JISC

Overview

This project will use an innovative application of available technologies to provide online access to practical laboratory exercises for students on an MSc course in non-destructive testing.

It addresses a specialist industrial need for NDT expertise by providing flexible online access to viable cohorts of geographically dispersed distance learning students.

The project will explore how emerging web 2.0 technologies and existing computer communications technologies can be combined to allow students to carry out sophisticated practical laboratory assignments online.

Aims & Objectives

The broad aim of the Ratatat project is to create an online learning environment that allows vocational and work-based postgraduate learners to remotely access and carry out sophisticated practical laboratory exercises that satisfy rigorous academic requirements and standards.

The project objectives are to:

• enable learners to gain remote desktop access to laboratory based NDT equipment and carry out a range of practical exercises
• provide real time online video and sound services for learners to interact with tutor and technician support when carrying out remote practical exercises
• create an online learning environment that integrates the remote desktop access and video and sound functionality with a range of learner support services
• test and evaluate the online systems through the delivery of four practical exercises as part of the SMU MSc in NDT&E
• disseminate the outcomes of the project and provide evidence based information for other groups looking to implement remote practical learning activities

Overall Approach

The project will explore the possibility of allowing students following the NDT MSc course at SMU to complete practical laboratory sessions remotely online.

The remote learners will access the same laboratory equipment used by the full-time and part-time campus-based MSc students and will carry out the same practical exercises and complete the same assignments. An equivalent level of tutor and laboratory technician support will be provided at the time the distance learners are carrying out their testing and evaluation.

The project will test the viability of remote practical working by adapting, testing and evaluating four remote online practical laboratory exercises relating to the four technology clusters of the NDT course. These will involve the remote use of:

• A Laser Scanning Doppler Vibrometer
• Digital Photoelastic Stress Measurement Systems
• Continuous and Pulsed Thermographic Systems
• Ultrasonic B Scan Equipment

The outcomes of the testing will be used to draw conclusions about the viability of remote practical assignments for distance learners, both in the specialist context of NDT skills, and more generally for similar specialist practical skills development.

Expected Project Outputs

1. A full technical specification of the remote desktop access and personalised online learning environment support system
2. Four case studies detailing the application and evaluation of remote access to high level practical skills development in an MSc in Non-Destructive Testing
3. A project report that will include a quality assessment of the student skills development experience and the validation requirements that would allow practical assignments carried out by online remote access to be acceptable

Expected Project Outcomes

1. Evidence of the effectiveness of the use of remote desktop access and the use of learning environments constructed form Web 2.0 Technologies in the facilitation of quality assured online high level practical skills development
2. An implementation model for remote access to practical skills development that is adaptable to other skills areas and by other institutions
3. A contribution to the Open Educational Resources debate concerning an aspect of resource access that has yet to be addressed in that context

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