A collaborative multi-videoconferencing platform for online optical microscopy

E-learning technologies and online laboratories are boosting up the ways learners now experience scientific disciplines. However, in order to better engage students in online experiments, a cooperative dimension is needed, where students can seamlessly interact with their peers and participate actively to the laboratorial activities. Therefore, we propose in this paper a collaborative, hierarchical, multi-videoconferencing approach based on WebRTC and extending the WeColLab platform. It is aimed at improving learning and teaching quality in scientific disciplines, by easing the way online laboratories can be accessed by students and teachers. Moreover, it represents a general-purpose platform adaptable to different laboratorial equipment without significant reconfiguration efforts. The proposed platform has been deployed in an optical microscopy laboratory to test its feasibility according to the Collaborative Lab as a Service paradigm.