Flipping Laboratories Toward Future Experimentation Systems: The Blended Use of Hands-On, Pocket, and Online Laboratories

Experimentation plays a crucial role in enhancing students’ skills. This article discusses current issues in engineering education while also exploring their potential solutions, and it focuses on the integration of online learning into routine teaching, especially online laboratories that flip conventional laboratories. The current online laboratories and corresponding issues are also discussed in detail. Three case studies with the Networked Control System Laboratory (NCSLab), which is an industrial laboratory that mainly focuses on control and automation, are presented to provide detailed examples of how online laboratories can help teaching and learning. Future perspectives on online laboratories toward future experimentation systems are outlined with the possibility of integrating cutting-edge and emerging technologies to enable flexibility, high maintainability, and intelligence for cross-disciplinary/interdisciplinary applications.