Online Experimentation @FEUP: Five Years of Evaluations Diana Urbano, Maria de Fátima Chouzal, Maria Teresa Restivo LAETA‐INEGI, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal http://remotelab.fe.up.pt urbano@fe.up.pt, fchouzal@fe.up.pt, trestivo@fe.up.pt Abstract: The Online Experimentation @FEUP lab gathers a set of experimental resources based on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Haptic Systems. The design, development and implementation of those resources are guided by the following main goals: familiarizing students with the referred technologies, complement hands-on experimentation, motivate students and promote knowledge gain. A brief presentation of the online experimental activities most utilized and evaluated in the past five years in context of different undergraduate courses and at the K12 level is presented. In all the studies conducted, the strategies adopted involve pre- and post-testing to assess knowledge gain, experimental group activities, and individual response to surveys to assess student reaction. The results published in journals, conferences proceedings and book chapters are discussed. Keywords: a ugmented reality; virtual reality; haptic systems; experimentation; engineering education; conceptual knowledge gain. 1. Introduction For the past three decades, remote experimentation (RE) [1-3] where simulation, data collection and analysis are assisted by instrumentation and computers, has been increasingly used. More recently, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and haptic interactions, are being incorporated in collaborative platforms. Together with RE they constitute what is called Online Experimentation (OE) [4]. Although one should not look at OE as a replacement of hands-on experimentation, there are certain characteristics of OE that can enhance learning. The phenomena and concepts involved in most engineering areas are complex, described by intricate mathematical relationships, requiring most of the times high level of abstraction skills that can take a long time to acquire. These difficulties can result in lack of motivation, frustration and undesirable knowledge gaps. The advantages of using the referred technologies in education are manifold. On one hand VR and AR allow for the visualization of abstract concepts and complex spatial relationships and, in the case of haptic interaction systems, they involve the sense of touch through tactile feedback. Moreover, they make it possible to test the theoretical limits of the physical models, something not often feasible in real experiments. In addition, the virtual nature of the technologies is very suited for exploring dangerous environments and destructive tasks. On top of that, these different ways of exploring the senses contribute to enhance engagement and interactivity, thus having a positive impact on student motivation to learn and on academic performance [5-12]. Other advantage includes suitability for e-learning and b-learning, and flexibility to provide additional time to perform the experiments. However, using OE in Engineering Education (EE) is not only driven by those advantages. AR, VR and haptic systems play an increasingly important role in many of areas of engineering expertise. Industries like the automotive, aircraft, and manufacturing, among others, are using such technologies for many purposes like for instance training, maintenance, assembly and repair. Therefore, it is pertinent that students get in contact with such technologies while learning. Furthermore, the current pandemic situation has stressed the need to have available diverse online experimental resources in order to avoid in the future possible lack of experimental training in science and engineering education. The Online Experimentation@FEUP (OE@FEUP) project (https://remotelab.fe.up.pt/) is active since 2003 and is a repository of 42 multidisciplinary online open experimental resources. They are based on the use of different technologies in remote sensing, monitoring and actuation, virtual simulators, virtual/augmented reality and sensorial devices like haptic interfaces, data gloves, 3D glasses, among others. In this paper, a brief presentation of the available resources is given, with a description of the target populations that used them, publications in journals and conference proceedings, and summarize the conclusions from studies conducted to evaluate their potential as promoters of motivation and conceptual knowledge gain. 2. Description and methodologies of OE implementation 2.1 Resources at OE@FEUP OE@FEUP integrates experiments based on six main types of technologies, or associations: Remote Experiments (RE) (15), Augmented Reality Experiments (ARE) (8), Virtual Experiments with Haptic Interaction (VE&Haptics) (7), Virtual Reality (VR) (3), Simulators (4) and Instrumented Devices (OID) (5), that are represented in percentage in Figure 1. In this report, the focus is on the ARE, VE&Haptics and VR resources that have been extensively used over the past five years in the context of undergraduate engineering programs and K12 level non formal learning. They cover areas from physics, civil, electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering. Comunicações em Informática v.4, n.2, dez/2020 (ISSN: 2595-0622) DOI: 10.22478/ufpb.2595-0622.2020v4n2.54592 32