Abstract:

The reduction of the space available for students in the classrooms of teaching laboratories, due to the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2, requires the provision of the laboratories with additional equipment, as well as the application of procedures or protocols that guarantee that all students receive practical education with levels of quality similar to those existing in face-to-face classes, prior to the arrival of the coronavirus. This paper describes the methodology and resources used to teach practical classes in one of the Electrical Engineering teaching laboratories, at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The use of web cameras, complemented with the use of the Microsoft Teams platform, has allowed all students to actively attend laboratory classes in real-time, within the established schedule, some in person and others in online mode.

The hybrid teaching implemented at the Polytechnic University of Valencia is, in our opinion, the teaching-learning model with levels of quality closer to face-to-face teaching, even when there is a loss of fluency in gestural communication, especially of the non-classroom students, so necessary so that the teacher can give feedback on their teaching classes. However, with hybrid teaching, non-classroom students are in a position to receive the same knowledge and acquire the same skills as classroom students.

The application of hybrid teaching has an important limitation when teaching the laboratory classes, even with the same resources (video cameras focused on the blackboard and the Teams platform) as the theory classes, since the laboratory classes require greater and more active participation of students. However, laboratory classrooms have been the most affected in terms of capacity reduction, after the implementation of minimum safety distances in teaching classrooms, recommended by the Protocols [1,2].

This paper presents a solution to the problem of teaching hybrid laboratory classes, with limited capacity for teaching laboratories. This solution consists of installing a video camera on each of the tables or workstations in the laboratory, as well as a computer that incorporates the Teams platform. Each table or laboratory station will be assigned a group of three students, at most, and only one of them will attend each practical session in person, taking into account the limitation of the laboratory capacity indicated by the Protocols [1,2]. The other two students can actively participate in the development of the practice from their homes since they would have a direct view of the laboratory station and could communicate in real-time with the classroom student through the Teams platform. The classroom students take turns in each practice session so that all of them have attended the same number of laboratory practices.

This article describes a pilot experience of teaching hybrid laboratory classes to one of the teaching laboratory classrooms of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València, with the application of the indicated above resources. Likewise, the protocol developed for teaching hybrid laboratory classes is presented, as well as the problems that have arisen in its application, and the proposed solutions to overcome them are described.

Keywords:

Electrical labs, SARS-CoV-2, practical teaching, hybrid learning.