Mechatronics Class through Virtual Platforms under COVID-19

Abstract

Due to the contingency caused by COVID-19, face-to-face courses were unable to be held and have been taught through various online platforms. This represented a particular difficulty for students of the Universidad Panamericana enrolled in the Energy Technologies Engineering degree that were taking their mechatronics classes. In this article, different online platforms were proposed for practices and simulations, alongside document writing and editing; processes that would normally be done physically. The students, coursing their eighth semester at university, were able to successfully complete their mechatronics course using online platforms like Autodesks Tinkercad (for Arduino practices programming and simulation), Factory I/O (for learning and simulating automation processes of a production line), FluidSIM (to gain an understanding of pneumatic actuators and perform practices) and finally, Overleaf, in order to acquire knowledge into writing an investigation article, with an IEEE format. It is important to highlight that there are diverse alternatives for face-to-face classes that can assure and guarantee effective learning, even in courses that can be seen at first glance impossible to be taught in an online modality. The experiences, implementation methodologies, examples and results are presented and described in this paper.