Developing and Implementing Virtual and Remote Labs for Control Education: The UNED pilot experience S. Dormido, H. Vargas, J. Sánchez, R. Dormido, N. Duro, S. Dormido-Canto, F. Morilla * *Dpto. Informática y Automática, UNED, c/. Juan del Rosal 16, 28040 Madrid, Spain (e-mail: hvargas@bec.uned.es) Abstract: Last years, research efforts on the development of virtual and remote laboratories in control engineering education have been reported in many conferences, workshops and journals. However, it is observed that pilot experiences about the utilization of web-based laboratories are not habitual practices. In this paper it is described the pilot experience of the Department of Computer Science and Automatic Control of the Spanish University of Distance Learning (UNED) about the introduction of three web- based laboratories in a course on process control. This experience begins with descriptions of the tools employed to develop client and server-sides and the collaborative environment used to publish the labs in Internet. Attention is due to the concept of task protocol. It consists essentially of an ordered list of activities that students must execute in the virtual and remote mode of each one of the three web-based laboratories. To conclude, results of the pilot experience are given by means of evaluation questionnaires. 1. INTRODUCTION Currently, it is a reality that the development of web-based laboratories in some technical and scientific disciplines can already be considered as a mature and well-established technology. This statement is especially true and relevant in the control engineering field where there is a narrow and clear link between graphical representations (Nyquist, Bode, Nichols) and the mathematical expressions of systems. It has allowed the rising of new concepts in the development of either virtual or remote labs: interactivity (Dormido, 2004) (Sánchez et al., 2004a) (Guzmán, 2006), augmented reality (Gillet et al., 2001), networks of labs (Casini et al., 2005) (Pastor et al., 2003), etc. A proof of that is the regular celebration of international congresses, workshops and seminars devoted to the development, deployment and utilization of virtual and remote laboratories using Internet as the connecting channel among clients, that is, students, and servers, that is, real processes or models. Yet, until now, it was not less true that in many cases the development of a web-based laboratory was just a final point, and its application in the regular teaching with students was not considered. Fortunately, this aptitude of the university teaching staff is steadily changing and the release and use of web-based labs and the learning resources associated to them (quizzes, assignments, lectures, practice homework, etc.) is becoming both a reality as a research topic. And this situation must be considered as the best one since a feedback loop is closed: experiences derived of the application of web-based labs show up the necessity of research in new tools, techniques and learning processes, and, as direct consequence of that, the availability of new tools and design techniques produces improved web-based labs, and so on. UNED is the Spanish university for distance education and it is on charge of the higher education of nearly 120.000 students distributed all around the country. Up to recent years, the UNED’s distance methodology was exclusively based on traditional tools (phone, electronic mail, postal mail, face-to-face laboratories, etc), although recently a great institutional effort is been accomplished to introduce in the teaching process learning content management systems (WebCT, Alf) specially adapted to fulfil the particular necessities and functionalities of our university. Also, lastly this effort is being increased as consequence of the put in the stage of the Bologna process. The adaptation of the UNED’s distance methodology to the Bologna requirements is not very difficult since there are many points in common. But, however, the transformation of the current conception of the engineering laboratories to Bologna is not solved by now and, here is where virtual and remote laboratories play a crucial role. Now, when UNED students must follow out practical experiences to complete some engineering and science courses, they have to stay in Madrid for one or two weeks to attend the laboratories every day (like students of traditional universities). To get that, many students have to spend some holidays with the inconveniences generated in the family and working life. For example, to get the degree in Physics from the UNED, students must complete an introductory course on process control (Automatica I, 2007) and they have to attend the laboratory for a week, eight hours per day to complete the hands-on experiments on system identification and control. In a try to adapt this introductory course on process control to the future European Space of Higher Education and to apply our experience on virtual and remote laboratories in control engineering, last academic year these control laboratories were transformed into web-based and pilot experiences were Proceedings of the 17th World Congress The International Federation of Automatic Control Seoul, Korea, July 6-11, 2008 978-1-1234-7890-2/08/$20.00 © 2008 IFAC 8159 10.3182/20080706-5-KR-1001.0624