New Perspectives in Science Education

Remote labs have been proven to be a valuable resource in education and science communication. Students are free to access them and gain hands-on experiences, which would only be possible in a lab environment, despite any safety or cost issues. Embedding remote experiments in teaching is a scalable, flexible, and time-efficient way to demonstrate nature phenomena and research methods. Unfortunately, the technical implementation of making an experiment remotely accessible and controllable is associated with costs and effort.

During a project for the digitization of teaching, we implemented a framework [1] for virtualizing photonics experiments, purely based on open-source technologies. We added actuators and sensors to the experiment via 3D-printed attachments, which are controlled by an Internet of Things (IoT)-like network of microcontrollers. Everything is controlled by a JavaScript-based Single Page Application (SPA) that runs on every device with a modern web browser. The student sees a 3D representation of the experiment, can manipulate every component usually controlled manually, and sees the result as a video stream. We designed the application to be as close and immersive as possible to the lab experience.

Based on this technical implementation, we also developed a best practice for implementing learning content in an attractive and state-of-the-art manner directly within the 3D visualization of the experiment. Our method particularly relies on sequential storytelling for historical and research narratives, as well as gamification for an abstract, interactive visualization of the experiment itself.

With the integrated educational content, the remote experiment app offers a comprehensive, holistic learning experience for self-paced learning. By now, there are various experiments implemented with a remote access and used in the practical lab-training course for the MSc Photonics program at the Abbe School of Photonics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Germany. The learning and gamification layer are adaptable to various user groups, allowing us to offer state-of-the-art research from the lab to non-university curriculums and science communication.