Global Online Laboratory Consortium (GOLC)

The Global Online Laboratory Consortium (GOLC) is an international community dedicated to advancing the development, implementation, and sharing of online laboratories for education and research. By bringing together educators, researchers, and institutions, GOLC promotes the use of remote and virtual labs as accessible, scalable, and innovative tools to enhance learning experiences across disciplines.

GOLC is part of the IAOE.

GOLC Mission

GOLC's mission is to foster global collaboration in the creation and dissemination of high-quality online laboratory resources. The consortium aims to support educators and researchers in integrating these technologies into their teaching and research practices, improving accessibility, engagement, and equity in STEM and other fields worldwide.

GOLC Activities

• Organizing the annual international GOLC Online Lab Award, recognizing excellence in the design and use of remote, simulated, and virtual laboratories in education.
• Facilitating collaborative projects for the development of shared online laboratory infrastructure and resources.
• Supporting research and publications to advance the pedagogy, usability, and technical innovation of online laboratories.
• Encouraging inter-institutional collaborations to share resources, reduce costs, and increase access to online laboratories for learners worldwide.
• Providing a platform for networking and mentorship, connecting members to leading experts in online laboratory development and implementation.

GOLC Online Lab Award

The GOLC invites you to submit your successful Online Laboratory course, site, and product or success story, from a university or other institution or school. Awards will be given for outstanding laboratories in three categories.

2027

Awards will be given for outstanding laboratories in three categories:

• Remotely Controlled Experiments
• Simulated and Digitally Visualized Experiments
• Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Experiments

GOLC is an international group of researchers and practitioners under the umbrella of IAOE that brings together researchers and practitioners in all forms of online experimentation. GOLC's involvement in international conferences and relevant journals and its strong membership base continue to advance the state of the art of the online laboratory field worldwide in all areas of education.

The awardees will be announced in 2027 during the 24th International Conference on Smart Technologies & Education (STE) in Bangkok, Thailand (website follows). It is not required to attend the conference to enter the competition. However, the award winners in each category will receive one free STE 027 conference ticket for one person per category to accept the award in person. We are looking forward to meeting you at STE2027!

Submissions deadline 2027: tbd

The Entry Submission Page will be part of the STE2027 Conference Submission Server.

Winners

VISIR Federation

The mission of the VISIR Federation is to upgrade and enlarge the VISIR SIG by integrating both individuals and institutions. The goal is to provide a uniform system where students can register and use the federated VISIR based laboratories and learning materials from different institutions belonging to the federation. Through a shared common mechanism, it should be possible to access each experiment from one single learning management system.

Main objectives

• Expand the VISIR SIG from a group of individuals to a group of institutions and individuals;
• Interconnect all VISIR nodes;
• Expand the application range;
• Improve the utilization of VISIR;
• Promote the VISIR remote lab;
• Share learning materials;
• Exchange experiences between VISIR holders and users.

The VISIR PILAR project

Platform Integration of Laboratories Based on the Architecture of VISIR

Coordinator: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain
Partners: BTH (Sweden), IAOE (Austria), UDeusto (Spain), IPP (Portugal), Omnia (Finland), EVM (Spain), CUAS (Austria)

PILAR partnership will enhance the learning, teaching and practical training at university and high school levels, by allowing to develop many different electronic practices through a newer and richer level of digital integration. The possibility of real practices at almost real time for many different student profiles will help to develop basic and transversal skills all through the involved countries and, as a second step, all through any interested country.

This new VISIR labs federation will also help to address low achievement in basic skills through more effective teaching methods, in a totally new dimension. Only with a federation of existing VISIR nodes will be possible to serve the large student population that may benefit from this technology-enhanced educational tool. This larger impact will also increase the efficiency of public expenditure and the investment in education and training, which could be identified as yet another horizontal or sectoral priority addressed by PILAR. STEM needs of improvement and practical competences that must be addressed in schools, high schools and colleges, as well as might be used in industry for the capacitance and relocation of personal might be obtained through the proposed federation of remote laboratories resources allowing a self-sustainable environment and incrementing the synergies as well as empowering the level of sharing open resources for the whole community.

PILAR (Platform Integration of Laboratories based on the Architecture of VISIR) is a project that addresses the following needs:

1. Need of real, extensive and intensive, online, cheap practices for building and interacting with electrical and electronics circuits in engineering subjects of university level, and also as a lifelong learning activity (industry oriented) and at a school and high school level.
2. Need of reliable, highly available, remote laboratory services offered through Internet by a robust remote labs service provider, which will enhance a stronger digital integration for learning and teaching
3. Need of having these practices available at any time and from anywhere, in a timely and controlled manner, helping to increase the number of graduates at the university that cannot easily access these practices

The main objectives pursued by PILAR are:

• Based in the different implementations of VISIR in several of the partners in the project (BTH, CUAS, UDEUSTO, IPP, UNED), the first objective is building a reliable, highly available, unique international VISIR platform federation, that integrates all the different resources used by VISIR in each of the partners.
• Once established, this federation will be completely opened to other partners in Europe, through easy gateways to the federation, allowing to extend the capabilities of PILAR to much more interested educational institutions.
• Building a set of remote practices, based in this new platform, for electrical and electronics circuits, at school, grade and master level, and also as a lifelong learning activity, that will be offered as remote lab services, to students in all the partners institutions and, as a second step, to anyone interested. The results will bring added value at EU level because the activities cannot be attained in a single country.
• Those new remote lab VISIR Internet services must allow, in a transparent way, the use of the best set of remote learning services of each partner in each moment.

Four different aspects can be faced using a federation of the existing VISIR nodes:

1. Scalability. The VISIR system is designed to support around 50 users at the same time because the hardware is multiplexed. But if a huge amount of user is expected we need to scale the VISIR using a federation. If the circuits are replicated in different VISIR nodes, more users can access the platform and experiment through the federation.
2. Reliability and availability. Redundancy. If one node is not available for any reason, its effort can be supported by other nodes. That is: if one user is accessing the VISIR in his institution but it is down he will be automatically redirected to another available VISIR node (in other institution). This process will be transparent for the user. In this case, the federation mechanism must know what circuits are available in what VISIR nodes.
3. Set of experiments. VISIR is a REAL remote lab, it is like in the classical lab. There you can construct any circuit, but it is not true because in the lab we do not have all the components, we have a set of them (some resistors, some capacitors, some…). In VISIR is the same, we can offer any circuit, but not all of them at the same time. In this situation the federation is very interesting because each VISIR node can implement a set of circuits (DC circuits, AC circuits, Operational Amplifiers circuits, etc.) but the user will not access only to the set of experiments of his institution, but also to the total set of experiments of all the VISIR nodes.
4. Tracking system. The federation must be able to know how many users are accessing each VISIR node, to balance the use of the VISIR federation. The federation software layer must have a system to assure the balance of the nodes and to control the accessing priorities of the different users

At the end of the project a portfolio of remote VISIR services offered publically will be available, maintained by the partners. The nature of the services will guarantee that students could access the courses from their countries, i.e. it insures virtual mobility without additional financing. Also the services will be easily changeable and upgrade-able allowing the building of new and tuned electrical and electronics real remote practices.

IAOE especially with its already existing Special Interest Group (SIG) VISIR will ensure the continuation of the project's results after the period of the project. The VISIR SIG, with more than 45 members, is organized for people who are interested in Online Engineering especially in opening university laboratories for remote access 24/7.

VISIR SIG is a group for sharing ideas, equipment and learning material as well as discussing the further development of the VISIR Open Lab Platform. One of its main goals is standardized online workbenches located at universities around the globe constituting grid laboratories available for lab sessions for students on campus and off campus.For that (in analogy to the iLab Alliance) a VISIR Alliance will be founded. Core members of the VISIR Alliance will be some of the consortium members.

International Conference on Smart Technologies & Education (STE)

The International Conference on Smart Technologies & Education (STE) is the successor of the REV Conferences and serves as the annual flagship event of the International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), in collaboration with the Edunet World Association (EWA) and the International Education Network (EduNet). STE is a premier international platform for sharing knowledge, insights, and innovations in the realm of Smart Technologies, Online and Remote Engineering, Virtual Instrumentation, and other emerging technologies. The conference also explores guidelines and new concepts for engineering education in higher and vocational education institutions, focusing on emerging technologies in learning.

Key topics covered at the conference include:

• Internet of Things (IoT) & Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
• Cyber-Physical Systems and Industry 4.0
• Smart Objects & Smart Services
• Cybersecurity & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Cross Reality (XR) & Open Science
• Online and Virtual Labs
• MOOCs and Open Learning Resources

STE provides a unique platform for academics, researchers, and professionals to engage in high-quality discussions, network with peers, and explore the latest advancements shaping the future of education and technology.

Best paper awards

Each year, the STE program committee recognizes outstanding contributions to the conference with Best Paper Awards, typically in the following distinct categories:

• Best Full Paper: Awarded for the highest-quality, most impactful research presented in the full paper format.
• Best Short Paper: Honoring concise and innovative contributions presented in the short paper format.
• Best Special Session Paper: Recognizing excellence in submissions to specially organized thematic sessions.
• Best Student Paper: Celebrating promising research and high quality results submitted by students as sole or main author.
• Best Work-In-Progress Paper: Celebrating innovative and promising research still in progress.

These awards underscore the conference's commitment to excellence and innovation in the fields of smart technologies and education, highlighting the exceptional work of its contributors.

Winners

History of REV Conferences

The International Conference on Smart Technologies & Education (STE) builds upon the legacy of the Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV) Conference, which began as a pioneering platform for advancing remote engineering and virtual instrumentation. The REV Conference was established in 2004 to address the growing importance of remote and virtual technologies in engineering education and practice, focusing on areas such as remote labs, virtual experimentation, and advanced instrumentation systems.

Initially, the conference provided a platform to explore foundational topics like the development and implementation of remote labs and virtual instrumentation. As the field evolved, REV expanded its scope to include emerging technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and educational innovations like MOOCs and open learning resources. The conference also tackled cutting-edge topics like cross-reality technologies, the integration of smart objects and services, and approaches to fostering open science.

Over its nearly two-decade history, the REV Conference traveled to various international locations, showcasing its global relevance and appeal. Notable editions include the 2009 conference in Bridgeport, USA, which emphasized virtual instrumentation advancements, and the 2010 conference in Stockholm, Sweden, which focused on remote labs and their role in engineering education. Subsequent editions in cities such as Brasov, Romania (2011), Bilbao, Spain (2012), Sydney, Australia (2013), and Porto, Portugal (2014) highlighted topics like Industry 4.0, smart technologies, and open educational resources. Later conferences in Bangkok, Thailand (2015), Madrid, Spain (2016), New York, USA (2017), and Düsseldorf, Germany (2018) further explored interdisciplinary advancements and global challenges in engineering education and practice. The 2019 edition in Bengaluru, India, emphasized the integration of IoT and Industry 4.0 into engineering practices, while the 2020 conference in Athens, Georgia, USA, explored the use of virtual labs and cross-reality technologies in education. In 2021, Hong Kong hosted discussions on smart technologies and their impact on global education systems. Cairo, Egypt, was the venue for the 2022 edition, which focused on cybersecurity and open science innovations. The final REV Conference in 2023, held in Thessaloniki, Greece, highlighted the legacy of REV and laid the groundwork for its transition into STE.

In recognition of the increasing convergence of smart technologies and educational innovation, the REV Conference transitioned into the International Conference on Smart Technologies & Education (STE). This evolution allows STE to continue and expand upon REV's mission, addressing both traditional and emerging challenges in engineering, technology, and education on a global scale.

More details about the REV conference editions you can find on the REV/STE clearing house website.
REV/STE Clearing House

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