Pedagogical evaluation of remote laboratories in eMerge project

This study investigates opportunities for conducting electrical engineering experiments via the Internet rather than in an actual laboratory. Eighty-four French students of electrical engineering (semester 1, 2004) at Bordeaux University 1 participated in practical courses. Half of the students performed experiments in a laboratory while the other half performed them via the Internet. Questionnaires were used to obtain students' views as to acceptance, usability, learning effect and usefulness in studying and vocational terms. The learning effect was also measured by a knowledge test. The results show that conducting experiments via the Internet is just as successful as conducting experiments in an actual laboratory. The experiments performed score well for usability and moderately for acceptance and usefulness in studying and vocational terms. Greater use of webcams is suggested as a way of improving acceptance, as this allows more direct contact to the experiments.