Abstract
Web-based control and robotics distance education is a growing field of engineering education with a substantial amount of educational material and many teaching tools and platforms already available. Many educational institutes are adopting distance education programs in most of their courses including those which must be followed by hands-on experimentation. In distance education programs the traditional face-to-face teacher communication and interaction are replaced by technological tools (i.e., voice, video, data print, multimedia). Through a number of studies it was demonstrated that with the proper care (selection of method, technology, student/teacher interaction means, etc.), teaching and studying at a distance can be equally successful as traditional face-to-face instruction.
Web-based training (WBT) is defined as any skill or knowledge transfer through the WWW as the distribution channel. In [1], the state-of the-art of WBT is provided, including its growth and the industry trends. The factors that drive Web-based training today, the Web’s inherent strengths, Web-based learning models, virtual learning spaces, content development, critical design elements, instruction design, and sorting out WBT, are deeply considered in this study. It is remarked that today there is actually a shift from “use” of software to “workspace competencies” (e.g., instead of teaching the “Word and Excel”, the topic “Creating Year-end Reports” is taught so that the learner is getting the skills to “use” of software as a by-product of learning what he/she really needs to learn). The Web reduces the capital barriers for distributed learning and so it is a promising breakthrough. In [2], a thorough classification of WBT is provided on the basis of several characteristics, such as purpose types, learning skills, learner’s role, methods, interactions, etc.). In [3, 4], a study of the characteristics of Websites as teaching and learning environments, is made. This study is based on a taxonomy of Web-based learning environments (using 100 variables in four dimensions) that was applied to 436 Websites concerning science, mathematics and technology. The overall conclusion of this study is summarized as “one step ahead for the technology, two steps back for the pedagogy.” The University of Idaho, College of Engineering Outreach, Moscow, has produced a set of 13 Guides for distance education (DE) that cover all issues from the definition of DE (Guide 1), to differences of DE from standard education and the need of DE, up to producing a convenient glossary of DE terminology (Guide 13) [5].
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Tzafestas, S.G. (2009). Teaching Control and Robotics Using the Web. In: Tzafestas, S. (eds) Web-Based Control and Robotics Education. Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering, vol 38. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2505-0_1
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