Work in progress — Performance evaluation of online learning tools

Remote Access Laboratories (RAL) are tools that provide off-campus students with video supported access to practical activities on campus. A key success factor of any online activity is the quality of the student experience. As these systems use the Internet, quality depends not only on the learning activity design but also on access speed, geographical location and network traffic. Currently only anecdotal evidence exists regarding the relationship of technical performance parameters and the quality of user experience. This project proposes a systematic evaluation of the Quality of Experience of students using online learning tools. It will collect technical data as well as the subjective user experience of students using RAL systems. This paper introduces a framework and methodology that are used to evaluate the quality of the student learning experience.