Combining E-Technologies & E-Pedagogies to Create Online Undergraduate Courses in Engineering–an Example of a Successful Experience

Abstract

The offer of online courses experienced an exponential increase in the last few years. However, this offer is mainly restricted to a cluster of areas, essentially those related with humanities and social sciences, which do not require laboratories for the execution of practical assignments. The widely available Information and Computer Technology (ICT) courses that require only a computer as a “lab” infrastructure to complete the practical assignments are the only exception. The L3-EOLES (Electronics and Optics for Embedded Systems) course presented in this paper is the first, fully online 3rd year English taught Bachelor’s degree covering the field of electronics and optics for embedded systems, an area of engineering that requires students access to real laboratories. The use of virtual and remote real laboratories enable students to execute their practical tasks remotely over the Internet. The course is recognized by the educational authorities of France, Morocco and Tunisia. Thus, all successful students receive a diploma accepted inside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), with students from Morocco and Tunisia also receiving a diploma issued by one of the accredited universities of their home countries.The huge success of the course may be measured by the number of candidates, around 400 in the first year and more than 700 in the second year, for only 35 places available