Rethinking remote laboratories: Widgets and smart devices

Until the last decades, students of distance learning universities had to go to traditional and physical laboratories to acquire practical knowledge and skills. Currently, thanks to the advances in communication and computer networks and the evolution of programming languages, new eLearning tools have emerged that enable the usage of learning methodologies such as blended learning and distance learning. One of them is the remote Web laboratory. A remote Web laboratory is an application which allows students to work with real hardware or instruments. To do this, students only need a computer with an Internet connection. However, emerging technologies and other hardware such as mobile devices, cloud computing and the Internet of Things, require the design of different models to support innovative learning experiences. For this reason, remote labs are being reconsidered to smart device paradigm. Physically, the considered smart device is made of the junction of a controller (computer server) connected to physical equipment on the one hand, and to the Internet on the other hand. This paper describes the process to translate a "traditional" remote Web lab into a set of smart devices which are able to work together in the cloud and the Internet of Things.