Gustavo R. Alves

Bio: Gustavo R. Alves is an academic researcher from Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto. The author has contributed to research in topics: Remote laboratory & Engineering education. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 220 publications receiving 2035 citations. Previous affiliations of Gustavo R. Alves include Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina & International Student Exchange Programs.

Addressing Software Impact in the Design of Remote Laboratories

Abstract: Remote Laboratories or WebLabs constitute a first-order didactic resource in engineering faculties. However, in many cases, they lack a proper software design, both in the client and server side, which degrades their quality and academic usefulness. This paper presents the main characteristics of a Remote Laboratory, analyzes the software technologies to implement the client and server sides in a WebLab, and correlates these technologies with the characteristics to facilitate the selection of a technology to implement a WebLab. The results obtained suggest the adoption of a Service Oriented Laboratory Architecture-based approach for the design of future Remote Laboratories so that client-agnostic Remote Laboratories and Remote Laboratory composition are enabled. The experience with the real Remote Laboratory, WebLab-Deusto, is also presented.

Using remote labs in education: two little ducks in remote experimentation

Abstract: «Second Best to Being There» is the title of the first chapter of this book It is written by pioneers (Shor Bohus, Aktan) in remote experimentation in 1993 and it describes that a student/teacher can access a real experiment through Internet as being in the real lab Chemistry, materials, electronics, physics and control engineering integrated in different remote labs are presented: iLAB (MIT, USA), VISIR (BTH, Sweden), labShare (UTS, Australia), and LiLA (Cambridge, UK)

Informal learning recognition through a cloud ecosystem

Abstract: Learning and teaching processes, like all human activities, can be mediated through the use of tools. Information and communication technologies are now widespread within education. Their use in the daily life of teachers and learners affords engagement with educational activities at any place and time and not necessarily linked to an institution or a certificate. In the absence of formal certification, learning under these circumstances is known as informal learning. Despite the lack of certification, learning with technology in this way presents opportunities to gather information about and present new ways of exploiting an individual's learning. Cloud technologies provide ways to achieve this through new architectures, methodologies, and workflows that facilitate semantic tagging, recognition, and acknowledgment of informal learning activities. The transparency and accessibility of cloud services mean that institutions and learners can exploit existing knowledge to their mutual benefit. The TRAILER project facilitates this aim by providing a technological framework using cloud services, a workflow, and a methodology. The services facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge associated with informal learning activities ranging from the use of social software through widgets, computer gaming, and remote laboratory experiments. Data from these activities are shared among institutions, learners, and workers. The project demonstrates the possibility of gathering information related to informal learning activities independently of the context or tools used to carry them out.

An Integrated Reusable Remote Laboratory to Complement Electronics Teaching

Abstract: The great majority of the courses on science and technology areas where lab work is a fundamental part of the apprenticeship was not until recently available to be taught at distance. This reality is changing with the dissemination of remote laboratories. Supported by resources based on new information and communication technologies, it is now possible to remotely control a wide variety of real laboratories. However, most of them are designed specifically to this purpose, are inflexible and only on its functionality they resemble the real ones. In this paper, an alternative remote lab infrastructure devoted to the study of electronics is presented. Its main characteristics are, from a teacher's perspective, reusability and simplicity of use, and from a students' point of view, an exact replication of the real lab, enabling them to complement or finish at home the work started at class. The remote laboratory is integrated in the Learning Management System in use at the school, and therefore, may be combined with other web experiments and e-learning strategies, while safeguarding security access issues.

How Remote Labs Impact on Course Outcomes: Various Practices Using VISIR

Abstract: As technology is increasingly being seen as a facilitator to learning, open remote laboratories are increasingly available and in widespread use around the world. They provide some advantages over traditional hands-on labs or simulations. This paper presents the results of integrating the open remote laboratory VISIR into several courses, in various contexts and using various methodologies. These integrations, all related to higher education engineering, were designed by teachers with different perspectives to achieve a range of learning outcomes. The degree to which these VISIR-related outcomes were accomplished is discussed. The results reflect the levels of student engagement and learning and of teacher involvement. From the analysis, a connection between these two aspects was traced, although only related to the user profiles. VISIR is shown to be always of benefit for more motivated students, but this benefit can be maximized under particular conditions and characteristics.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Inductive Teaching and Learning Methods: Definitions, Comparisons, and Research Bases

Abstract: Traditional engineering instruction is deductive, beginning with theories and progressing to the applications of those theories Alternative teaching approaches are more inductive Topics are introduced by presenting specific observations, case studies or problems, and theories are taught or the students are helped to discover them only after the need to know them has been established This study reviews several of the most commonly used inductive teaching methods, including inquiry learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, case-based teaching, discovery learning, and just-in-time teaching The paper defines each method, highlights commonalities and specific differences, and reviews research on the effectiveness of the methods While the strength of the evidence varies from one method to another, inductive methods are consistently found to be at least equal to, and in general more effective than, traditional deductive methods for achieving a broad range of learning outcomes