Abstract
The University of Fort Hare (UFH) in South Africa counts with its own laboratories as part of ReVEL (Remote and Virtual Education Laboratory), and intends to use them both for the University students and for rural-based schools. One example of these laboratories by UFH is the LabsLand Arduino Robot. LabsLand is the global network of real online laboratories, and counts with technologies to make laboratories available online. One Labsland Arduino Robot was deployed at UFH by the end of October 2019. The full article includes details of the deployed system. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for the establishment of ReVEL for implementation in South Africa, a developing country. It is also aimed at giving a qualitative account of relevant stakeholders’ insights on the implementation of ReVEL model in the South African context. A survey and a series of in-depth, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews on the perception of implementation of remote labs were conducted for data collection guided by a thematic analysis approach to the UFH community (instructors and students) and to rural-based science schools. UFH instructors and students and learners from schools participated in the survey. Responses were analyzed accordingly. Survey responses were received from both instructors and students. 87% of instructors applauded this technology and strongly agreed on its advantages of enabling sharing of larger variety of specialized equipment while reducing the financial burden and improving the educational experience. Others were cautious about the lack of hands-on interaction with the real equipment in the remote laboratory and preferred the feeling of the actual equipment. 96.7% of Students praised its convenience and flexibility for obtaining results for analysis. 50% preferred to work in both face-to-face and remote lab. The initiative of ReVEL as a platform for delivering the real laboratories through use of internet to a developing country such as South Africa has received a resounding acceptance and appreciation for its potential deliverables. The results suggested that, stakeholders from different communities such academia, industry, and government praised ReVEL for prospects of providing teaching and learning cutting-edge interactive technologies such robotics, high performance computing ranger and other teaching, learning and research benefits in various of study and to rural based schools.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to Labsland Laboratory Providers/Engineers, Dr Pablo Orduna and Mr Aitor Villar Martinez for the successful deployment of the UFH remote laboratory technology. Their unflinching support even during post deployment is highly appreciated. We would like to acknowledge industry and Government partners, viz. Albert Wessels and Armscor for their generous sponsorship to enable UFH to purchase launch the remote and virtual technology in South Africa. Our sincere acknowledgement to the FOSST Discovery Centre colleagues at the University of Fort Hare for valuable contributions. Lastly, we would like to recognize the Institutional Advancement at University of Fort Hare for publishing the official launch of ReVEL, a facility that is the first of its kind in South Africa.
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Kwinana, P.M., Nomnga, P., Rani, M., Lekala, M.L. (2021). Real Laboratories Available Online: Establishment of ReVEL as a Conceptual Framework for Implementing Remote Experimentation in South African Higher Education Institutions and Rural-Based Schools – A Case Study at the University of Fort Hare. In: Auer, M., May, D. (eds) Cross Reality and Data Science in Engineering. REV 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1231. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52575-0_10
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