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An integrated Web engine (IWE) has been developed by the Internetworking program at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada to deliver remote learning experience to geographically remote Master's students. The University intends to increase its student base through online education, retaining the same quality of interactions as the onsite program. To this end, the IWE accommodates three technology‐enabled learning environments that correlate with the three pedagogical approaches and types of onsite interaction. Discusses the e‐learning metrics, pedagogical and technical considerations that influence the design and implementation of the IWE environment. The IWE uses de facto networking standards, commercial and broadband Internet connectivity to ensure real‐time secure interaction with equipment and deliver lectures respectively. A four‐tier role architecture, consisting of faculty, local, remote facilitators, and students, has been determined to be appropriate and adapted to maintain academic integrity and offer the same quality of interaction as the onsite program.

At present, people have a tendency to carry out higher education in a distance mode due to their busy lifestyles. However, open and distance learning (ODL) educational organizations encounter difficulties when delivering laboratory experiments. This paper presents the development of an online laboratory platform as a solution. It can be used to deliver laboratory experiments, using electronic components and instruments such as a signal generator and oscilloscope. Students are able to perform experimental tasks remotely utilizing real equipment and components. The system users can view laboratory environments via a camera which provides a sense of reality.The platform provides facilities to customize and rebuild the laboratory experiments according to the requirements of the organization. It can also be utilized as a useful educational tool to acquire pre-experience before entering the real laboratory. Thestatistical analysis shows no significant difference between the face-to-face laboratory (FFL) and online remote laboratory (ORL) experimental results within a 95% confidence level.The system can enhance the existing open and distance learning system by sharing the resources in a flexible manner.This system reduces the difficulties that distance learning students encounter when participating in FFL sessions. It also reduces the number of FFL sessions and is helpful to working students. One of the main objectives of ODL is to provide a learning environment for those who missed the opportunity for higher education for a variety of reasons. This system will help to achieve this objective.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an integrated laboratory experiment setup (ILES) to overcome problems encountered in open distance learning (ODL) especially when offering engineering degree programmes.

Engineering laboratory experiments can be classified as experiments which are performed with the intention to inculcate theory, and second, to provide hands-on experience. The ILES integrates both types of experiments with face-to-face laboratory (FFL), online remote laboratory (ORL), and multimedia demonstrations, and it helps to reduce traditional FFL duration by 50 per cent. The first phase of the ILES provides an opportunity to refer multimedia demonstrations of the experiments. Thereafter, students attend the first FFL session, which covers about 25 per cent of the experiments. In the next step, 50 per cent of the experiments are offered using the ORL, via the internet while interacting with real equipment and making actual observations. The final step is used to accomplish the rest of the experiments (25 per cent) in FFL which facilitates the clarification of any problem that may occur in the ORL.

This blended laboratory system will help to achieve ODL objectives while utilising resources productively and cost effectively. Having implemented the idea and based on the information received from the stakeholders, this has proved to be a workable solution to one of the difficulties faced by ODL students.

The level of outcome of the students has to be observed and analysed in comparison with the traditional laboratory setup.

Some experiments (e.g. thermodynamics) which need more safety precautions are difficult to offer via ORL.

The ILES is a blended setup including FFL, ORL and multimedia demonstrations and it is a novel concept which is most applicable to engineering/science programmes offered in ODL mode.

This paper aims to examine the current technology acceptance model (TAM) in the field of mixed reality and digital twin (MRDT) and identify key factors affecting users' intentions to use MRDT. The factors are used as a set of key metrics for proposing a predictive model for virtual, augmented and mixed reality (MR) acceptance by users. This model is called the extended TAM for MRDT adoption in the architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industry.

An interpretivist philosophical lens was adopted to conduct an inductive systematic and bibliographical analysis of secondary data contained within published journal articles that focused upon MRDT acceptance modelling. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach to meta-analysis were adopted to ensure all key investigations were included in the final database set. Quantity indicators such as path coefficients, factor ranking, Cronbach’s alpha (a) and chi-square (b) test, coupled with content analysis, were used for examining the database constructed. The database included journal papers from 2010 to 2020.

The extant literature revealed that the most commonly used constructs of the MRDT–TAM included: subjective norm; social influence; perceived ease of use (PEOU); perceived security; perceived enjoyment; satisfaction; perceived usefulness (PU); attitude; and behavioural intention (BI). Using these identified constructs, the general extended TAM for MRDT in the AECO industry is developed. Other important factors such as “perceived immersion” could be added to the obtained model.

The decision to utilise a new technology is difficult and high risk in the construction project context, due to the complexity of MRDT technologies and dynamic construction environment. The outcome of the decision may affect employee performance, project productivity and on-site safety. The extended acceptance model offers a set of factors that assist managers or practitioners in making effective decisions for utilising any type of MRDT technology.

Several constraints are apparent due to the limited investigation of MRDT evaluation matrices and empirical studies. For example, the research only covers technologies which have been reported in the literature, relating to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), MR, DT and sensors, so newer technologies may not be included. Moreover, the review process could span a longer time period and thus embrace a fuller spectrum of technology development in these different areas.

The research provides a theoretical model for measuring and evaluating MRDT acceptance at the individual level in the AECO context and signposts future research related to MRDT adoption in the AECO industry, as well as providing managerial guidance for progressive AECO professionals who seek to expand their use of MRDT in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). A set of key factors affecting MRDT acceptance is identified which will help innovators to improve their technology to achieve a wider acceptance.

The purpose of this paper is to report the development and implementation of a Remotely Accessible Rapid Prototyping Laboratory (RRPL) established at Tennessee Tech University. Instructional materials and best practices are also reported.

The Rapid Prototyping (RP) Laboratory reported in this paper was established in Fall 2003 and funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and Tennessee Tech University (TTU) matching funds. Since that time, over a thousand high school students and students studying computer aided design and manufacturing at Tennessee Tech University have practiced with the RP technology. In order to further extend a remote access capability to this current laboratory and let more engineering and technology students learn this technology via online access tools and resources, a new NSF grant was awarded in late 2006. Since that time, the remote RP laboratory development has been practiced by over 50 higher education institutions. In early 2009, another NSF grant was awarded to allow Metro Nashville Public School students to practice in the remote RP laboratory and choose Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) career academies for their future profession pathways. This paper will report the development and implementation of a remotely accessible laboratory for RP practices. The topics highlighted are the design of the laboratory, its remote delivery implementation to P16 (integrated system of education stretching from early childhood through a four‐year college degree) education systems and web‐based access statistics collected from counting resources.

Although on‐ground RP systems are commonly practiced by many institutions; such a unique application as reported in this paper was a pioneering effort, since RRPL was used by many educational institutions as part of their curricular practices.

The paper shows how the online accessible laboratory and its instructional materials provide a number of unique features in cost saving and sharing of the RP resources.

The paper investigates the learning practices carried out by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the transition from strictly face-to-face to remote teaching in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It also analyses how these practices could be used as a baseline to support new perspectives on learning in the technological education field.

The authors conducted a single-case study of a Brazilian technological university.

This study’s findings indicate that institutional planning and providing support to faculty and students were essential measures for a successful transition from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching. Planning includes careful selection by the HEI of the tools that make a virtual learning environment and the strategies used to replace face-to-face teaching with emergency remote teaching. Our study points out the lessons learned during the pandemic. It presents guidelines for HEIs on how to prepare for a return to face-to-face teaching, embodying some learning dimensions such as synchronous or asynchronous, active or passive, individual or collective, and mediated or not mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The paper provides reflections on the four dimensions to support decisions to leverage learning in each educational institution. This paper's main contribution is that the concept of teaching and learning must be comprehensive and inclusive according to the particular HEI context.

The authors of this paper aim to describe the design of distributed architectures for the remote control of multirobot systems. A very good example of remote robot programming in order to validate these architectures is in fact the remote visual servoing control. It uses sequences of camera inputs in order to bring the robots to the desired position, in an iterative way. In fact, in this paper, we enabled the students and scientists in our university to experiment with their remote visual servoing algorithms through a remote real environment instead of using simulation tools.

Since 2001, the authors have been using the UJI‐TeleLab as a tool to allow students and scientists to program remotely several vision‐based network robots. During this period it has been learnt that multithread remote programming combined with a distributed multirobot architecture, as well as advanced multimedia user interfaces, are very convenient, flexible and profitable for the design of a Tele‐Laboratory. The distributed system architecture permits any external algorithm to have access to almost every feature of several network robots.

Presents the multirobot system architecture and its performance by programming two closed loop experiments using the Internet as communication media between the user algorithm and the remote robots (i.e. remote visual servoing). They show which conditions of Internet latencies and bandwidth are appropriate for the visual servoing loop. We must take into account that the real images are taken from the remote robot scenario and the experiment algorithm is executed from the client side at the user place. Moreover, the distributed multirobot architecture is validated by performing a multirobot programming example using two manipulators and a mobile robot.

Future work will pursue the development of more sophisticated visual servoing loops using external cameras, pan/tilt and also stereo cameras. Indeed, the stereo cameras control introduces an interesting difficulty related to their synchronization during the loop, which introduces the need to implement Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) based camera monitoring. By using camera servers that support RTSP (e.g. Helix Producer, etc.) it means sending the differences between the frames instead of sending the whole frame information for every iteration.

The distributed multirobot architecture has been validated since 2003 within the education and training scenario. Students and researchers are able to use the system as a tool to rapidly implement complex algorithms in a simple manner. The distributed multirobot architecture is being applied as well within the industrial robotics area in order to program remotely two synchonized robots.

This paper is an original contribution to the network robots field, since it presents a generic architecture to program remotelly a set of heterogeneous robots. The concept of network robot recently came up at the Workshop “network robots” within the IEEE ICRA 2005 World Congress.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on higher education (HE) across the globe, including in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi HE system is going through an abrupt transition and transformation to cope with the crisis. This chapter is based on data collected from teachers and students of Bangladeshi public and private HE institutions regarding teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. In Bangladesh, some universities switched to online distance teaching and learning quickly during this period, and others lagged behind in this regard. Teachers and students from both groups of public and private universities participated in the study, including those who attended online teaching and learning activities and those who did not participate. This chapter highlights both teachers’ and students’ perspectives regarding students’ future preparedness for participating fully in the changing landscape of HE, especially technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Understanding these perspectives of teachers and students is important to address the digital divide and social justice issues in the policy and practice. Within the HE sector in Bangladesh, it is especially vital while transforming its education system and adapting emerging technologies to address the challenges of education in future emergencies.

This paper aims to report on the design and implementation of an e‐laboratory for enhanced science, technology and engineering education studies.

The paper assesses a computer‐based e‐laboratory, designed for new entrants to science, technology and engineering programmes of study in further and higher education to enable them complete proper “hands‐on” (not simulation) laboratory experiments off‐campus and also in virtual learning environments accessible remotely. The development of such a laboratory was in response to the inherent inability of web‐based learning environments to duplicate, off‐campus, the laboratory facilities and availability on‐campus. The measurement of effectiveness relates to whether a laboratory task can be accurately and completely achieved. Common parameters included percentage task completion, error rate and assistance required. Operations under different conditions were studied and observations made from comparison on implementations.

E‐laboratories were found to be more student‐centred with learners taking responsibility for their own learning.. The face‐to‐face pre‐computer scenario learners had a very low completion rate, a high error rate and required constant assistance. The computer‐based scenario resulted in a high completion rate, low error rate and a significant reduction in learner supervision.

The technical constraints imposed by present online environments, the resulting impact on specific learning styles, and possible solutions to overcome these limitations are discussed.

Both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews established a positive impact on student learning, thus justifying development of similar systems. More research and applications could follow as this has the potential to impact positively on development and use of e‐labs for enhanced science, technology and engineering studies in terms of costs, time and space requirements.

The recent interest and advances in the development of remote and virtual labs has shown that students of today, who are digital natives, especially those in the fields of science, technology and engineering, find the use of e‐laboratories very useful in enhancing their studies, encouraging them to use familiar technologies to access and do experiments either remotely or virtually online, thereby enhancing their learning. The approach adopted is unique and original, blending both virtual and hands‐on approach to experimental studies.