Abstract:

Due to the growing interest in the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) within the environment of Educational Innovation, a study was carried out considering the possibility of replacing the laboratories in telecommunication engineering courses (specialization in Image and Sound processing) with virtual environments.
Firstly, we give a general overview on the state of the art in implementing virtual laboratories in different educational institutions (world-wide, nationally and locally), focusing hereby in those offering telecommunication degrees. Secondly, different types of applications are analyzed (simulated and in remote laboratories) to find out how they could be applied to telecommunication courses; furthermore, we discuss which advantages or disadvantages these applications could present compared to traditional laboratories and which are the most widely used software-tools.
In view of the upcoming courses for the newly started undergraduate studies which have been designed in accordance to the Bologna process, we have analyzed all the subjects that are presently given in the EUITT-UPM (Escuela Universitaria de Ingenieros Técnicos de Telecomunicación - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) within the courses still working in the telecommunication degree now closing down. The objective was to find out which of these courses could be adequate to admit a partly or total substitution of the traditional “hands-on labs”, so that the new courses could be designed making use of those new possibilities.
As a conclusion, we present some possible implementations for four of the subjects which will be given in a similar format in the undergraduate degrees that are proposed.

Keywords:

Virtual laboratories, sound and image processing, telecommunication, Bologna process.