DYNAMIC COMPUTERIZED RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB BY "MOODLE" PLATFORM

Today, computers are ubiquitous. An integral part of every engineer’s toolbox, they are used to do computations, data collection and filtering, simulations and data acquisition, and to share information via the Internet. No engineer today could imagine doing his or her job without one. The Energy field is thriving, due to several factors: the world energy crisis, political trends that create a rise in oil prices and other environmental topics. All of these have brought upon us the emergence of new and fascinating fields dealing with Energy. Renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are the key for creating a clean energy future. The Renewable Energy Laboratory is teaching laboratory at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Holon Institute of Technology (HIT)
The Renewable Energy Laboratory is operating under a new teaching method. The Lab is "paperless", all the experiments' notes, as well as the theoretical background, are computerized.
In the experiments, the students must first read theoretical background. After they finish reading the theoretical part, they need to answer an entrance examination about the subject. All the questions are taken from a database of questions, and are selected randomly. Passing the exam shows that the knowledge was acquired properly. Upon completion of the exam, the first stage of the experiment appears in the system. When the students complete the first stage, the Moodle automatically continues to the second stage of the experiment and so on. All the stages in the lab provide the students with the materials they need to finish them. At the end of the experiment, when all stages are done, the Moodle lets the students take a final exam, which includes questions about the experiment results that the students received. At the end of the exam the students are automatically graded with no report needed, and the data of each student is saved in the Moodle for analysis of the results later on by the instructors. This innovative laboratory method of teaching combines the two methodologies of a real lab and a virtual lab, and we find it effective method. The laboratory shows higher rates of satisfaction. It seems that the laboratory is very popular among students of electrical engineering.