Assessment of Effectiveness of an Electronic Book to Deliver Robotics Lab Experience Over the Internet

Abstract

The Internet is successfully being used to deliver distance education courses and even complete degree programs. However, effective distance delivery of the laboratory experience is a challenging problem. Today there are several “laboratories” that can be accessed over the Internet. This paper presents a unique technique, namely eye tracking, to determine whether having access to a real robot over the Internet makes any difference in the learning and acquired skills of the users. The study uses robotics chapter of an electronic book under development. Design details of the chapter and experiments are explained. Results indicate that having remote access to real equipment leads to higher motivation for learning, as well as increased efficiency in applying learned skills.