Virtual laboratory development for teaching power electronics

Distance learning has been promoted across the whole education sector as more people educate themselves after work or as part of their professional development. Web-based teaching is therefore emerging rapidly because of the need and the development in the Internet and information technology. The hardware experiments can therefore be redesigned such that they also can be accessed via the web. The proposed virtual laboratory is not a web-based simulation. It is a real power electronics experiment conducted in the laboratory by remote control and monitoring by web-based tools. The facility is useful for today´s requirement of teaching via the Internet. The paper demonstrates how a power electronics experiment is programmed in a remotely controlled laboratory setup. From there students can conduct the experiment without any limitation of time and space. Feedback from the students is also very positive and it can also give an alternative solution for conducting a hardware laboratory when distance learning is used.