Student laboratories have always played a key role in the engineering education at Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT). Recently, SIT has designed and implemented several innovative Web-based tools for engineering laboratory education and evaluated their learning effectiveness in pilot deployments in various engineering courses. These Web-based tools include both remotely operated experiments based on actual experimental devices as well as virtual experiments representing software simulations. These tools facilitate the development of learning environments, which - possibly in conjunction with traditional hands-on experiments - allow the expansion of the scope of the students' laboratory experience well beyond the confines of what would be feasible in the context of traditional laboratories. This becomes possible because of the scalability of resources that are shared through the Web and the flexibility of software simulations in varying the characteristic parameters of the experimental system under investigation. Further educational benefits of the proposed laboratory approach are that asynchronous learning modes are supported and discovery-based self-learning, of the students is promoted. This paper will present the details of the approach taken at SIT in integrating these Web-based tools into a comprehensive student laboratory experience. As an example for the implementation of such Web-based experiments, an Industrial-Emulator/Servo-Trainer System will be described, which is used at SIT in a junior-level course on mechanisms and machine dynamics.
The Morton Memorial Laboratory of Chemistry of Stevens institute of Technology
