Online Engineering Labs:

Keith Williams Director eSTEeM(MCT)

Open University UK Sept 2012

Why not?

Interactive Screen Experiments –

Photo-realistic ‘point-of-view’ recordings of real experiments.

“Results” :

Derived by algorithm

Banked real measurements

Why not?Remote Access Laboratories –

Complex equipment routinely controlled through digital interfaces, eg mass spectrometers , astronomical telescopes

Lab class equipment using Labview interfaces

Purpose built rigs

Why not?• 3-D Immersive Environments –

Games technologies that enable students to explore and interact with equipment

SLOODLE developments

Why not?

• MegaLab Experiments - Investigations in which

large numbers of distributed students contribute

data to mass observation exercises

eg to map national traffic noise, pollution levels.

What’s happening where?

• Australasia: Labshare http://www.labshare.edu.au/• Asia; India, National Mission Education

through ICT. www.vlab.co.in ,

http://www2.amrita.edu/centers/create

• Europe; Library of Labs http://www.library‐of‐labs.com

»Global online Lab Consortium http://online-lab.org/

Nearer home

Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory

Launch phase (£1M + continued OU support)

One year

Platform – open, scaleable,

Existing applications adapted

Examples of new approaches

Research established

Inquiry, learning analytics

Illustrations