Remote Online Laboratories
June 2000 — December 2006
"Other universities are following MIT’s lead in using the Web to assess student writing abilities. This innovation,
already known among writing program administrators as ‘the MIT Model,’ allows colleges to design tests for their institution that reflect each
institution’s educational philosophy and closely resemble the kinds of writing situations its students will encounter during their educational and
professional careers."
—Dr. Leslie Perelman, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
The iLab project is dedicated to the proposition that online laboratories—real laboratories accessed through the
Internet—can enrich science and engineering education by greatly expanding the range of experiments that students are exposed to in the course of
their education. Unlike conventional laboratories, iLab experiments can be shared across a university or across the world. The iLab vision is to share
expensive equipment and educational materials associated with lab experiments as broadly as possible within higher education and beyond, thus profoundly
changing the economics of engineering education.
iLab teams have created remote laboratories at MIT in microelectronics, chemical engineering, polymer crystallization,
structural engineering, and signal processing as case studies for understanding the complex requirements of operating remote lab experiments and scaling
their use to large groups of students at MIT and around the world.
One such laboratory, which allows students to take measurements of the current/voltage characteristics of transistors and
other microelectronic devices, is now used every year in three different MIT courses. It is also regularly used by hundreds of students in several
countries on four different continents. In addition, seven other iLab experiments were created to continue to promote shared access to high-quality
laboratory equipment by educational institutions around the world.
To date, iLabs have been used in credit-bearing assignments by over 4,500 students, including students in the U.S., China,
Australia, Sweden, Italy, Greece, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Investigators:
Prof. Steve Lerman, Center for Educational Computing Initiatives
Prof. Jesús del Alamo, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science
Prof. Clark Colton, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Prof. Eduardo Kausel, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Prof. Greg Rutledge, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Jud Harward, Center for Educational Computing Initiatives
Prof. Kevin Amaratunga, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Prof. Larry Bucciarelli, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Prof. Jackie Ying, Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Additional Information:
http://icampus.mit.edu/ilabs/
http://openilabs.mit.edu/
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MIT Online Assessment Tool
July 2000 — June 2003
The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department created a Web-based delivery system for lectures, based on audio
narrated slides and interactive uses of different combinations of online presentations based on narrated Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides and interactive
assignments that provide immediate feedback, and deployed it in several core departmental subjects. This included completely eliminating live lectures in
the introductory computer science course from fall 2000 through spring 2004, and continuing to use the material as lecture supplements. All students
clearly agree there are strong advantages to the online lectures. It permits them to repeat missed details, clarify confusions, and works with the course
material on their own schedules. The system also includes a platform (xTutor) for developing and administering online homework assignments with interactive
tutorial feedback, and these assignments are now a staple feature of several department subjects.
Lectures and interactive problems in introductory computer science, artificial intelligence, and circuit design have been made
publicly available via MIT OpenCourse- Ware, where they have been accessed by thousands of self-learners, and iCampus is working more formally with
universities in China and Australia to support delivery of the lectures and tutoring problems at these institutions.
Investigators:
Prof. Tómas Lozano-Pérez, Dept. of EECS
Prof. Eric Grimson, Dept. of EECS
Prof. Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Dept. of EECS
Dr. Christopher J. Terman, Dept. of EECS
Additional Information:
http://icampus.mit.edu/xtutor/
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