T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) RETWINE Virtual Labs Tele-instrumentation through the WWW T. Zimmer, D. Geoffroy, M. Billaud, Y. Danto J. Martinez, F. Gomez H. Effinger, W. Seifert University Bordeaux 1 University Madrid Fachhochschule Münster

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Outline Introduction Overview of the RETWINE project Implementation of the practical course Evaluation Conclusion and perspectives

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Introduction

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Introduction Who : University - Science, (electrical engineering) What : e-Learning in practical courses How : RETWINE (REmoTe Worldwide Instrumentation NEtwork)

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Overview of the RETWINE project

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) What is RETWINE integrating training of advanced measurement equipment in education at University level

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) RETWINE Instrument description Tutorial Remote access Measured curve plot Measured data acquisition Webcam

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Implementation

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) How does it look like

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Some highlights CeBIT Hannover 2000 Das Internet Testlabor TV report Visionäre Ausbildungsmethoden Campus numérique Project Leader

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Application Implementationof a practical course Implementation of a practical course

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) The practical course on-line Curriculum of electrical engineers IUP second year, (6th semester) Familiarise the students with electrical device characteristics

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) The virtual lab Atlantic Ocean France Bordeaux Madrid Münster

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Summary of the practical course - 1 Electrical Measurements –analysis of the curve –characterisation of the device material Measures from Bordeaux Instrument and device in Madrid.

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Summary of the practical course - 2 Electrical Measurements –analysis of the curve –understanding of the device principles Measures from Bordeaux Instrument and device in Münster, Germany.

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Evaluation

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) 1: Nevertheless do you have the impression that you are doing a practical course in electronics? 2: Is the fact that the instruments are abroad motivating or without interest for you? 3: Would you wish that other practical courses are put on line? A = very well, B = well, C = no idea, D = unsatisfactorily, E = insufficiently

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Evaluation - 2 4: Is the Internet interface measurement user-friendly? 5: The instruments are quite complex. Would you like to take a preliminary course about the use of each instrument? A = very well, B = well, C = no idea, D = unsatisfactorily, E = insufficiently

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Evaluation - 3 6: Would you like to make contact with the person in charge of instruments abroad? 7: Do you feel ready to start a discussion in a foreign language? (which one) 8: Do you think that to make remote measurements adds a "European dimension" to the practical course?

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Reliability aspects During 20 sessions the Retwine tool was in use It failed 4 times ► (3 times with the same professor !!!) ► WWW = World Wide Wait, be patient ► 1 time: Intranet network problems

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Conclusion and perspectives

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Conclusion The realisation is possible Some teachers have more problems than students in using the new tool Internet connection problems occur sometimes, be patient The students seem to appreciate the new approach They are satisfied and enthusiastic The students could attend to “most modern practical courses” with high tech instruments

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Perspectives Horizontal –RETWINE: adding new instruments and the corresponding tutorials to the instrumentation pool Vertical –Use the RETWINE opportunity to perform practical courses in a virtual Lab –Integrated course concept in scientific fields for e-Learning A new Minerva project ?

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Integrated course concept All levels of learning are available on the WEB Practical course module Circuit simulation module Exercise module Course module

T. ZimmerMinerva Coordinators Meeting – June 2001 Brussels (Belgium) Acknowledgements We would like to thank the European Commission for financial support via the Socrates – Open and Distance Learning program.