Pros and Cons of Remote Labs

Pros of Remote Labs

There are many advantages of deploying a remote engineering laboratory in an educational environment. Such a strategy provides a way to provide more hands on time for engineering students in an efficient, flexible and cost effective manner. This is especially true for electrical engineering departments that may have limited access to laboratories and higher cost test equipment in particular. One of the main benefits of a remote lab strategy is a more efficient utilization of equipment. Labs can be accessed during ‘off hours’ when the instrumentation would otherwise be sitting idle. It also gives students more flexibility to schedule their labs. Students can get lab time virtually any time of day or night. And with the proliferation of LAN access on today’s campuses, students benefit from the convenience and safety of remote access from virtually any university location. And unlike a virtual instrument strategy that relies on simulated labs, a remote strategy gives engineering students the hands-on experience they need to experiment, explore and fully understand the concepts they’ll need to be successful upon graduation. There are also financial benefits to the engineering department. Since equipment can be used more efficiently with a remote access strategy, fewer instruments are required to serve the same number of students. This is an important consideration when engineering labs call for higher end equipment. In addition, fewer teaching assistants are needed to staff and maintain the lab.

Cons of Remote Labs

Remote labs have had based their justification on the logistical problems. Indeed, they can make available a wide range of lab resources and can provide more efficient sharing of unique or expensive equipment, as well as simplify equipment scheduling or lab space. Students can use the remote lab at any time and at any place to realize more experiments. However, the decision whether to shift to remote experimentation or not is not simply a matter of developing a remote lab platform using this or that technology and justify its use by solving logistical problems related to conventional labs. There is no doubt that hands-on experience plays an important role in control education. The general disadvantages compared to a proximal (hands on) laboratory are lack of hands on trouble shooting and debugging experience and lack of equipment setup experience.

Conclusion

Remote Labs have both benefits and limitations. Currently, pandemic has made Remote labs as preferred choice of students and teachers.

Author: 64 IT-A Nandita Patra