Microcontroller Remote Laboratory System for Teaching Assembly Language

Description

Research Overview The evolution of technology and tools assists in transforming teaching and learning through digitization. The digitization of education affects the method, time, and place of learning, which supports students at every level of their education. For engineering and science courses, laboratory experiments in curricula play an important role; laboratory sessions are needed to be available to demonstrate theories and concepts. In the last decade, educational laboratories have been effective only when using hands-on laboratories. Continuous progress and development in technology and tools enable access to resources and introduce new techniques to deliver laboratory experiments to students. Remote laboratories have been designed for distance education via the internet; students can perform experiments with real equipment remotely. It is not required for students to be physically in the laboratories; additionally, the experimental results obtained are real data [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Assembly Language is addressed in bachelor's degree programs in the computer systems engineering curriculum that require laboratory experiments. Moreover, for the reasons mentioned above, on-campus laboratory sessions are difficult to conduct, especially since education in Palestine is delivered online. The simulation/virtual labs will be used instead of hands-on labs, which are obviously insufficient to complete understanding of the concept; the simulation/virtual labs will not offer real-time application with real hardware. Microcontroller Remote Laboratory System for Teaching Assembly Language This research aims to establish the remote operation of laboratory experiments located at Palestine Technical University-Kadoori (PTUK) campus for teaching assembly language. A remote system is a system composed of hardware and software components that provides the ability to access the laboratory board through any terminal PC via the Internet. When a student has compiled his/her program without an error, then he accesses the remote laboratory system, they can upload the compiled program to the target PIC unit, and perform their laboratory experiment on a real device. Students can perform and repeat their experiment independently of time and place until they are satisfied with the delivered real results; for example, webcams deliver live video (obtained results) from the laboratory experiments. After that, they can submit the obtained results and their program via the Internet to the remote system to be graded by the instructors. For this purpose, the remote laboratory system needs to be designed, developed, and implemented to include an appropriate remote laboratory experiment that can be connected and performed remotely using target devices as used in a hands-on laboratory on campus. Collaborative teamwork during performing the laboratory experiments will achieve better learning outcomes. Additionally, students in collaborative teamwork will find it enjoyable, attractive, and better than single work. This research will identify how teamwork that require to provide a communication and tools integrated into a remote laboratory system. These tools adopt collaborative teamwork to enable students to communicate and share knowledge [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. The remote laboratory system will be based on a client–server structure using a TCP/IP connection, which consists of four parts: • The students can access the laboratory experiments via an internet connection. • The server is used to deliver the data between the student’s PC and the server. • The experimental equipment includes all the real instruments that are required to perform the experiments. • The instructors assign the experiments and grade the submitted experimental results. • The remote laboratory experiments can be performed by individual students as well as collaborative teamwork. Research Methodology The methodology of this research is conducted using sequential stages. The methodology can be divided into four categories as follows: • Identifying the conceptual theories or defining the learning objectives to be achieved while practicing the remote experiments for teaching the assembly language course • Designing the educational remote experiments for the laboratory experimental tasks • Developing instructions for remote experiments that assist in delivering knowledge to the students and facilitate achieving the learning objectives and collaborative learning. This stage may require some technical implementation methodology of the remote lab • Assessing the laboratory experiments, which is necessary to evaluate how the remote experimental practice is in line with the course context as well as the instructions for the remote experiments to improve the learning outcomes Contributions The research aims to develop and implement a remote laboratory system for teaching assembly language. We can summarize the major contributions as follows: • Remote access to the real target device (PIC) that will be used experimentally to practice the assembly language code written by students. This can assist the students in understanding the concept and syntax of an assembly language program. • Students will obtain real results from an actual system, remotely, without any simulation or mathematical modeling. Thus, they will deal with this system in the real world with accurate and reliable implementation. • Students can perform their experiment or project remotely to overcome any time restrictions and hands-on laboratory environment, so the system will be flexible in its usage regardless of time or place. • Using laboratory devices is not a limitation, as a laboratory board needs to be available remotely for students. 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