Online Electronic Labs

One of the main excuses for not implementing online electronic technology courses is that students cannot do the lab.  I say bull.  A lab component is easily implemented especially in the low end basic courses.  Let me explain.

 

First, home study schools have been using lab materials for decades.  While there are not too many of these so-called correspondence or distance learning programs still around, schools like AII, CIE, NRI, NTS, ICS, Heathkit, CREI and others provided low cost kits and instruments with hands-on lab manuals with experiments.  The labs included a DMM and some of them an oscilloscope as part of the tuition.  The low cost components were supplied along with a breadboard or trainer to build basic circuits and experiment with them.  All were successful.

 

The secret was in the lab manual.  It was very detailed so that students could get through the lab work with minimal mistakes and help.  Of course, students could contact the instructors for help if needed.

 

That approach is viable today.  Any school can put together a set of parts and equipment that the student buys at the bookstore.  It is affordable and doable.  Just have a procedure for students to call or email the instructor for help.

 

Companies like National Instruments (NI) also now have a trainer that connects to a laptop to provide virtual test instruments like a DMM, scope, signal generator, Bode plotter, etc.  NI uses a version of their well-known LabVIEW software.  A breadboard with power supplies plugs into the laptop USB port.  That product is called myDAQ.

 

National Instruments' recent acquisition of Digilent gives them a couple of other such products like the Analog Discovery.  Digilent also offers a mix of FPGA and microcontroller lab products for academia as well.

 

This approach is very applicable to all the basic courses like DC, AC, semiconductor, linear, basic digital and microcontroller.  All the hardware is affordable.  The secret is in the lab manual and support.

 

Just don't say that online labs are not possible.  It has been done successfully for years and is still a viable approach.