. This thesis also describes another education approach where academia, industry, and research institutes cooperate around the development and implementation of master level courses. The pedagogical approach utilized in these master level courses has been flipped classroom. In this thesis, the usage of remotely controlled laboratories in physics education at an upper secondary school and a university are addressed. The main objective of this project is to investigate the feasibility of using the Virtual Instruments System in Reality (VISIR) technology for remotely controlled laboratories, developed at Blekinge Institute of Technology, in upper secondary schools. The laboratory setup can be shared and utilized almost 24/7, thus reducing the associated costs and eliminating time restrictions