Design of an electronic instrumentation virtual laboratory based on free-open resources

Increasing cross-influence of technology on education and modern pedagogical approaches, could be integrated to act as an academic whole in the universities for the improvement of teaching-learning processes. By means of virtual laboratories, teachers and students can use technological means and web infrastructure to overcome classroom and laboratory limitations in equipment, personnel and space, additionally, by the guidance of correct pedagogical strategies, they can fulfill requirements of the education process not fully covered at classroom, during course time. Through proper design considerations, the operation of a virtual laboratory can be based on open-free hardware and software resources currently being used worldwide and widely known, available without any cost. A structural framework for the implementation of a virtual laboratory on electronic instrumentation to be supported on free-open resources is proposed. The proposed framework shows major economic advantages over other virtual laboratories based on commercial solutions; budget constraints due to high investments in license and proprietary hardware purchases are reduced. Long term sustainability is favored because of the growing worldwide efforts and communities continuously providing support, sharing resources and developing new materials related with the project.