Online Laboratory Lessons: A New Era of Science Education

This article discusses the possibilities, advantages, and drawbacks of moving previously on-site mechatronics laboratories online. Almost overnight, the Corona pandemic made it necessary to find, evaluate and implement software packages that allowed this shift without decreasing lab quality. Since nobody knew at the time, how long it would be needed to use online labs, it was necessary to achieve a smooth transition between online and on-premises labs. It was also necessary to switch between both possibilities at any time without delay for preparation. So, it was necessary to use the same books and documents within the online labs, which were used before in the traditional labs. So, the exercises were well defined, and the software products had to deal with this issue. This work describes the criteria of this evaluation in detail. For one year students participated in online laboratories under lockdown conditions. The end of the lockdown situation was met with consistent feedback that the online laboratories should remain an option, which indicates a strong popularity among students. Because of this the institute decided to keep two thirds of the training opportunities online with every third appointment being held on-site to allow room to encounter and tackle everyday problems.