PAPER
BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
Bringing Remote Labs and
Mobile Learning together
http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v7i3.2915
D. May, C. Terkowsky, T. Haertel and C. Pleul
TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
Abstract - Within (remote) laboratories in Engineering
Education students have the chance to do own experiments
and by that gain own experiences in their learning process-
es. Apart from technical questions, one of the most intri-
guing aspects in this context is how students can document
their learning process and show to others (teachers and/or
other students) what they have achieved. Another aspect
concerns the question of learner’s mobility during the learn-
ing process. If the laboratory can be accessed remotely, why
do we constrain learners in their level of liberty by forcing
them to sit in front of a fixed computer to use a location-
independent environment for experimentation? Therefore,
rendering this environment available for mobile devices is
the logical consequence. Furthermore, integrating mobile
devices into the course’s technical environment means to
take a whole new approach to the teaching and learning
process itself. It is especially a question of embedding mobile
devices into the users’ workflow (or better “learn flow”)
rather than a simple question of accessibility. The following
article features an example of how remote laboratories can
be linked with mobile devices and e-portfolios, thus creating
a unique learning environment helping learners to docu-
ment their personal learning processes and to exchange
them with others while at the same time being flexible in
means of time and place. This combination of topics has
been realized within one subtask of the project “ELLI –
Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Educa-
tion” at TU Dortmund University.
Index Terms—engineering education, e-portfolios, mobile
learning, remote laboratories, tele-operated laboratories
I. INTRODUCTION TO TELE OPERATED LABORATORIES
AS A PLACE FOR LEARNING
Once having graduated, former engineering students
will work on solving real problems creatively and they
will work with real technical equipment- regardless if they
head for a career in a company or in the academic sector.
But do these people get into contact with this equipment
during their studies? Most of their time engineering stu-
dents are sitting in the lecture hall following the presenta-
tion in which the professor explains to them the course’s
content. In other words: The students try to understand
and memorize what they have to know in order to pass the
course’s exam. In “classical” lectures there is only little
space and time for the students to understand the big
picture of the subject and the inherent research process
with its questions, research activities and result interpreta-
tion. Hence, not few lectures feature results of research
activities without providing their greater context or the
research questions which were important at the beginning
of the research process. Even if a professor would like to
do so, in many cases there is simply not enough time for
it. One possibility to change this fact could be the use of
laboratories in teaching and to implement experiential [1]
and research based learning in the teaching and learning
process [2]. To bring the students in contact with laborato-
ry equipment means bringing them in contact with the
technical equipment of their future profession and giving
them the chance to develop central technical competences
for the technical part of their future career. In addition to
the technical competences, for us the students’ work in
laboratories offers the opportunity to add aspects of
• systemic thinking
• problem definition
• responsibility
• innovation
The work presented in this paper will base on the
achievements of the PeTEX project, will deploy its tech-
nological infrastructure and will optimize it. By this we
will extend the possibilities innovate the existing concept.
The main conception of the further development is the
combination of the topics virtual learning environment,
mobile learning and creativity. All this work will be car-
ried out as a subtask of the new project ELLI–Excellent
Teaching and Learning in Engineering Education
which is funded by the German Ministry of Research and
Education until 2016.
A. Constraints and solutions for the use of laboratories
in education
A very important factor that hinders the use of laborato-
ries by students in teaching is the cost of such equipment
and the organizational effort of co-locating students,
equipment and supervisors. Especially small universities
often face the situation that they neither can afford all the
laboratory equipment nor can allow the students to use it
by themselves as it might get damaged. This means in
many cases that lab experiments, if the professor tries to
integrate them into the lecture, are either only shown via
video or that the faculty’s staff shows the equipment dur-
ing guided tours through the laboratory. This means a real
dilemma for modern engineering education.
One possible way out if this dilemma—wanting the
students to develop technical competences on the one
hand and having them done experiments but not being
able to use the equipment on the other hand—are tele-
operated (called “remote”) and virtual laboratories. With
them the laboratory equipment can be used by different
universities from different places or very risky experi-
ments can be done completely virtually.
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B. PeTEX – Platform for eLearning and Telemetric
Experimentation
Important research on the use of remote laboratories in
teaching engineering aspects was done by the universities
of Dortmund (Germany), Palermo (Italy), and Stockholm
(Sweden) within the project PeTEX – Platform for e-
learning and Tele-operative Experimentation [3], [4]. The
technical part of PeTEX was carried out at TU Dortmund
University by its Institute of Forming Technology and
Lightweight Construction (IUL, Prof. Tekkaya) and inte-
grated in close co-operation with the Center for Higher
Education (former Center for Research on Higher Educa-
tion & Faculty Development, Prof. Wildt) [5], [6]. Within
this project comprehensive research on using remote
laboratories in teaching was carried out. Therefore a net-
work of three prototypes in the field of manufacturing
technology was developed [7], [8].
Our work’s overall context is the implementation of re-
search-based and experiential learning by using laborato-
ries in higher engineering education at universities. As
explained above, our aims are that students get into con-
tact with real technical equipment, understand the greater
context of research and gain technical competences for
their future work. In this context we will proceed as fol-
lows:
• Considering that laboratory equipment is expensive
and some experiments even can be dangerous for
students, we will explain why and how remote labor-
atories should be integrated in teaching. (chapter II)
• Up until today a weakness of such teaching ap-
proaches is the need for an open designed learning
environment in which the students can act inde-
pendently while at the same time can be guided
through the learning process. We will work out how
e-portfolios can help in this context and how they can
be used to document and reflect on the learning pro-
cess. (chapter III)
• In a final step we will change over to the topic mo-
bile learning. In order to support the students’ learn-
ing process as much as possible and to leave them the
choice of using the software virtually every time and
from everywhere we will open the software for the
use from mobile devices such as smart phones and
tablet computers. By showing different scenarios we
explain how the use of mobile devices can support
the learning process significantly and how they can
help to promote creativity. (chapter IV)
• At the end of the paper we will explain shortly what
our future steps will be in order to put our plan into
action. (chapter V)
II. LEARNING WITH REMOTE LABORATORIES
Learning through experiments in general has become a
central part in modern higher engineering education [9].
Implementing experiential learning and research-based
learning by the active use of laboratories in higher engi-
neering education by students is a teaching and learning
concept which supports the constructivist approach. The
learning arrangement is designed from the learners’ point
of view because the user is the one to design his learning
process and “walk” through the learning objects while
constructing his knowledge inside an active process.
As mentioned in the introduction, the students have the
opportunity to get into contact with the physical equip-
ment of their future professional life as well as to make
practical and theoretical experiences with equipment,
methods and processes of empirical research by the use of
laboratory equipment in teaching. That is why doing
technical experiments in a laboratory is an adequate way
of applying, enhancing and testing knowledge the students
have acquired during the lecture and developing central
competences by doing so.
A. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle
The use of laboratories in teaching and learning environ-
ments can basically be traced back to understanding of
learning explained by Kolb: “Learning is the process
whereby knowledge is created through the transformation
of experience” [1]. Kolb states that learning involves the
acquisition of abstract concepts which can be applied
flexibly in a range of situations. According to Kolb’s
theory, the impetus for the development of new concepts
is provided by new experiences. Kolb's concept of experi-
ence is defined in his experiential learning theory consist-
ing of a four-phase cycle in which the learner traces all the
foundations of his learning process:
• Concrete Experience: A new experience of situation
is faced or a reinterpretation of an existing experi-
ence takes place.
• Reflective Observation: The new experience is ana-
lyzed, evaluated and interpreted. Of particular im-
portance are any inconsistencies between the experi-
ence and the understanding of it.
• Abstract Conceptualization: Reflection gives rise to a
new idea or a modification of an existing abstract
concept.
• Active Experimentation: Transforming the new ab-
stract concept into operation, the learner interacts to
the world around him to check what emerges.
In his four-step learning cycle Kolb explains that at the
beginning of each learning process there is a real learner’s
experience (step 1) which is followed by a reflective ob-
servation (step 2). From that point on the learner tries to
conceptualize what he has experienced (step 3), starts to
experiment actively (step 4) and generates new experienc-
es. This is the start of a new cycle. With every loop—from
the simple to the complex—the student enhances his
experiences. Thus, the learning cycle transforms learning
activities into a helix of experience-based knowledge,
skills and competences.
B. The learning process in the light of research
processes
Since its beginnings university always has been a place
not only for learning but for research, too. In order to be
more concrete, at university these two processes always
were thought and implemented in unison, hence they
inspired be each other. For both learning and researching,
explicit steps can be defined which describe the process’
sequences. For the learning process we already explained
the sequences as mentioned above by showing Kolb’s
learning cycle. For the research process a first approach
can be to define the following steps: Make a practical
experience, define the research question, implement re-
search activities and interpret the results. If you now look
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
Figure 1. Synchronized learning and research process [16]
at the learning process as well as the research process and
define both as a circle, you will find discover that both can
be synchronized. Wildt [10] did this and showed clearly
that very similar steps can be identified (see Fig. 1).
Surprisingly this fact has never had a severe impact on the
way teaching is done at universities. As mentioned above,
especially in engineering studies classical lectures are the
most often used teaching method. This is the fact although
there are some alternatives, which would permit a combi-
nation of learning- as well as research processes.
C. Research based learning
Research based or experiential teaching and learning in
higher education is one adequate way of implementing
learner centered teaching. In addition to that Herrington
and Oliver worked out the importance of an authentic
learning environment for a successful learning process
[11]. According to them, this authentic learning environ-
ment can be achieved by teaching and learning activities
in laboratories in which students can face a real context
and carry out real activities. By connecting the actions in
laboratories in a next step to real problems—e.g. from
current research or from the industry—the students are
able to go the whole way from the question at the begin-
ning of an experiment to the final use of the results and
can experience the relevance of their work.
D. Active experimentation using tele-operated equipment
Employing remote and virtual laboratories in teaching
provides a vast range of opportunities to implement expe-
riential learning in the field of mechanical engineering
following the path of research-based learning [5]. In the
following we will explain how a remote laboratory was
put into practice. We noticed a discussion within the
community whether remote labs can and/or should replace
real laboratories. This may not be our concern in this
paper as we do not want to advocate for or against one or
the other laboratory solution without looking at its cir-
cumstances. There are and there always will be situations
in which the use of real or remote laboratories makes
more or less sense than the other.
One example in the context of manufacturing technolo-
gy, namely forming technology, can be to use the remote
lab concept for the purpose of material characterization.
This could be offered in addition to a conventional lecture
or in order to enhance traditional hands-on labs during the
phase in which students prepare themselves for the lab or
when they would like to rework some of the test steps
while writing the lab report. Following the approach based
on Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, students can deal
with basic concepts of metal forming during the lecture to
test and see what they discussed in class by doing experi-
ments on their own in order to create their own knowledge
as well as using the remote experiential equipment. An-
other opportunity could be that students are given a real
engineering problem related to material behavior. They
are asked to work on this problem in small groups by
planning and carrying out experiments using tele-operated
equipment. Finally they have to present their explorations
and and suggestions on how they would deal with the
problem [5]. In order to support this entire process and
especially the step of “active experimentation” an appro-
priate level of clear interaction and feedback needs to be
integrated to the tele-operated experimental setup. In the
PeTEX project a complete experimental setup (Fig. 2) has
been moved to a new level using innovative engineering
design, modern concepts of automation, measurement
technology and robotics as shown in Fig. 3.
All aspects have been brought together by developing a
clear and interactive user interface providing real time
feedback of the running experiment. In Fig. 4 the screen
for the uniaxial tensile test is shown. While using the live
camera stream (1), users can investigate the surrounding
test apparatus, e. g. sensors or clamping devices. After-
wards the learner initiates the preparation of the experi-
ment (2), using the integrated 6-axis robot to select and
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
check an appropriate specimen. To freely configure the
experiment, relevant test parameters (3) can be filled in.
When the test is started (4) the robot positions the speci-
men to the fully automated clamping device. The devel-
oped innovative concept of the fully automated clamping
process and parallel measuring of relevant values is men-
tioned in [3].
Also during the test, a high level of interaction is provided
to the user by manipulating the camera view or pausing
and continuing the test. Pausing the test—which means
the load is not further increased since that moment—
causes a reaction by the material. This phenomenon is
graphically visible in the real time diagram (6) and also in
the real time test data at the header bar (5). Comparisons
with prior test data are available within the data base (7)
Figure 2. Testing machine
Figure 3. Robot positioning a specimen
and the graph (6). After the experiment is finished, learn-
ers are provided with a data package including all results
for further analysis and investigation.
Additionally the entire tele-operated experimental envi-
ronment was made available with the learning content
management system Moodle. Within Moodle, we con-
ducted the alignment of four, for us elementary, areas for
this kind of socio-technical system. This socio-technical
alignment for tele-operated laboratory learning consists of
the adjustment of the technical, didactical, media and
social level. By integrating the tensile test environment
into Moodle, this socio-technical alignment was put into a
usable as well as flexible environment.
An often quoted challenge to such open designed learn-
ing concepts is that it turns out that a very sophisticated
concept is needed for teachers to enable them to document
and evaluate the learners’ behavior and achievements
during the learning process using a virtual laboratory. It is
obvious that such a concept requires different systems for
the instructor to accompany the learner through the learn-
ing process and—above all—to evaluate the achieved
learning outcome. The following passages present the
future thoughts concerning a concept for the learning
process’ documentation in context with the use of remote
laboratories in combination with e-portfolios. This will be
followed by explanations on the use of mobile devices in
this context.
III. E-PORTFOLIOS AND THEIR USE IN EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING
In addition to the open learning concept which is sup-
ported by the use of laboratory equipment in general, the
use of remote laboratories within the PeTEX project was
designed for the usage by a very heterogeneous learner
group composed of students and professionals [12]. This
means that the software for the learning process’ docu-
mentation as well must be designed very open in order to
prevent system inherent barriers for different learner
types. In this context it should be mentioned that the Pe-
TEX system intends to merge higher education and the
workplace as well as to create an international learning
community not being limited to one institute. These 3
aspects—documenting the learning process , building a
Figure 4. Interface to the tele-operated experiment [4]
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learners’ community and connecting the students’ work
with their future professional work—are requirements the
software has to address and accomplish (see Fig. 5).
Software which seems to be adequate and which is fre-
quently discussed in similar contexts is the e-portfolio
[13]. E-portfolios are based on the general idea of portfo-
lios, referring to the idea of collecting different kinds of
documents in a folder in order to reflect personal learning
processes and to exchange them with others [14]. E-
portfolios support the same, but they are made online and
provide the collection of different kinds of data like texts,
tables, photos, videos and audio [15]. E-portfolio software
could be added technically to the Moodle environment—
which is already used in the PeTEX context— very easily
because an online e-portfolio application especially de-
signed for Moodle already exists by the name of Ma-
hoodle. In the following we will explain why e-portfolios
fulfill the three main requirements in the new PeTEX
context [6].
A. E-Portfolio as a learning process documentation
The user, regardless whether in higher or in profession-
al further education, can arrange all the data he wishes to
document or to show in different ways in order to create
his own portfolio just like his personal page in any social
network. He can present experiments and its results, show
photos from the test set-up, explain his thoughts on the
research and so on. Additionally, he can permit other
users, learners or teachers, to view his e-portfolio. By
creating such an e-portfolio the learner can document his
own learning and research process and start reflecting on
the experiments he does during his research-based learn-
ing process [16]. This reflection is an important aspect as
it corresponds to his personal learning circle. Especially
for students the e-portfolio can serve as a means of orien-
tation or checkpoint in the own field of research [1], [16],
[17]. By the same way the teacher can evaluate the learn-
er’s action by regarding a learners’ portfolio. Because
other persons are able to see the collection in the portfolio
it can be said that it is not only a way of documenting the
learning process but as well a way to communicate it so
that a collaborative learning process can be achieved. This
leads to the next use of E-Portfolios in the PeTEX context.
B. E-Portfolio as a learning community software
Considering the e-portfolio as software for documenta-
tion and evaluation is just one application of the system. A
constructive enrichment by using e-portfolios is the com-
munity building. Every author of an e-portfolio is able to
allow other users to view various parts of his portfolio as
well as to view others’ portfolios. This means that learners
who are doing experiments in the PeTEX system and
filling their e-portfolios have the chance to get into contact
with each other via the portfolio software. They can see
what others are especially interested in, start discussing
about it, give comments and help each other in case of an
emerging problem during the experiential learning pro-
cess. Along the course of this interaction, a specialized
community on remote laboratories evolves within the
PeTEX context.
C. E-Portfolio as a bridge between the university and the
workplace
The PeTEX system is designed for the usage in higher
education and workplace learning. This means in a first
Figure 5. Requirements for a software system documenting the learn-
ing process in remote laboratories
step that both user groups can use the e-portfolios in the
explained way of use. A further future thought is to use
the e-portfolio as a livelong system to document own
competencies from university level on and during the
whole professional life. This should be explained by an
example in three steps:
Step 1 - An engineering student starts working with the
PeTEX system at the university. He uses the system in
order to document his experiments. During his studies he
conducts different experiments, compares them and col-
lects all research results and data in his e-portfolio in order
to scientifically describe a certain material behavior which
was observed (e.g. while pausing the test for a couple of
seconds), and reflects on his own way of learning. The
teacher is able to evaluate his learning behavior. This can
be regarded as the main use of e-portfolios at university.
Step 2 - Because the PeTEX system as well addresses
workplace learning the e-portfolios can be viewed as a
bridge from university to professional life. Depending on
the specific use of e-portfolios by the student he can take
his portfolios to present himself to potential employers.
Hence, they can see what the students did in this field of
his studies and whether he accords with the company’s
needs. In this context the e-portfolios can support applica-
tion processes.
Step 3 - Once the former student pursues his career as
an employee, there is no need to stop working with his
portfolio. He still can work on his collection by document-
ing new experiments as well as gained knowledge and
competencies from his new occupation. By doing so, the
employee does not stop reflecting on his learning process.
His e-portfolio grows with every year and successively
becomes a better representation of his professional life and
his competences. Especially the last aspect matches per-
fectly with the advantage of the PeTEX system as small
and medium sized companies use it to enhance their tech-
nological skills by doing research with the PeTEX hard-
ware. In addition to that they can use the e-portfolios to
implement a system for the documentation and measure-
ment of the employees’ skills and competences. This
could be supported by the lifelong use of e-portfolios.
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
Summing up all these aspects it can be concluded that
the use of e-portfolios in the PeTEX context can support
the idea of experiential and research-based learning even
if there are a couple of challenges to meet [16]. The port-
folios can be used to document and present the research
and learning process, to build up a specially focused learn-
ing community as well as to merge university and work-
place learning.
IV. SCENARIOS OF USING MOBILE DEVICES IN
COMBINATION WITH E-PORTFOLIOS
Another frequently mentioned new concept in context
with higher education is mobile learning. From a technical
perspective mobile learning means to integrate mobile
devices like cell phones, smart phones or tablet computers
in the learning process [17]. Among others, one of the
advantages of mobile learning is that previously un-
planned time periods can be utilized for learning and that
learning processes can be initiated virtually everywhere
[ibid.].
In addition to that using mobile devices can support the
creativity process because new ideas mainly come sponta-
neously and the fact of carrying a mobile device through-
out the day makes it easily possible to put down a note
with an idea and to work on it later or to work on it imme-
diately as we will explain in the scenarios. Bringing e-
portfolios on tablet devices for example could be an op-
portunity to combine the concepts presented in this text
with mobile learning. In the following we will present
different scenarios how the use of mobile devices can
enrich the concept of remote laboratories in higher engi-
neering education. These scenarios differ mainly in terms
of individual or collaborative learning processes and self-
directed or teacher-directed learning processes. These four
aspects in different combinations lead to the scenarios, so
that it becomes obvious how flexible the use of e-
portfolios is in our learning concept. As we wanted an
open learning environment for working with the laborato-
ry equipment remotely it seems that the e-portfolio soft-
ware fulfills this requirement perfectly. Fig. 6 shows the
four scenarios that are explained in the following.
A. Possible scenarios
Scenario 1 “Using the software in creative moments”-
A first scenario could be that a student is thinking about
his experiments while sitting at home and watching TV or
while he goes out with his friends. He is really struggled
by his research work, thinks about his parameters, his
results and why his experiments offered the results that
showed up. Suddenly he has an idea on a hypothesis and
wants to check it by rereading his last experiments in the
portfolio or doing a new experiment. Because he can use
the software for connecting with the experiential environ-
ment by using his tablet computer there is no need to wait
until the next day for doing the experiment over again at
the university but he can stay where he is and even can
stay sitting on the sofa for checking his hypothesis. The
new result can immediately be put in his portfolio so that
he documents his new step within his research process.
Using a simulation in a virtual laboratory instead of the
remote experiment can be a method to (pre-)check the
hypothesis first and then to carry out the real experiment
remotely [18].
Figure 6. Four scenarios for using mobile devices in combination with
remote laboratories
Scenario 2 “Using the software to bring student re-
searchers together”- With his mobile device (regardless if
smart phone or tablet PC) the student can access his per-
sonal e-portfolio in which he documents his experiments
and personal competency development in this sector from
wherever he wants to. Sitting in the train on the way to or
on the way back from university he could flip through his
experiments and look what he found out as different re-
sults. At the same moment another student looks on the
first student’s portfolio. He finds out that his own research
had quite similar results even though he used different
parameters or—even more challenging—he used the same
parameters and material but had different results. Know-
ing this he contacts the first student via a chat or e-mail, as
well using his mobile device, and they can communicate
about their common results at this very moment and work
together on future experiments [19].
Scenario 3 “Using the software to overcome cognitive
blockades” - A third scenario could foster the students'
ability to consider different perspectives about their ques-
tions: After having performed an experiment that was
given to him by the teacher, the student possibly does not
know why he did not get the expected results or does not
know how to interpret the results. He asks himself why the
experiment did not work as it should have, but he cannot
find the answer. While writing his e-portfolio as documen-
tation for the teacher’s evaluation, he could start the "crea-
tive-help app", which helps him to use different perspec-
tives on the problem: Firstly, he is asked to make a (men-
tal) headstand following the question “What else could I
do to get the wrong results from experimenting?” If that
does not help to find the answer, he secondly will be
asked to describe his experiential design and his assump-
tions in a way that a ten-year-old could understand it. If
those methods, which are rather close to the problem, still
cannot help him, the "creative-help app" will suggest a
force-fit technique by showing a picture that does not have
anything to do with a problem (for example a lady beetle,
a daisy chain, a bottle of wine) and asking the student to
find relationships between the picture and his experiment.
This method helps to leave the well-trodden paths and
forces the students to look from completely other perspec-
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
tives on their problem. It often results in very unconven-
tional or provoking ideas, but rethinking the obviously
unsuitable solutions sometimes leads to the one really
good idea that would not have appeared to his mind with-
out having made the detour [20].
Scenario 4 “Using the software for collaborative learn-
ing processes” - The fourth scenario could be evoked by
the teacher. He can give the students—as a kind of home-
work—the exercise to check an explicit hypothesis by
implementing adequate experiments. Using the e-
portfolios the students can stay in contact without the
necessity to meet at the university and in combination
with mobile devices they can be virtually be anywhere
going through a collaborative learning process. Because
the e-portfolios software has a connection to the experien-
tial environment the students as a group can do the exper-
iment and discuss the results with regards to the home-
work's hypothesis in one pass and without changing the
learning environment [21].
B. Proof of concept
In order to put the plans explained above into practice
different research has been carried out. Our work on re-
mote laboratories and creativity bases on finished research
projects at TU Dortmund University and several other
European universities. Based on this research we devel-
oped a first proof of concept for the mobile devices run-
ning with Android. The software permits the user to do a
remotely run experiment by checking the parameters,
starting the experimentation process and following the
results. The next technical step is to bring the software
from the proof of concept status to a level on which it can
be tested and improved with students on a larger scale. As
a consequence thereof it would have to be further con-
nected with the e-portfolio software and it has to be
worked out for iOs devices. These are the steps for the
coming year.
V. CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION AND FUTURE PLANS
With this paper we explained four different but in our
project newly connected aspects:
• We discussed why laboratories are a place for con-
ducting experiments and why they can be important
for modern engineering education. The central idea is
to engage the students in teaching and learning envi-
ronments which are connected closely to their future
working environment.
• In addition to that, we discussed the aspect of student
centered learning environments in general and why
they are vitally important in higher education. They
are essential for having the students do the things
they have to learn by themselves. In our context we
underlined this statement by the example of the syn-
chronized learning and research process. This is the
only way for students to develop competences and to
reach a high level of learning outcomes.
• The learning environment was the next aspect we fo-
cused on. If students are learning in laboratories or
with the help of laboratory work it is obvious that
they need a special learning environment in order to
reflect on their learning process. Questions like
“How can I document my learning progress for other
learners or the teachers?” or “How can I communi-
cate with my classmates during the learning pro-
cess?” are becoming more and more important. We
want to address these questions with the use of e-
portfolios as a place to document and to communi-
cate learning processes as well as to merge studies at
university with the later workplace environment.
• Finally we explained our plans in context with the
use of mobile devices. There are several scenarios
thinkable (we concentrated on four of them) in which
the use of smart phones and/or tablet PCs extend the
opportunities of learning environment substantially.
With the use of mobile devices previously impossible
learning scenarios become feasible. The fact that the-
se devices are highly portable of course plays a cen-
tral role in this context. We finished with a technical
proof of concept for Android devices.
All the aforementioned aspects are combined in our
work. In order to innovate the teaching and learning in
engineering education we will design the “Mobile Lab
Portfolio”. This environment integrates the use of remote
labs, e-portfolios and mobile devices. See in the following
the central advantages of the presented concept:
• As the equipment of laboratories is either very ex-
pensive to purchase and maintain at every university
or not always accessible for students the use of re-
mote or virtual laboratories is a good alternative to
face this dilemma.
• Using the equipment virtually in simulations or re-
motely from wherever they can help the students to
do experiments just as a pre-check on personal hy-
pothesis or even when they are not physically in the
laboratory.
• Learning processes that are achieved by the usage of
the laboratories can be documented in e-portfolios.
• These portfolios are a good opportunity in order to
document the experiments for personal use or for
evaluation by an instructor. By looking at his stu-
dents’ portfolios the instructor can either see what
kind of experiments the students have done and what
they learned from it.
• If the portfolios are not kept hidden from other stu-
dents but are open for other users to look at them and
comment on the achievements, there is the opportuni-
ty for a community to evolve working together on the
experiments. The e-portfolio software should be
made accessible for mobile devices, too.
• This paves the way to mobile learning, which means
that the learning process is not bound to any location.
From virtually everywhere and at every time the user
can work on their portfolios and communicate with
each other.
As this is a work-in-progress paper the upcoming step
for this year will be to implement the e-portfolio software
in the PeTEX system and to make it accessible for the
students’ mobile devices. Once this has been achieved,
first tests with students can be carried out and the system
can be evaluated and improved.
Of course technical problems will arise during the im-
plementation and they may be even difficult to solve. But
in the end most problems stay simply technical and it
became obvious in the PeTEX project that every technical
problem will be solved sooner or later. At this moment we
focus on the concept and first technical steps for our future
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
work. During the whole work we want to concentrate on
the didactic background for this. The question if any of the
explained aspects will help the students to learn more and
gain real competencies during their studies is and will stay
our main focus. Not everything which is possible from the
technical point of view or even can be technically de-
signed does make sense for the learning process and high-
er education. Therefore we look at teaching and learning
from the students’ perspective. That leads us to our con-
cepts explained above first, without asking in detail about
how everything can be implemented yet. Our team strives
to support a better engineering education- that is what our
focus lies on.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors sincerely thank: Prof Dr.-Ing A. Erman
Tekkaya, Dr.-Ing. habil. S. Chatti, Prof. Dr. Dr. J. Wildt,
Dominik May, (TU Dortmund University), Prof. F. Mi-
cari, Prof. E. Lo Valvo, Prof. L. Fratini, PhD R. Licari,
PhD G. Buffa (University of Palermo, Italy), Prof. M.
Nicolescu, P. Johansson (KTH–Kungliga Tekniska Hög-
skolan, Stockholm, Sweden) for their great cooperation
during the PeTEX project.
Last but not least the authors sincerely thank Prof. Dr.-
Ing. Thorsten Jungmann (FOM Hochschule Düsseldorf),
Emanuel Bielski (TU Dortmund University) and all
friends and colleagues at TeachING-LearnING.EU—the
first subject center for engineering education in Germa-
ny—for many inspiring discussions and the productive
view exchange.
AUTHORS
D. May is managing director of Teaching-Learning.EU
and with the Center for Higher Education, TU Dortmund
University, Dortmund, Germany (e-mail:
may@teachning-learning.eu).
C. Terkowsky is head of the Engineering Education
Research Group at the Center for Higher Education, TU
Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany (e-mail:
claudius.terkowsky@tu-dortmund.de)
iJIM ‒ Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2013 61
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BRINGING REMOTE LABS AND MOBILE LEARNING TOGETHER
T. Haertel is head of the ELLI project at the Center for
Higher Education, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund,
Germany (e-mail: tobias.haertel@tu-dortmund.de)
C. Pleul is head of the Research Group on Laboratories
in Engineering Education (LEED) at the Institute of
Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction, TU
Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany (e-mail:
christian.pleul@iul.tu-dortmund.de)
This article is an extended and modified version of a paper presented at
the EDUCON2013 conference held at Technische Universität Berlin,
Berlin, Germany from March 13-15, 2013. The authors would like to
thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF
for funding the project ELLI - excellent learning and teaching in engi-
neering education (2011-2016) and the DLR Project Management Agen-
cy (part of the German Aerospace Center) for the implementation and
support. The PeTEX project (142270-LLP-1-2008-1-DE-LEONARDO-
LMP; 2008-2010) has been funded with support from the European
Commission (Lifelong Learning Programme). This publication reflects
the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held respon-
sible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein. Additional funding by KARL-KOLLE-Stiftung, Dortmund.
Submitted 10 June 2013. Published as re-submitted by the authors 26
June 2013.
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Bringing Remote Labs and Mobile Learning together