International Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology (IJEET) Volume 12, Issue 6, June 2021, pp. 221-230, Article ID: IJEET_12_06_021 Available online at https://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJEET?Volume=12&Issue=6 ISSN Print: 0976-6545 and ISSN Online: 0976-6553 DOI: 10.34218/IJEET.12.6.2021.021 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES FOR LABORATORY LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION - OPEN SOURCE ALTERNATIVES K. Krishnaveni Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology(A), Hyderabad, Telangana, India. M. Swamy Das Professor, Department of Computer Science Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology(A), Hyderabad, Telangana, India. G. Suresh Babu Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology(A), Gandipet, Hyderabad, India T. Murali Krishna Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology(A), Gandipet, Hyderabad, India N. Vasantha Gowri Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology(A), Gandipet, Hyderabad, India ABSTRACT Laboratory and practical work are characteristic features of an undergraduate degree program in any engineering discipline. Trying to incorporate practical work successfully in to the engineering curriculum can present a number of challenges. Laboratory and practical work are expensive to run, sometimes requiring specialist equipment to be purchased that can rapidly become obsolete. Despite the challenges, the application of theory in a practical setting remains an expected and fundamental part of the engineering curriculum. The challenge now is for program teams to consider how the knowledge, skills and attributes that we desire to develop through such practical activities, can be facilitated in an appropriate, effective and efficient way within an engineering degree program for the 21st century. The aim of this review paper is to summarize the literature available in the form of books, journal papers and articles https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 221 editor@iaeme.com Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education Open Source Alternatives on the alternative approaches for learning, assessment and evaluation of laboratories in the engineering education Key words: Laboratory learning, assessment, Learning Management Systems, rubrics, hands-off-laboratory work, virtual labs, peer learning, peer assessment, laboratory notebook, report, open source alternatives Cite this Article: K. Krishnaveni and M. Swamy Das, G. Suresh Babu, T. Murali Krishna and N. Vasantha Gowri, Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education - Open Source Alternatives, International Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology (IJEET), 12(6), 2021, pp. 221-230. https://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJEET?Volume=12&Issue=6 1. INTRODUCTION The world is changing very fast with the emerging technologies and global competition. These changes are being prompting the educational institutions/organizations to produce Engineers with strong technical knowledge including attitude and leadership skills. As per the BVR Mohan Reddy Committee report on “Engineering Education in India – Short and Medium Term Perspectives”, majority of the engineers are not employable due to lack of technical skills. In this process, AICTE released a document “Model Curriculum for Undergraduate Degree Courses in Engineering & Technology”, in Jan 2018 and in July 2020, announced the New Education Policy (NEP-2020). The main focus of those policy documents is on Outcome Based Education (OBE) and strengthening the technical and innovative skills. It is possible with only laboratory learning and thus it is an important component [1-3]. Many of the qualities and higher level learning goals traditionally gained through laboratory-based experimentation and investigation. There are several challenges with the traditional hands-on lab work. Safety issues are predominant and high cost, confinement of tightly-timed sessions. We can overcome those challenges by using the latest technologies and tools, which will helps to achieve the skills without undertaking any hands-on practical work. Some of these approaches are: hands-off practical work and the Virtual Labs, explained in the next section. Assessment in education, is a systematic process that documents and use empirical data to measure the students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. It provides feedback from the student to teacher where teacher can try to improve the student’s learning. Thus it is a ongoing process used to improve the learning quality. There are several types of assessments including the formative and summative assessments. Evaluation is a systematic process used to collect, analyze, and interpret the information to determine the student’s achievement towards instructional objectives”. It uses methods and measures to judge the students learning and understanding. The evaluation focuses on students’ grades and reflect classroom components other than course content and mastery level. It is a measure that tells what a student learned and used to gauge the quality of instruction [4]. 2. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES FOR LABORATORY LEARNING In this paper we discuss about two alternative approaches for the traditional laboratory learning 2.1. Hands-off practical work [5] An enquiry-based learning approach can be used to develop a deeper understanding of theoretical concept(s), presenting a real or simulated scenario or problem that can be solved outside the laboratory by: https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 222 editor@iaeme.com K. Krishnaveni and M. Swamy Das, G. Suresh Babu, T. Murali Krishna and N. Vasantha Gowri • designing a procedure or protocol • designing or selecting an equipment • investigating equipment that is not functioning correctly • responding to a ‘case study’ of a real world problem from industry/commerce Students can be given a raw set of real data (e.g. manufacturer’s data or data obtained from industry or derived previously by staff or students) [6] suggest that and be required to do one or more of the following • analyses the data and present the results in a report, complete with a discussion linking the theory and practice • undertake an error analysis of laboratory measurement systems • interpret the data and suggest what further experimentation is required Similarly, students can be given a scenario in which to role play that will actively encourage independent learning. 2.2. Virtual labs Physical distances and the lack of resources make us unable to perform experiments, especially when they involve sophisticated instruments. Also, good teachers are always a scarce resource. Web-based and video-based courses address the issue of teaching to some extent. Conducting joint experiments by two participating institutions and also sharing costly resources has always been a challenge. With the present day internet and computer technologies the above limitations can no more hamper students and researchers in enhancing their skills and knowledge. Also, in a country such as ours, costly instruments and equipment need to be shared with fellow researchers to the extent possible. Web enabled experiments can be designed for remote operation and viewing so as to enthuse the curiosity and innovation into students. This would help in learning basic and advanced concepts through remote experimentation. Today most equipment has a computer interface for control and data storage. It is possible to design good experiments around some of this equipment which would enhance the learning of a student. Internet-based experimentation further permits use of resources, knowledge, software, and data available on the web, apart from encouraging skillful experiments being simultaneously performed at points separated in space and possibly, time[7]. 3. LABORATORY LEARNING ASSESSMENT AND LEARNING OUTCOMES The professional programs like Engineering, Medicine and other science-oriented programs will generally have both theory and laboratory courses. Laboratory courses provides an opportunity for the students to acquire practical knowledge through “learning by doing” concept. Assessing such learning can enhance students’ conceptual understanding of the relationship of theory-practice, higher learning skills, and practical competence in laboratory work to solve engineering problems [8]. For every laboratory course, we generally define specific objectives. Students and assessors should be clear about these objectives and form the basis for all assessment decisions. We can assess several learning outcomes using laboratory work. Some of the learning outcomes are: • Students’ technical and manipulative skills in the usage of laboratory equipment, tools, materials, computer software • An understanding of laboratory procedures, including health, safety, and scientific methods https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 223 editor@iaeme.com Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education Open Source Alternatives • Extensive understanding of concepts and related theories through experimentation and visualizing them in an authentic manner • The Scientific inquiry and problem-solving skills, including o Identification, understanding and defining engineering problems o formulation of hypotheses, designing of solution for the experimental o Data collection through observation and experimentation o Interpretation of experimental results and testing hypotheses o Drawing of inferences/conclusions o Communication of processes, results and their implications, limitations • Complementary skills like collaboration, team work • Preparing them for future possible roles in laboratory-based work a. Benefits of laboratory Learning Assessment: With the assessment of laboratory learning, there are several advantages. Some of them are: • Learners can extend and enhance their understanding of theoretical knowledge with practical verification • Improves the students’ self-confidence and sense of achievement to complete the laboratory tasks • Provides an opportunity for experimental learning through trial and error. This will contribute for the deeper understanding of concepts by reducing the learner anxiety about making mistakes • Encourage the development of critical thinking and independent reasoning through practical training in data collection, testing of hypotheses, data collection and analysis • Develops interpersonal skills including teamwork, collaborative and peer learning and negotiation power • Provides an informal learning environment for the quiet or shy students to contribute for learning activities • Provides more opportunities for the teachers to monitor students in person and provide timely assistance and feedback • Helps to acquire specific skills and capabilities required in workplaces relevant to the discipline • Rewards for those learners who behave responsible and ethical (who follow safety procedures, maintains punctuality, helps others, maintains collaboration, reliability) • With the open-ended and flexible laboratory tasks, learners may have greater responsibility and autonomic in making decisions, and increases motivation as the learners allowed to work with their personal interests and use their creativity b. Challenges in Laboratory Learning Assessment • Safety is the major concern and operational cost is high, especially in higher education programs. Teachers may be reluctant to conduct assessment as they prefer simple formats like quizzes, viva and written reports of lab work • The design of assessment method for laboratory-based learning a challenge as it usually has wide-ranging objectives, comprising practical and motor skills(active), comprehensive understanding of concept, theories, critical thinking and reasoning skills of scientific inquiry (tacit knowledge and articulated knowledge). https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 224 editor@iaeme.com K. Krishnaveni and M. Swamy Das, G. Suresh Babu, T. Murali Krishna and N. Vasantha Gowri • Assessment of students in the laboratory environment is a highly resource intensive activity. It is a time-consuming for both students and staff. • It is difficult to keep assessment tasks well aligned as the laboratory tasks are of different types • Providing autonomy to the students in the design and experimentation may create several challenges. It also increases the workloads of staff especially with the students of large classes. • Usually the assessment of lab work is confined to time-limited sessions. This type of assessment may be disadvantage for some students and it can be challenging for students with disabilities. • Generally many students will not accept mistakes or acknowledge the failures of their experimentation due to fear or grades. They may try show successful outcomes by altering experimental results, which may lead to fraudulent conduct. So the educators have to highlight the value of learning from both success and failures and rewarding such learning in assessment. c. Laboratory Learning Assessment Strategies The Table 1, gives different laboratory learning approaches and assessments and Table 2 describes a sample rubric for the criterion of ‘Scientific inquiry’. Table 1 Different Laboratory Learning Approaches and Assessments Strategy Align learning objectives with assessment [9] (sample rubric shown in Table 1.0) [9-10] Learning type Requirements and skills to be assessed • Laboratorybased learning • with objectives Basic skills and techniques, support comprehension of key concepts through observation and manipulation demonstration of skills and capabilities with tighter time limits and low degree of control and autonomy in the design, experimentation Assessment Tools Rubrics Direct Observation Structured • mini-practicals Wide range of skills including assessment of group and teamwork skills Foundational technical skills at early stages, demonstration of ability to operate withing occupational health and safety regulations Systematic plan or rubric, oral assessment; supplementary assessments – peer, self and external assessment Use of laboratory notebooks [11] – Observation Record details of all the experiments in the laboratory Laboratory methods and results as running record; Weekly assessment Make assessment criteria explicit and teach students with best practices Use of laboratory reports Prepared on completion of experiment Demonstrate students’ observation, interpretation and reflection abilities Communication competency Ethical issues Feedback and grades use templates, give clear instructions, explicit assessment criteria and guidelines Use learning logs Journalkeeping is aligned Record of routine activities, communication and critical skills Record incidents at the time of experimentation for later discussions Start with Peer assessment and class discussion Scientific concepts and/or practical skills to explain to others (useful for revision, consolidation of students understanding or theory-practical relationship) Peer assessment and selfassessment supported by assessment rubrics • • • • • • • • • Have students act as Group learning teachers https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 225 editor@iaeme.com Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education Open Source Alternatives Laboratorywork integrated with mini-tests Conduct test and quizzes Poster task after an experiment Hold poster sessions carried out, group projects linked to a presentation Have students give presentations[12] • Students’ conceptual understanding of practical work ( useful for the teacher to LMS/ICT tools where to focus in the subsequent teaching activities) • Develop posters based on experiments carried out Observational, analytical and communication skills Encourage students to be creative and reflective Tutors or peers assessment by giving fast and formative feedback engage in assessment forums; clear instruction about the objectives and presentation; rewards for the contribution; Analytical, creative skills, teamwork, collaboration, presentation skills Challenges and implications LMS and seminars and workshops • • Group • experiment/ set of experiments • • Get students to complete projects [13] Time intensive projects Make per-laboratory Pre-laboratory work as assessment work task Ensure fairness Use Technology Students with disabilities Pre-laboratory assessment • • • • • • Deep learning and scientific inquiry motivate students to explore new ideas and areas Use staged approach ◦ begin with a given experiment, ◦ move students to design conduct their own experiment, ◦ oral and written presentation of processes, outcomes supported • Peer and class assessment Set students task in groups, ask them to design use discussion forums, Wikis to track Video recording of lab activities, online quizzes • Experiment planning skills Design/Plan for experiment (as a flowchart or any graphical diagrams) • Risk and safety issues Writing of key aspects of the researching • and procedure • Engage an education support for a students with disabilities Plan and accommodate any significant differences in the lab experiences • • Students’ laboratory safety formative assessments based on the simulations, support the administration of assessment and reduce workload Use of tools like smart phones for students’ laboratory assessment results in central database, accessible to students Table 2 Rubric for Scientific inquiry, Fay at el. 2007[10] Inquiry level Low (0) Medium(1) High(2) Exceptional(3) Provided to the student Problem, procedure and methods Problem and procedure Problem is provided to the student A “raw” phenomenon Description Student conducts the experiment and verifies the results with the manual Student interprets the data in order to propose viable solutions Student develops a procedure for investigating the problem, decides what data to gather, and interprets the data in order to propose viable solutions Student chooses the problems to explore, develops a procedure for investigating the problem, decides what data to gather, and interprets the data to propose viable solutions https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 226 editor@iaeme.com K. Krishnaveni and M. Swamy Das, G. Suresh Babu, T. Murali Krishna and N. Vasantha Gowri 4. OPEN SOURCE ALTERNATIVES FOR ASSESSMENT Students’ laboratory learning can be assessed in both formative and summative manner. These assessments can be carried out using Learning Management Systems (LMS) that provide facilities to carry-out the assessment. Some of the activities provided by the LMSes are including assignment, quizzes, forums, wikis, chat, virtual labs with automatic assessment using use-cases, reports, simulation, surveys, feedback etc. Most of these activities allows either synchronous/asynchronous communication between the learner and educator through comments, feedback. We have several open source LMSes that helps to carry-out the assessment apart form other activities of Teaching and Learning. Some of the Open Source learning management systems are: MOODLE, Canvas, Sakai, eFront, OLAT, aTutor, .LRN, Dokeos, Fedena, ILIAS, LAMS, OpenOLAT, Chamilo etc. Some important features of Moodle for laboratory learning assessment are: • Free and Open Source Learning Management System used by many Universities and organizations for Teaching-learning and assessment-knowledge-center. • Assignment activity where the educator can give a lab-oriented task and the student can submit reports after completion of experimentation. The educator may assess and communicate with comments/feedback with which student may know their strengths and weaknesses. • Virtual Lab activity (a plugin to be installed) allows the learner to carry-out experiment using simulators/programming environment and assess by direct observation/ manually/ automatically with use cases. • Quiz activity to conduct tests to measure the understanding level of students. • Forum/Discussion board for graded discussions among the peer groups, learners. • Chat activity for direct interactive communication to discuss issues related to experimentation. • Wiki, Poll, Questionnaire, feedback activities can also help for the assessment. a. Continuous Internal Evaluation (CIE) of Laboratory Learning using Moodle All the strategies mentioned in section III, can be used to assess the students in the laboratory learning based on the type of task given. For the routine engineering laboratory work, with the alternative laboratory learning approaches, like rubric-based, routine lab notebook and lab reports through which we can continuously assess and evaluate the learners. For the summative assessment and evaluation, we can use quizz/slip-tests, virtual labs. As mentioned earlier, we used the rubric-based assessment to measure students’ learning and learning outcomes. It is not possible to define a uniform set of rubrics as the scoring criteria vary across different disciplines and courses [14]. The main components of a rubric are: • The dimension (Criteria to be assessed) • Descriptors (characteristics that are associated with each dimension), and • Scale/level (a rating scale that defines student’s level of mastery within each criteria. [ 4] Table 3 is a sample rubric adopted by CBIT for Continuous Internal Evaluation of laboratories courses. It is a 5x5 matrix with five criterion (Performance Indicators), each of levels 1 to 5( 5 highest, 1: lowest). Description helps the assess the learner capabilities. Each experiment is will be assessed for 25 marks and the the total PI score =𝛴PIi, where i= 1to 5. https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 227 editor@iaeme.com Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education Open Source Alternatives Table 3 Sample rubric for Lab Continuous Internal Evaluation Sno 5 4 2 1/0 Student well prepared, clear specifications, plan/design with additional information Adequately prepared for the experimentation with specifications and plan/design Minimal preparation and without clear specifications and plan/design Student not prepared for the experimentation and no notebook book 1 Pre-Experiment Preparation work 2 Experimentation Student conducts experiment with all possible test cases, Student solves the problem with all possible test cases Student solves the problem with few test cases, Student does not conduct experiment Post Experiment Analysis [Viva, Inference] Demonstrates the simulation/ findings /Hardware results Infers and answer all the Questions posed by Instructor Demonstrates Partial results and inference; Able to answer Few Questions posed by Instructor Demonstrate s Partial results and inference; Unable to answer the Questions posed by Instructor Neither demonstrates results nor answer the Questions posed by Instructor Report Writing Report with wellStudent report is as organized content, per the format and visuals, graphics, specifications citations and references Student report is incomplete and inadequate Report with lot of technical errors. Strongly encouraged to refer report format Conduct (Ethics, Safety, Team Work) Excellent team spirit, strictly follows ethics and safety precautions Follows safety precautions and ethical practices Does not follow safety precautions, ethical practices, no team work 3 4 5 Performance Indicator\ Level Follows the safety precautions, practices ethics and poor team work PI Score Total score 5 SAMPLE USE CASES Case 1. The use of on-line practical classes to reinforce theoretical concepts in engineering and construction courses Wayne Hall, School of Engineering, University of Plymouth www.engsc.ac.uk/an/mini_projects/tensile/tensile_ laboratory.html This project has developed a series of interactive simulations and movie clips to reinforce theoretical concepts in a structures module. The web link has e-practicals based on virtual tensile tests available for teachers to use with their students. Case 2. ReLOAD : Real labs operated at distance Martin Levesley, Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds http://reload.leeds.ac.uk/ The ReLOAD project enables real engineering science experiments in the area of dynamics and control to be undertaken remotely via the internet and through partnerships with HEIs across the world. The website demonstrates the technology and allows access to the experiments and associated teaching material. Case.3 Development of a web-based telelaboratory for process control engineering Zoltan Nagy, Loughborough University This Engineering Subject Centre funded project aims to enhance the teaching and learning of process dynamics and control by developing an interactive software environment in Labview that combines the concepts of virtual and remote real experiments. The aim is to develop experimental rigs which can be used in the classroom to illustrate theoretical concepts of process control with real-time experiments on real processes. https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 228 editor@iaeme.com K. Krishnaveni and M. Swamy Das, G. Suresh Babu, T. Murali Krishna and N. Vasantha Gowri Case.4 Evaluative and advisory support to encourage innovative teaching – engineering (EASEIT-ENG) www.easeit-eng.ac.uk/ EASEIT-ENG was a TLTP3 project that developed a standardised evaluation method for engineering learning technology materials and produced an evaluation manual. The resources could be adopted for use in identifying and evaluating learning technology materials to support laboratory and practical work www.engsc.ac.uk/resources/easeit/index.aspThe project team reported their reflections on the project, including a list of case studies conducted: www.engsc.ac.uk/downloads/scholarart/easeit_eng_ reflect.pdf 6. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, the authors made an attempt to recapitulate the initiatives by regulatory bodies in respect of the importance of assessment methods of laboratories in engineering education which help the institutes to effectively implement the OBE. They also mentioned the use cases available in the literature. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors sincerely thank the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (A), Hyderabad for the support and encouragement given in this regard. 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Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff Development [7] https://www.vlab.co.in/#philosophy [8] https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/assessing-laboratory-learning [9] https://hke3r.cetl.hku.hk/pdf/Rubrics-for-Engineering-Education.pdf [10] Fay et al, “A Rubric to Characterise Inquiry in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory”, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 2007, 8(2), PP 212–219. [11] R G Quinnell et al., “eScience: evaluating electronic laboratory notebooks in chemistry research”, Proceedings ascilite Auckland 2009, PP 799–803 [12] Pearce et al., “Does Marcel Marceau have a place in the chemistry laboratory?” Proceedings of the 16th UniServe Science Annual Conference, Sydney, 2010, PP 92–97. https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 229 editor@iaeme.com Alternative Approaches for Laboratory Learning and Assessment in Engineering Education Open Source Alternatives [13] Ketpichainarong, et al., “Enhanced learning of biotechnology students by an inquiry-based cellulase laboratory”, International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 2010, Vol. 5(2), PP 169–187. [14] Elliott, K et al., “Teaching scientific inquiry skills: A handbook for bioscience educators in Australian universities”, Australian Learning and Teaching Council: Strawberry Hills,2010. https://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJEET 230 editor@iaeme.com