Browsing by Author "Jacob, Frederico L."
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- A comprehensive VISIR bibliographical referencePublication . Silva, Mariana Miguel; Fidalgo, André; Marques, Maria Arcelina; Alves, Gustavo R.; Salah, Razwan M.; Jacob, Frederico L.VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) is a remote laboratory environment in use in research and academic institutions since 2001. This paper presents a comprehensive VISIR bibliographical reference, including a performance analysis, which reviews the publication data and the citation indexes, and a science mapping, that presents the cognitive structure. The procedure to retrieve, aggregate, process, and analyze data is based on documented sources and is also presented in the article, including some comments on specific issues faced while applying the proposed methodology. The paper characterizes the publication evolution over time, the most prolific authors and their networks, the main research topics, the most frequent sources, and the most cited documents. The available results show a mature and evolving collaborative network and an expansion trend that allows predicting that VISIR is not only the source of many academic and applied research publications, but also a popular and continuously developing remote laboratory and the basis of a very active community.
- In search of an efficient assessment method for laboratory activitiesPublication . Alberto, António Silveira D.P.; Guimarães, Pedro M.S.; Jacob, Frederico L.There is a consensus in academia about the importance of laboratory activities in the learning process. At all levels of education, learning by doing is vitally important for obtaining the necessary technical skills expected. There is less agreement on how to assess the student’s performance and the skills developed in these tasks. Thus, this paper deals with the importance of assessing laboratory work and the best way to do it. To this purpose, an experience carried out in a physics subject is shared. This has the peculiar characteristic of having many students every academic year (around 300) performing experiments in the laboratory. The analysis is done following documented methodologies, and a corresponding and correct quantitative assessment can be determined for each student at the end of the subject.
- VISIR remote lab: Identifying limitations and improvement ideasPublication . Jacob, Frederico L.; Marques, M.A.; Fidalgo, André; Cristobal Ruiz, Elio San; García Loro, Félix; Castro, ManuelThe main idea behind this study is the overall improvement of VISIR remote laboratory infrastructure. Therefore, hypotheses are specified that, independently of the instruments, software, and available experiments, provide new tools for configuring circuits, acquiring measurements, and showing results to users, by maintaining compatibility with most of the presently available hardware and software. The reasoning behind the proposed solutions is solving hardware and software documented gaps in the existing VISIR remote laboratory, even if some of them are economical and/or reliability issues, and not necessarily technical or pedagogical. So, the main purpose is to define guidelines for a direct approach to optimize individually each of VISIR main blocks, and not to focus on the development of a new remote experimental system.
- VISIR Remote Laboratory: The Switching Matrix LimitationsPublication . Jacob, Frederico L.; Fidalgo, André V.; Ruiz, Elio San Cristobal; Loro, Felix Garcia; Lázaro Jacob, Frederico; Fidalgo, AndréIn a rapidly evolving world, technology plays a fundamental role in transforming the way students learn and interact with theoretical and practical concepts. A striking example of this progress is the Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR), a popular remote laboratory platform developed for teaching specific subjects such as analog electronics and electricity. This laboratory allows students to conduct practical experiments over the internet, potentially using real equipment, installed in a distant location, and controlled remotely. Therefore, students can access the VISIR remote laboratory through a web browser and interact with instruments and circuits as if they were in a conventional laboratory. However, probably because it has not received any relevant updates for quite some time, this platform presents several limitations, which will be explored in this paper, essentially those currently existing in the Switching Matrix. This approach was based on information published in scientific literature combined with feedback from intensive user and owner experiences. This evaluation aims to identify various weaknesses (technical, educational or pedagogical, operational, and economical) of the Switching Matrix, which may be considered threats to the future of the VISIR remote laboratory and affect its performance and stability, as well as its expansion to a wider community of users. It should be noted that suggestions for solutions to correct the limitations of this part of the remote platform are not given.