Project summary
The UbiLAB project aims towards creating a framework for ubiquitous virtual, remote and software laboratories implemented in the cloud – UbiLAB.
As a result of the limitations imposed by the Covid-19 Pandemic, the presence of students in the university laboratories is significantly limited. Coming from a university teaching background, all project partners have identified that at the moment, the most affected aspect of students’ study experience are the laboratory experiments that used to be conducted on-site, in the laboratories. In this project, we will be working towards implementing digital technologies in the process of laboratory work and experiments. These are rarely completely transferred into the digital world. Nevertheless, today’s challenges have pushed forward the need to intensively explore down this road and provide as good solutions as possible.
Taking into account the learning experience educators are used to providing their students, we have identified two most difficult challenges: a nearly realistic substitute for learning experiences in the actual physical laboratories and a nearly realistic substitute for the social element of collaborative learning and “making friends” in the process. Thus, the innovative cloud-based UboLAB framework should address these challenges. And on this track, the UbiLAB framework would enable vast possibilities for digitizing actual laboratory experiments and enhancing the reality of students’ experience.
The project is proposed by three higher education organizations: The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (FEEIT) at the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, N. Macedonia, University of Maribor (UM FERI), Slovenia, and the Anhalt University (HSA), Germany. All three participants are highly skilled in the proposed activities that will be conducted to realize the project, and have a great inside insight into the challenges being addressed in the project.
The project envisions an innovative framework, designed to support different types of endpoints: hardware devices, virtual devices, software solutions. The UbiLAB framework will: present a foundation for a rich and diverse set of laboratory experiments; enable customizable modules supporting software and hardware exercises; promote collaborative engagement on several levels; be extensible as open-source software.
The planned activities enabling the fulfilment of the project goals comprise research and architecture design for the virtual laboratory framework; development of the core framework elements; design and implementation of software-based remote laboratories; design and implementation of hardware-based remote laboratories; and finally designing and publishing the UbiLAB framework multimedia manual and example exercises in order to disseminate the results and support the use of the framework.
After the successful realization of the project activities, we expect that the UbiLAB project would succeed in producing its main result – a freely available open-source UbiLAB framework for digital remote and virtual laboratories. At first, it will be directly applicable to technical universities, but also expandable to address digitalization issues in many other departments (technology, medicine, civil engineering, architecture). Finally, the UbiLAB project will enable the exchange of good practices within the European partners. The establishment of the UbiLAB framework will then contribute to the advancement of conducting laboratory experiments and research in the virtual world, strengthening Europe’s digital capacities. The impact of the project will be local for each university and country, but also regional through the close cooperation of the project partners. Consequently, the analysis and dissemination of the project results would have greater value and impact, hence including the experience of students and staff coming from various geographical, cultural and educational environments.
The immediate impact of the project should be the normalization of the education process which has been severely impaired by the covid-19 pandemic. As institutions of higher education, the participating organisations and their students as the target groups will thus be positively affected by the project already in the short-term. The long-term impact will be the general improvement of the conditions of laboratory-based education and the modernization of existing educational practices. Furthermore, through the joint development, testing, and usage of the framework, we expect an increase in networking, collaboration, socialization and experience exchange among the participants.