Content-rich, Interactive Online Laboratory Systems
Aziz, E.-S., Esche, S. K. & Chassapis, C.
Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 61-79, 2009.
Abstract
Online learning environments are rapidly becoming viable options for providing students with a bridge from theoretical concepts to practical engineering applications.
They represent collections of integrated tools that provide a delivery mechanism for rich learning content, advanced assessment capabilities as well as affordable access to a wide range of resources.
This paper describes a state-of-the-art approach for developing Web-based educational environments using open source tools.
Such environments have been used at Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT) for a number of years to provide undergraduate engineering students with a comprehensive laboratory experience based on content-rich and flexible remote and virtual laboratory experiments.
These Web-based educational tools were developed using various open source programming languages (i.e. PHP, Perl, Python, VRML, Java) and operating systems (i.e. Linux) and free software application (i.e. Apache, MySQL).
As discussed in this paper, these open source components form a powerful combination for the cost-efficient development, implementation and sharing of Web-based virtual experimentation systems.