Activities
All partners will collaborate and take part in 15 main activities under the following four main outputs:
O1: Analysis of physical labs
O2: Development of courses and workshops
O3: Development of virtual labs
O4: Framework and guidelines for the development and implementation of virtual labs.
All partners will also organise a series of workshops for students from SDU and TalTech and actively participate in the multiplier event organised by the lead partner at SDU Sønderborg campus.
Methodology
The project will be carried out with three specific cases of use based on three respective labs at SDU, TalTech and CNR-STIIMA. Different methods will be applied including semi-structured interviews, joint workshops, pilot courses, and prototype development and testing. Students and lab stakeholders will be involved in the different activities in the project. Results of activities and findings of learning experiences will be published via open access documents.
Results and impact
Current digital teaching methods in engineering education are subject to limitations resulting from lack of access to labs’ physical facilities and resources. We expect virtual labs to reduce these limitations through digital solutions. The virtual labs represent the digital counterpart of the physical lab facilities and make them available for remote and multi-user access. This will create value in education and international collaboration both during and after the pandemic.
We expect to achieve
- an understanding of the value of both physical labs and virtual labs in engineering education
- higher experience of teachers, researchers and tutors for better exploitation of virtual labs, not only for online teaching
- identification of enablers that will ensure the successful online teaching of engineering topics
- demos of virtual labs that represent the concept of the physical labs
- guidelines to support the development of the virtual labs for engineering education.
All partners will organise a series of workshops in which the partners and students from the partner institutions will work together on predefined topics concerning the use of the physical and the virtual labs.
After project end, guidelines for the development of virtual labs for engineering education will exist. We plan to exploit the prototype of the virtual labs, which will be connected as a sharing platform for all partners. The effort will further enhance international collaboration, as students and teachers from different countries can meet in the virtual environment anytime from anywhere.