Teaching Digital Electronics during the COVID-19 Pandemic via a Remote Lab.

Area of Science:

• Engineering Education
• Remote Laboratory Development
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote practical learning solutions for engineering education.
• Traditional face-to-face lab work faced significant challenges due to restrictions.
• The need for accessible, remote practical knowledge acquisition became critical for Brazilian engineering students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the application of engineering project management methods in developing a remote laboratory architecture.
• To create an Internet of Things (IoT) based remote lab for practical engineering education.
• To provide a replicable and reusable open-source solution for remote practical learning.

Main Methods:

• Applied engineering project management phases: application domains, requirement identification, technical solution specification, implementation, and delivery.
• Developed a distributed computing environment integrating student smartphones with IoT devices.
• Ensured the remote lab covered all experiments from the original face-to-face digital electronics course.

Main Results:

• The LabEAD remote lab was developed in six months, offering six digital electronics experiments.
• Over 70% of students preferred the remote lab experience compared to simulations.
• Student project work (specification, development, presentation) was successfully completed within four weeks using the remote infrastructure.

Conclusions:

• The LabEAD project successfully provided remote practical learning opportunities for engineering students.
• The developed IoT remote lab architecture is effective and preferred by students.
• The open-source nature facilitates replication and reuse, addressing pandemic-related educational disruptions.