An assessment of eLearning technologies to support telecommunications laboratory learning objectives

While current distance learning (DL), now sometimes referred to as "eLearning", technologies focus on bringing the classroom to a remote student, the next generation of eLearning, has the potential to bring remote students into the laboratory. Virtual reality systems are being developed to engage the user as fully as possible within a computer-supported environment. This paper describes an on-going implementation of an environment that allows remote interaction with equipment and other participants that previously required co-location. Technology is used to extend a telecommunications laboratory (lab) to enable acquisition of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills. New hardware and software are being applied to develop a virtual lab experience through which remote students can attain learning objectives as well as students that use a traditional face-to-face (F2F) lab environment. A same-time/different-place (STDP) learning environment can be both a cost effective and convenient way to educate students. The design, development, and assessment of such a system is presented.