On-Campus and Online Virtual Laboratory Experiments with LabVIEW

Virtual laboratory experiments for electronics course in undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum have been developed using data acquisition board (DAQ) and National Instruments LabVIEWtrade software package. These applications are suitable for Internet delivery where students can conduct the experiments online. The undergraduate laboratories have been poorly equipped due to rising cost of laboratory instruments. This trend has created a strong market for software based (virtual) laboratory instruments. LabVIEW provides a low-cost solution for laboratory instrumentation compared to its traditional counterpart since appropriate software, operating through a plug-in DAQ board, are readily available at a very low cost. Since LabVIEW is software based, it can model standard laboratory instruments while providing more flexibility. These applications will be used to teach laboratory experiments in our basic electronics course either in-class and/ or remotely. Computer based learning has become an important part of education. The Internet further contributed greatly to long distance learning and remote laboratories. The lab is still under construction and some basic electronic experiments are briefly presented here