Remote versus hands-on labs: a comparative study

Advocates of hands-on laboratories and advocates of simulation have debated for years. Proponents of hands-on laboratories argue that student engineers need to be exposed to the physical experiences-and the uncertainties-of real environments. Advocates of simulation argue that physical labs are wasteful-they tie up badly needed space, and consume student´s time in menial set-up and tear-down procedures. Now remote laboratories have appeared as a third option. These laboratories are similar to simulation techniques in that they require minimal space and time, because the experiments can be rapidly configured and run over the Internet. But unlike simulations, they provide real data. It is unknown what the relative effectiveness of hands-on, simulated, and remote laboratories is. This paper presents a model for testing this relative effectiveness, and discusses the results of a preliminary assessment study comparing versions of remote labs versus hands-on labs in a junior-level mechanical engineering course on machine dynamics and mechanisms.