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Remote laboratory

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This article is about the use of telecommunications in conducting experiments. For India's virtual labs projectl, see Virtual Labs (India).

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Remote laboratory (also known as online laboratory, remote workbench) is the use of telecommunications to remotely conduct real (as opposed to virtual) experiments, at the physical location of the operating technology, whilst the scientist is utilizing technology from a separate geographical location. Remote laboratory comprehends one or more remote experiments.^[1]

Contents

• 1 Benefits
• 2 Disadvantages
• 3 Future direction
• 4 References
• 5 Related pages
• 6 External links

The benefits of remote laboratories are predominantly in engineering education:^[2]

Benefits

• Relax time constraints, adapting to pace of each student, if there was insufficient time in lab
• Relax geographical constraints, disregarding the physical locality of the student
• Economies of scale, as sharing labs allows sharing of large fixed costs of traditional buildings
• Improve quality of experiment, as it can be repeated to clarify doubtful measurements in lab
• Improve effectiveness, as student may improve effectiveness of time spent at lab by rehearsal
• Improved safety and security, as no risk of catastrophic failure

Researchers from the Labshare describe the advantages as being:

• Increasing accessibility to laboratories by a factor of 4 within 3 years, since current lab utilization is less than 10%
• Decrease fixed and variable expenditure by 50%, since faculty budget spends between 15-40% on lab infrastructure and personnel, around $400m per year
• Improve learning objectives and outcomes to support better learning
• Enhance sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience
• Reduce start-up costs of laboratories

This allows for economies of scale production.

Another benefit is that this technology can be integrated into Moodle,^[3] which is probably the most used Learning Management System around the world.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages differ depending on the type of remote laboratory and the topic area. The general disadvantages compared to a proximal (hands on) laboratory are:

• Lack of hands on trouble shooting and debugging experience.
• Lack of equipment setup experience.

Biology Education Implications

Remote laboratories can aid those pursuing higher education within the field of Biology through the use of technological advancements and modern simulation techniques to carry out experiments in both teaching and research settings.

Introductory Biology

Students enrolled in Undergraduate Biology programs can benefit from the introduction of remote laboratories in first year biology courses. The implementation of optimal remote laboratories significantly increased students' performance in the biology course when comparing to those who opted to the traditional "in-class" learning style. The idea suggests that online education creates an ecosystem for greater percentage of interactions with professors and teaching assistants.

North Dakota State University's WWWIC (World Wide Web Instructional Committee) launched a pilot initiative called the Virtual Cell Project which highlights these following mandates for improvement in Biology Education:

1. Current biology laboratories are usually rigidly structured by laboratory outlines/outcomes/procedures which are deemed inflexible; laboratories should migrate towards a more interactive, experimental experience.
2. Under the assumption that laboratories follow the guidelines of hypothesis-centric, problem/solution outcomes, the university must invest in higher degree apparatus and resources to replicate modern experiments. Remote laboratories can solve this issue.
3. Direct benefits towards active learning in biology; the utilization of remote laboratories tends to be budget-efficient and can cultivate such learning environment for students.

Microbiology

The use of Cloud experimentation (derivative of cloud computing) alongside domain-specific equipment (Biotic Processing Units – BPU, a Stanford University biotechnology project) creates an effective tool for remote microbiology research. The goal of cloud experimentation is to allow users to view and provide feedback to remote researchers through web/forum servers in real-time.

Web servers create the baseline for the experiment user interface (equipment synchronization, specimen manipulation etc.) Forum servers deal with social networking services (direct line of communication with researcher). A combination of the servers produces a research experience that is not affected by geographical distance of graduate researchers.

The core of this immersive experience consists of the following:

1.     Microcontroller

2.     Cloud Computing

3.     BPU

4.     Backend Servers

5.     User Input

Anatomy

To assist students in understanding Systemic Human Anatomy, the implementation of online laboratory utilizes Blackboard Collaborate (product of Blackboard Inc.) that merges face-to-face instructor interaction and live laboratory simulations. Blackboard Collaborate provides cross-platform compatibility to view anatomy simulations whether its via real-time video feed of cadaver manipulation, 3D virtual anatomical models or reference to 2D atlas.

Instructors must consider the following to assess Blackboard Collaborate feasibility within their undergraduate anatomy programs.

1. Quality of Virtual Models
2. Volumetric Data
3. Manipulation of Virtual Models
4. Program Functionality
5. Cost Effectiveness

Ecology and Evolution

Experimental Laboratory Systems (ELS) are primarily used to assess theoretical predictions on Ecological and Evolutionary Systems. A combination of three cross-platform software products creates the backbone of ELS.

1. ImageJ
2. EB Image in R
3. Python and SciPy Image Libraries

ELS provides researchers the tools to understand complex eco-evolutionary processes, feedback loops, and behavioural analysis. Such experiments are only limited to the processing capability of the remote computing device (i.e. Home Computer and its corresponding Network).

Due to the nature of experiements that require ELS, image analysis can be dependent on Internal VIdeo Card (commonly knowns as Graphics Card). The distinction between Dedicated and Integrated Video Cards must comply with the university software compatibility.

Future direction

Current system capabilities include:

• Online session booking, utilizing a database and online interface
• Authentication to satisfy security requirements
• Desktop, generalized screen for chat, emoticon, time limit, bandwidth limit
• Live lab camera which allows panning, tilting, zooming, showing, hiding, refresh
• Circuit builder (this is just simulative)
• Function generator (this is just simulative)
• Digital multimeter (this is just simulative)
• Oscilloscope (this is just simulative)