University of Houston Enhances eLearning with Real-World Labs

Ain’t nothing like the real thing — especially when you’ve gone virtual. Marvin Gaye said it. So did Aretha Franklin, the Supremes, Donny & Marie, and even Vince Gill. It applies to pictures versus people, movies versus real life — and, in this case, to students taking classes and labs online rather than in person

The professors are real, but they aren’t in the room to give pointers. The device under test is real, but it’s just an image on a screen for students. And for many schools, because of cost, availability, and other factors, the remote test equipment is real, but industry doesn’t use it, and it offers limited functionality and features

So how did the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston find a teaching solution that provided engineering students with industry-ready test skills, using “real” oscilloscopes, power supplies, data acquisition units, and waveform generators? By turning to Keysight for a solution using “real” benchtop instruments controlled by a powerful tool called PathWave BenchVue

Organization

The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering

Challenges

• Take-home kits have limited functionality.

• Online learning may outlast the pandemic.

• Time was short.

• Costs had to stay in check.

Solution

• Keysight PathWave BenchVue

• Keysight Remote Access Lab

Results

• Students get hands-on lab experience from home

Challenges: Fast, Affordable, Hands-On Lab Experience

COVID-19 prevention efforts meant many classes would have to move online, and professors had a lot of concerns: Would an inexpensive take-home lab kit do the trick, at least for now? What can my students afford? What can my department afford? How long will this last? If I can “get them by” during quarantine, can I improve their in-classroom learning later to make up for the lack of solid lab experience during quarantine? Will my students’ test and simulation lab skills translate well in their first jobs

The preferred curricula would keep students engaged and learning the skills needed in the workforce, assuring both students and parents that the University of Houston is still the right place to get the best engineering education. The Keysight solution would address these concerns while enhancing the department’s existing syllabus and lab instruments

The university’s challenges were fourfold

• Inexpensive take-home kits don’t give students real-world test skills because they have limited functionality and features, and they often break or malfunction.

• Even for hybrid learning models, some classes and labs needed to be online or at least have a contingency model for online learning. The World Economic Forum COVID Action Platform suggests that “online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay.” 1

• The 2020–21 school year was fast-approaching. Any remote solution needed to be set up quickly and be easy to maintain.

• Cost was a big consideration. There was not enough budget to invest heavily in either new lab equipment or remote learning solutions, yet the university likely will need both now and in the future.