Virtual laboratory and classware concepts in internship programmes

Abstract

Nowadays, the students’ perception is that everything should be available 24 hours/7 days a week. The exposure to limitless information and experiences has completely modified their view of the world in ways unfamiliar to other generations. Therefore educators must adapt the content and teaching/lecturing methods according to their expectations. One way of enhancing the learning experience is to be aware of the current attitudes and behaviors of today’s students and to rely more and more on the technological improvements in educational strategies. Goal oriented and intellectually inquisitive students prefer experimental activities, which are structured, involve teamwork and virtual collaboration instead of simple narrations and monologues. In addition, students are sometimes involved in part time or even full time jobs that significantly reduce their time of preparation for educational activities. The paper presents an innovative cloud computing approach and its implementation within HyperTraining, a collaborative learning framework for career development and internship programmes. It also illustrates how such a system increases the performance in special education and training programmes, as well as the manner the private companies can help universities and colleges in the education act. Nevertheless, it highlights the importance of blended learning concepts and tools used for knowledge building in the individual study process or technical skills and competences developed within practice activities during special educational processes such as laboratories, projects, even internship programmes, continuing the work started in [1], [2].