Online courseware for electronics laboratory courses: An example

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offer web-based learning to a global audience. While we have so many institutions offering online courses, not many of them focus on laboratory courseware that would inculcate hands-on learning. Engineering is all about hands-on learning of concepts and needs an effective online laboratory courseware to complement the theoretical courses offered by MOOC. Unlike many Test and Measurement solution providers, who focus mostly on experiments based on their instruments and unidirectional flow of lab courseware, Tektronix launched an online community of lab courseware for basic teaching labs in electronics engineering. Educators across the globe can contribute to the content data base, and access the lab courseware created by other fellow educators. Template and sample lab courseware ensure that follow-on submission of courseware are rich in pedagogic elements and convers a wider spectrum of courses in electronics engineering. This paper is an attempt to present a case study of how this open-source platform is leveraged by educators to share lab courseware and enable fellow educators / students hone hands-on skills in electronics engineering.