Developing and Implementing Virtual and Remote Labs for Control Education: The UNED Pilot Experience

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 webbased 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.