Remote laboratory (also known as online laboratory, remote workbench) is the use of telecommunications to remotely conduct real (as opposed to virtual) experiments, at the physical location of the operating technology, whilst the scientist is utilizing technology from a separate geographical location. Remote laboratory comprehends one or more remote experiments.
The benefits of remote laboratories are predominantly in engineering education:
Relax time constraints, adapting to pace of each student, if there was insufficient time in lab
Relax geographical constraints, disregarding the physical locality of the student
Economies of scale, as sharing labs allows sharing of large fixed costs of traditional buildings
Improve quality of experiment, as it can be repeated to clarify doubtful measurements in lab
Improve effectiveness, as student may improve effectiveness of time spent at lab by rehearsal
Improved safety and security, as no risk of catastrophic failure
Researchers from the Labshare describe the advantages as being:
Increasing accessibility to laboratories by a factor of 4 within 3 years, since current lab utilization is less than 10%
Decrease fixed and variable expenditure by 50%, since faculty budget spends between 15-40% on lab infrastructure and personnel, around $400m per year
Improve learning objectives and outcomes to support better learning
Enhance sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience
Reduce start-up costs of laboratories
This allows for economies of scale production.
Another benefit is that this technology can be integrated into Moodle, which is probably the most used Learning Management System around the world.
The disadvantages differ depending on the type of remote laboratory and the topic area. The general disadvantages compared to a proximal (hands on) laboratory are:
Lack of hands on trouble shooting and debugging experience.
Lack of equipment setup experience.
Current system capabilities include:
Online session booking, utilizing a database and online interface
Authentication to satisfy security requirements
Desktop, generalized screen for chat, emoticon, time limit, bandwidth limit
Live lab camera which allows panning, tilting, zooming, showing, hiding, refresh
Circuit builder (this is just simulative)
Function generator (this is just simulative)
Digital multimeter (this is just simulative)
Oscilloscope (this is just simulative)
GOLC
iLabs
Labicom
Labshare
Lila Project
Engineering education
FARLabs
RExLab