Deployment of remote experiments: The OnPReX course at the TU Berlin

Abstract

The development of internet technologies leads to recent trends of online based education in universities. Remote experiments give the students the possibility to experience real physical situations and compare their experimental results with those of the physical models (simulation). Online learning based on remote experiments is capable of diminishing the scantiness in practical courses in the universities. In this work we present an online practical course based on Remote Experiments (OnPReX), interactive graphics and an online tutoring system organized at the Technische Universität Berlin. Furthermore we give background information about the development of our remote experiments. The remote experiments are real-life settings, designed and engineered at the solid-state physics department of the Technische Universität Berlin. We describe the development of two online practical courses, focusing on classical and modern physics, addressed at undergraduate engineering students. We ran the online practical course based on Remote Experiments in two test phases over two semesters and conducted an evaluation from which we improved technical and pedagogical aspects of the experiments and the course.