A Distance Measurement Platform Dedicated to Electrical Engineering.docVIP

312  IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES,  VOL. 2,  NO. 4,  OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2009  A Distance Measurement Platform Dedicated to Electrical Engineering Noe¨lle Lewis, Michel Billaud, Didier Geoffroy, Philippe Cazenave, and Thomas Zimmer, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—This paper presents the remote laboratory eLab, dedicated to electrical engineering education. eLab is a flexible measurement platform that permits to run more than 130 experiments in the fields of electronics and microelectronics. The instructor can choose or create different types of pedagogical scenarios, covering teaching requirements from undergraduate to graduate levels. Furthermore, eLab implementation and use do not require any commercial software. Its reliability has been proven during many practical classes in France and other countries. eLab is now a key component of the Bordeaux University e-Learning material in electrical engineering. In the field of analog integrated circuits design, eLab offers a unique measurement solution, which can be combined to traditional circuit simulation sessions. Index Terms—e-Learning tools, remote laboratories, electrical engineering, integrated circuits, analog design and test. ?  1  INTRODUCTION ET-BASED techniques begin to be widely used in education. In sciences education, the experimental method is an essential point of the pedagogy and students must face it during practical sessions. Moreover, it is an opportunity to develop the students understanding, auton- omy, and finally, increase their interest in the topic. In the electrical engineering (EE) curriculum, an important part is devoted to the implementation of electrical functions involved in signal processing. The physical realization of the function leads to nonidealities that must be quantified by electrical measurements. A net-based laboratory for characterizing electronic circuits has many advantages: It allows sharing high-quality instruments and fu