Abstract

SANTOYO SANCHEZ, Alejandra; LOPEZ DE ALBA, Carlos  and  CASTILLO SERRANO, Cristian Michell. SecuenciaLab: Simulation laboratory for training in the management of electromechanical control systems. RIDE. Rev. Iberoam. Investig. Desarro. Educ [online]. 2021, vol.11, n.22, e02.  Epub May 21, 2021. ISSN 2007-7467.  https://doi.org/10.23913/ride.v11i22.822.

Virtual laboratories have been used in education as training systems through practices/experiments to develop skills or abilities in students that allow them to perform a new task or work that they have not yet learned using certain equipment, through a non-classroom teaching model. However, in Mexico, there is reduced documentation related to the development and/or use of this technology. To incorporate and evaluate the effectiveness of this technological tool, this work is focused on the development and evaluation of the SecuenciaLab virtual laboratory, which was implemented considering two main components: 1) a simulator that works as a desktop application for the creation, design, and testing of sequential control systems, focused on reinforcing the education of undergraduate students or graduated, related to the Electrical Mechanical Engineering career, 2) a learning platform, to control practices, classes, evaluation reports, group reports, and evaluation. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the tool was carried out through pilot tests within the development team, together with the advice of a group of teachers. In addition, some preliminary tests with control groups in order to contrast the performance and learning of students, who used the simulator and those who did not use it.

The results of the study indicate that the students who use the virtual laboratory SecuenciaLab show a better academic performance which is 10.85 points more than those who did not use it.

Keywords : Communication; education; tools; support.