AS A TOOL FOR USE IN COOPERATIVE LABORATORY ACTIVITIES BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES

The following is a proposal for collaboraton between universites with the aim to improve curricula that require laboratory actvites. A methodology is suggested to implement an innovatve educatonal project involving the exchange of laboratory actvites. The exchange of laboratory actvites can be carried out on diferent levels of interacton, requiring diferent levels of complexity in setng up the actvites. A frst experience was carried out in the area of machine design. Google+ was the chosen social network. A Google+ community was used to share academic material (notes, videos, actvity guides, etc.) and the actvity itself was carried out using Google Hangouts. The survey administered at the end showed the students' satsfacton with the experience.


INTRODUCTION
In order to prepare qualifed professionals capable of performing their actvity in the professional environment of the 21st century, educatonal insttutons are faced with the need to incorporate the new tools made available by informaton technologies (Conole & Alevizou, 2010).Experimentng in virtual environments is necessary to establish methods of learning that are atractve to students and that promote creatvity.However, we must not forget that these must stll be efectve learning tools.
Social networks, commonly used for personal relatons among students, ofer a number of possibilites for educatonal use (Oberer & Erkollar, 2012;Rejón-Guardia, Sánchez-Fernández & Muñoz-Leiva, 2013) that stll have to be fully exploited.University insttutons are currently using social networks to promote current contents and news and to revitalize the academic life of their members.But social networks also ofer new channels to complement teaching practce (Del Moral & Vilalustre, 2012).
For both psychological and legal reasons, higher educaton is an appropriate educatonal level for the introducton of the use of social networks as educatonal tools.This poses a challenge for both students and faculty, and reveals a need to adapt teaching methods at the university level to the approaches of the European Higher Educaton Area (EHEA).In additon to the typical contents for each degree, the curricula for degree programs must also include interdisciplinary competences that will be of use to the students in their future professional careers (Marín-García, García-Sabater, Miralles & Rodríguez Villalobos, 2008).
The environment resultng from adaptaton to the EHEA and the incorporaton of new degrees requires a more fexible academic structure.These academic degrees can be created and modifed more easily than the former Bachelor's degrees and diplomas.However, this fexibility is especially complicated in areas that require laboratory actvites with complex and costly equipment.The feld of industrial engineering is precisely one of these areas.
With the aim of incorporatng new tools into educatonal practce and aware of the need for fexible, afordable access to diferent laboratory setups, a group of professors from two diferent universites proposed sharing the resources available at each of the two universites.The exchange also had the advantage of providing students a more global view of the course contents they were studying.The project, which was begun during the 2013-14 academic year, started with an analysis of the curricula at the two universites, in order to detect similar courses that were suitable for the actvity exchange, and a study of the technical requirements needed for such an exchange to occur.As a result, the objectves of the project were: • To foster cooperaton between universites and the direct partcipaton of students at the two universites.
• To make use of the advantages of the free online platorms to make shared teaching materials available to students at both insttutons.
• To create new materials adapted to the changes in the EHEA, using freely accessible electronic resources.
During the 2013-14 academic year, a remote session of laboratory actvites was carried out as a pilot test.Several conclusions were drawn from it, and it was enthusiastcally embraced by the students.
This project was proposed and implemented in the feld of engineering, which is the feld in which the professors involved work, but it is believed that it could be easily adapted to other areas of higher educaton.In some areas, the fnancial justfcaton for the proposal is not relevant, but the educatonal and social benefts of the proposal are sufcient to consider its implementaton.
Finally, it should be indicated that the project calls for actvity exchange sessions to be held throughout an academic quarter, but in no case is it proposing that a course is taught entrely online.This approach, while not completely out of the queston, is beyond the scope of this artcle.

METHODOLOGY
The project is carried out with the partcipaton of professors from the departments of mechanical engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV).Specifcally, they teach at the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB) and the Tarragona School of Chemical Engineering (ETSEQ).
First, the curricula for the currently established degrees and those in the process of being implemented at the two schools were analyzed.During the 2013-14 academic year, the last two years of the Industrial Engineering Bachelor's degree program and the Industrial Technologies degree were taught at ETSEIB, while the frst year of the Industrial Engineering Master's degree program was ofered at ETSEQ.It should be pointed out that ETSEIB already had a curriculum in place for the Industrial Engineering Master's degree, which was expected to begin (as was the case) the following academic year.Once all these curricula were analyzed, it was concluded that the Machine Design I and Machine Testng courses from the Industrial Engineering Bachelor's degree program at ETSEIB, also a part of the Master's degree curriculum, and the Machine Design and Testng course in the frst year of the Industrial Engineering Master's degree program at ETSEQ were the most suitable courses for the actvity exchange.
The machine design and testng courses are interdisciplinary courses within the mechanical engineering department, and they require the synthesis of knowledge acquired in previous courses.Furthermore, the actvites for these courses permit very diverse experimental setups in which the students can apply theoretcal knowledge and methodology in design and testng.As a result, it is a rewarding experience for the student to be able to work with the maximum number of laboratory setups possible.These are also the type of courses in which the problems presented do not have a single correct soluton, and therefore diferent points of view from both the professors and the students can result in diferent, but equally valid solutons.These courses were chosen for these very reasons.
Within these courses, the experimental setups used at each university that had the potental to enrich the courses at the other university were identfed.The project made it necessary to review the teaching materials used in the actvites in order to meet the instructonal needs of both insttutons and to coordinate the theoretcal concepts addressed.
The possibility of remote interacton between the actvity setups was analyzed, for both those currently in existence and those that might be created in the future.In all cases, Internet video streaming was considered to maintain visual contact between the students and the actvity setup when they were at diferent centers.Visual contact was deemed essental in order to successfully carry out an actvity session.Diferent possibilites were also examined regarding the use of remote or virtual laboratories (Gomes & Bogosyan, 2009;Fábregas, Farias, Dormido-Canto, Dormido & Esquembre, 2011).Three possible levels of interacton were identfed as applicable to the actvites of the selected courses: • Actvites involving monitoring and sensors.The highest level of interacton would be to have a computer-controlled laboratory set up with centralized sensor informaton also stored on the computer by means of a data acquisiton system.By remotely accessing the computer, it would be possible to remotely monitor and take measurements of the diferent parameters associated with the actvity.An actvity of this nature would require practcally no interventon on the part of anyone at the university where the setup is located, although its design would be expensive.There is currently no actvity underway with these characteristcs.
• Actvites involving sensors.The middle level of interacton would be to have an actvity in which the adjustments were performed by an operator and the data acquisiton was carried out remotely over the Internet.There are currently some actvites that could be partally carried out with this level of interacton (only some of the measurements to be taken are not centralized in a computer-operated data acquisiton system).
• Videotaped actvites.The lowest level of interacton would be to videotape the actvity and stream the informaton about the measurements obtained pointng the camera at the screens of the diferent devices used to acquire the data.This system requires the intensive interventon of an operator at the university where the laboratory setup is located.All the available actvites can be carried out with this level of interventon.
This later level of interacton, while seemingly the least ideal, has certain advantages over the other levels.In most of the actvites for these courses, standard devices such as multmeters and oscilloscopes are used for data acquisiton.Video broadcastng does not require the students to know how to use a computer-operated data acquisiton system.This level of interacton also permits the data acquisiton to be recorded beforehand and distributed to groups of students during the remote class session, in order to avoid the repettve measurement of data that is common with machine testng.
Finally, we sought to identfy the most suitable virtual platorm on which to distribute the teaching material and remotely broadcast the video.The use of the virtual campus at either university was ruled out, as these environments were judged to be too rigid and we wished to identfy less academic channels.The goal was to fnd an easy-to-use environment in which we could control access to teaching materials and an efectve method for streaming the video, which permited the computer desktop to be displayed.The social network Google+ was selected, since it is free and includes all of the required tools to permit distance learning that goes beyond just a master class delivered by videoconference (Lavandera & Real, 2011).Specifcally, the decision was made to use Google+ Hangouts and communites.Google+ communites can be set to private, so that only invited members can join the community.The Google+ communites tool was thus selected to distribute the teaching materials and to carry out the preparatory work prior to the actvity session.This tool can also be useful as an area for socializing between the communites at the two insttutons, in the case of a long-term exchange of laboratory actvites.The Hangouts tool was chosen as the basic framework on which to stream the video of the actvity session.In theory, the actvity session is intended to be carried out solely between two universites and with all students in atendance in the classroom.The Hangouts tool makes it possible to consider the opton of holding actvity sessions in which more than two insttutons partcipate, and even the students take part in the session from home.The applicatons associated with Hangouts have also been analyzed, and the following have been selected for possible use in the actvity sessions: • Remote desktop.Enables the computer desktop to be controlled remotely.It can be used to interact with the data acquisiton system and the system used to control the actvity setup.
• Google Drive.Permits documents (pdf, text documents, spreadsheets, etc.) stored on Google Drive to be accessed and edited from Hangouts during the actvity session.
• Symphonical.A virtual wall on which stcky notes can be placed.This can be useful for exchanging ideas and organizing diferent tasks necessary to carry out the actvity.
• Slideshare.Makes it possible to share transparencies.This can be useful for providing the necessary theoretcal explanatons.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PILOT EXPERIENCE
For the frst experience, a test carried out at ETSEIB was selected.The actvity guide was reviewed and materials were added to prepare the students for the actvity.The objectve of this was to provide the necessary tools to boost the comprehension of the test to be performed.
The aim of the actvity chosen as a pilot test for this project was for the students at ETSEQ to obtain the typical torque/rotatonal speed curve for a DC gear motor used to operate a set of windscreen wipers.Both the setup and the professor who guided the actvity were physically located at ETSEIB.Use of the Internet was required to carry out the preliminary work, view the setup and collect the data.Interacton with the actvity setup only occurred on video, due to problems related to the availability of a suitable Internet connecton in the machine laboratory.
All students registered for the Machine Design and Testng course at ETSEQ partcipated in the experience, as it was not a very large group.The Industrial Engineering Master's degree is a new program implemented at URV (begun during the 2013-2014 academic year).The students partcipatng in this learning experience came from diferent technical degree programs: degrees in engineering (industrial technologies, electrical, industrial electronic and automaton, mechanical, chemical, textle, etc.) and Bachelor's degrees in one of the specialtes of industrial technical engineering (having already studied the appropriate supplementary subjects).Both the previous level of educaton and the age profle of the students are diverse.More than half combine work and study and believe that this Master's degree provides the opportunity for professional advancement in the industrial sector.
During the weeks prior to the session, a private community was created on Google+ called Assaig de Màquines UPC-URV (Machine Testng UPC-URV), which all URV students registered in the course were invited to join.All the material needed to partcipate in the session (notes, videos explaining the devices used, the actvity guide, forms to complete the preliminary work, surveys, etc.) was then posted online.Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the community that was created.

Figure 1. Image of the Google+ community that was created
In order to ensure that the actvity session went as planned, special atenton was given to preparing the materials in order to make them easy to understand by students with diferent academic backgrounds.Great care was also taken to ensure that the materials represented a clear guide, linking theoretcal knowledge previously acquired in the lectures to the content of the actvity session.Finally, it was ensured that the instructonal material developed ofered an integrated, global understanding of the entre experimental process.Taking into account all these factors, the materials were designed to: • Support the master lectures.Materials containing the basic points to be worked on during the actvity session and that transmit the idea of interrelatonships with other course actvites.These materials are made available to the students before the remote session.
• Promote actve partcipaton by the students.To arouse the students' interest, a form was designed with a set of increasingly difcult questons.The questons on the form were discussed in the Google+ community in order to make them available for future reference.
• Acquire knowledge.The actvity instructons were updated to ensure an adequate understanding of the test by the new students and to boost their capacity to interpret the results.
The actvity was implemented in three stages: • Preparatory work.The students were required to answer questons on a form before the remote actvity session.The form was made available in the Google+ community and the results were compiled on a Google drive spreadsheet that could be accessed by the professor.
• Completon of the actvity.Using the Hangouts tool, ETSEQ students partcipated in the actvity session that physically took place in the Mechanics Department of ETSEIB.Measurements were taken in groups by the students and were submited on a form for additon to a spreadsheet.This spreadsheet was shared with all the students, once all the data were compiled from the groups.This ensured that all students had the maximum possible number of data available and gave them an incentve to detect errors, both their own and those of other groups.
• Post-actvity report.Based on the results obtained, the students were required to complete a report that was also submited online to the Google+ community.

Figure 2. Documents used during the actvity conducted as a pilot experience, available within the Google+ community
Figure 2 shows part of the preparatory work and the guide for the actvity.The documents for the preparatory work and the supplementary documents were made available to the students a few weeks before the remote session was held.The actvity guide was given to the students at the start of the actvity session.Figure 3 shows the mechanical part of the experimental setup used in the actvity session.
Aware of the importance of actvites in higher technical educaton, the grade received on the preparatory work, the work during the remote session and the report afer the session was given a weight of 10% of the student's fnal grade.The theoretcal content of the actvity was also subject to assessment on the course fnal exam.The opton on Google+ to record the Hangouts sessions held made it possible to provide the students with a video recording of the session through the Google+ community.By carrying out the actvity using the Google+ tools, the students could view the actvity as many tmes as they needed to and were provided with new material to be used to prepare for the fnal exam.

RESULTS
Afer completng the actvity, the students were asked to complete a survey on a form created with Google Drive.Eight of the questons were rated on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree), queston number nine allowed the students to add comments and queston ten was a yes-or-no queston.The questons were as follows: • Q1.The actvity enabled me to apply the theoretcal concepts studied in class on the statstcal treatment of errors.
• Q2.The explanatons given by the professor during the videoconference helped me understand the actvity.
• Q3.I positvely assess the possibility of doing this actvity, in spite of not being able to physically operate the experimental setup.
• Q4.I positvely assess the use of Google+ (and the online actvity conducted) in order to share instructonal materials between two universites.
• Q5.I positvely assess the material that has been created using free online resources (Google+ community, forms, Google Drive, surveys, etc.).
• Q6.I believe university instructon should include the use of more informaton and communicaton technologies, as well as social networks.
• Q7.The resources available in the classroom were sufcient to properly carry out the online actvity.
• Q8.My overall assessment of this actvity is (1 very bad -10 very good).
• Q9.Please comment on aspects that could be improved for next tme.
• Q10.Have you ever partcipated in a remote actvity in any other course at the university?
Table 1 summarizes the student evaluatons and the standard deviaton for each queston.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Experimental setup used in the actvity