Real Laboratories for Distance Education

Abstract

Providing distance laboratory-based courses is becoming critical for distance technical education. In this work, we describe remote laboratories in digital system courses. While the hardware is based on widely used programmable logic, the Internet interfaces include those for remote development, testing and debugging as well as the cooperative work environment. Special attention has been paid to the objectivity of evaluating the remote cooperative work. The web tools for project progress evaluation, self- and group- assessment and the automated hardware support are being developed. Previous work consisted mainly of providing simulated environments or prefabricated circuits. The productivity and accessibility of these tools was greatly enhanced by using off-the-shelf hardware, software and networking elements.