Work Packages

WP1: Preparation

The first WP includes a meeting which will be organised by Yarmouk University. In this meeting, the partner institutions will develop a survey for needs analysis which will identify the remote labs, take-home labs capacity needs of partner institutions. It will also define a set of benchmarks, deficiencies and training needs to establish successful remote labs, take-home labs in partners HEIs. The second meeting will be organised by BAU as an online workshop to analyse the survey results and discuss the major weaknesses and remote labs, take-home labs needs in the partner institutions, needed equipment, applications and staff. Therefore, this meeting will result in recommendations of some actions to be taken in WP2. During this WP a model to establish remote labs, take-home labs will be created. BAU will be the coordinator in this workpackage coordinating with the local coordinators in partners institutions which include: YU, BU, MU5, and SUZA. These local coordinators will manage issues and be in charge of coordinating with other institutions in its country reflecting its needs and best model practices to be used.

This WP will involve experienced staff from both national and international participating partners and stakeholders to have visibility in during the project development; in order to participate and follow up the project activities to contribute with recommendations and to evaluate the results.

WP2: Development: Training

also show possibilities to integrate remote lab activities using available commercial remote labs. Also, best practices on online delivery modes will be shared during the training.

For the training of faculty members, 2 faculty members from each partner institution and 1 staff representing different practical training topics will be trained for four days at H-BRS in on how to design a remote lab and/or Take-Home- Labs. The workshop will include competency-oriented, project- and problem based learning, especially for first year undergraduate students in electrical engineering, so that the knowledge gained can then be applied to the partners’ institutions remote labs and take-home labs. The students’ mobility will be also included in this activity. Students will take part in the training where 3 students from each partners’ institutions will be involved in the training at H-BRS to gain the learning experiences of practical training courses in the fields of remote labs and take-home labs.

Some of the updated practical training courses will be taught in the Spring 2023 as a pilot or proof of concept. The workshop will train students enrolled in the selected courses on the concepts of remote labs and engage in the learning process. The selected practical training courses will be taught for two semesters during the lifetime of the project and will sustain afterwards.

In this workpackage another training will be held at UCLM for faculty members, to introduce best practices of remote labs, take-home labs. The numbers will be the same as in the previous training at H-BRS.Faculty members will work with local technicians on (1) setting up a remote server that enables students to connect to it to do the experiment or through it to another connected equipment, and (2) procuring the toolboxes that enable the students to conduct the experiment at home, with remote and synchronous supervision from the faculty member.

Students involvement will also take another part at which students will participate in a local training held by each partner HEIs to train students on remote labs, take-home labs. The target is to train 100 students from each partner institution.

WP3: Development: Remote and Take-Home Labs Establishment

The activities in the WP3 focuses on establishing remote labs, take-home labs. H-BRS will monitor the participants in the process of creating the labs through collaboration with EU partners. After the training, one institution in each partner countries will set up the infrastructure needed for the remote labs and take-home labs will be set in each HEI of the partner countries. The establishment process will be implemented in consultation with Local and European partners so that the new labs would meet needs of partner institutions ecosystem and in parallel with the EU best practices. This WP will work on creating the infrastructure and technologies required to establish remote labs, take-home labs. The established remote labs will be covering areas of interest for partners institutions including: image processing, bioinformatics, control and automation benefiting from the EU partners experience. The take-home labs will be covering basic circuitry skills for the engineering students.

The installation of the remote lab as well as the “take-at-Home-Lab” will be reviewed and discussed. The evaluation will be documented, and feedback will be used to improve the second teaching semester. A website will be developed to reflect the project’s activities, and more importantly to give access to the remote lab as well as to host the updated courses and best practices for the public.

WP4: Quality Plan

The WP4 will be led by professional Start and it focuses on continuous monitoring of Key Performance Indicators, assuring the quality of the training process, and establishment of remote labs, take-home labs. In addition, a quality monitoring software will be used to validate the quality of deliverables and project tasks. Professional start will be involved in the meetings.

The partners will agree on a detailed quality assurance plan during the kick-off meeting. Those techniques to assure the quality of the training process and its outputs. Each partner will identify specific KPIs. Next, a global list of KPIs will be created after concrete discussion in the kick-off meeting.

Several quality aspects will be addressed during this WP. A bottom up approach for quality management will be used.
In particular, the contact person at each of the partner institutions will make sure that KPIs are met in each phase. This
will be re-validated by the QMC. The latter will use the quality management software to validate quality measures. The
results of the quality evaluation will be reported to project coordinator who will take actions according to the identified
issues. Quality aspects to be considered during the project lifetime and after as a part of the project sustainability are

Quality of procedures followed to establish remote labs, take-home labs
Quality of outputs
Quality of financial management
Quality of the selected training team
External evaluation

WP5: Dissemination & Exploitation

RL4Eng is characterised by its high standards and quality and by its focus on promoting of innovative way of dissemination. TAG-ITI will be responsible for portal development according to project needs. Both PS and TAG-ITI will be involved in the project activities as will be discussed later.

An activity will be held of train the trainers, of which a training will be held at one institution of the Partners country institutions, at which YU, BU, MU5 and SUZA will be reflecting about their experience in remote labs, along with the experience of other partners on take-home labs. Numbers involved will be the same as in the previous trainings held. The local coordinators will also discuss and evaluate the outcomes of the first teaching semester of the selected practical training courses.

In case of ongoing Covid-19 limitations some workshops and/or meetings will be held virtually. Due to Covid-19, Yu and H-BRS had successfully implemented the INVENT project virtually in 2020, which is a DAAD (German-Arab Transformation Partnership, Programme Line 1) project.

WP6: Management

The main management activities of the project will be distributed over the project members from the partner institutions. Those will coordinate all project activities and are responsible for achieving project outcomes. They are responsible for managing and organising different activities including staff and student visits, preparing for workshops in partner institutions , arranging visit logistics for faculty members from partner institutions. Yarmouk University and other partners will monitor the progress of activities. At the kick off meeting at Yarmouk University, some of the main roles will be set up, and responsibilities will be assigned. Team members from EU will be responsible for preparing training settings of the project. In particular, preparation of workshop material for those workshops that happen in the EU institution. They will be also responsible for arranging the visits for partners staff.

Because of the aforementioned inability of one organization possessing staffing and capabilities to cover all the domains of remote labs, take-home labs ecosystem needed to support the establishment and operation of such labs, partner institutions need to forge relationships with other universities. This collaboration will be geared toward providing more knowledge to project staff training about the remote labs, take-home labs in those universities. The team from partner institutions need to establish criteria for participation in the workshops, recruit beneficiary students who will do short training visits, engage them in the project activities, monitor their visits and mentor their progress in during the training workshops. The Yu Team will lead the main project activities. This will also include the financial and quality management. The quality management team will take into account any future or current risks, and strategies to handle them. The project committees including the QMC and PSC will meet during the project activities within partner institutions. In addition, there will be virtual meetings to deal with project interventions and measures that call for immediate action through short visits for coordination, planning and quality control.

The management activities will include preparation of regular reports, conferences organisation, Annual, progress and final management review reports. There will be one kick-off meeting and one conference during the project to arrange and monitor management activities. The conference will be as a dissemination event will be conducted to disseminate the remote-lab and “Take-Home lab” experience to other partner universities. This event will include hands-on experiences and showcases including student representatives. The project will give an opportunity to teach practical training courses remotely and will be built on for further steps including seeking funding for more advancements in this area. The conference will be held at YU. The conference, includes the project manager, 1-2 team members from each institution. Detailed reports will be created at each meeting. As project coordinator, YU will make sure that funds are transferred properly to all beneficiaries. YU will be responsible for ensuring that language, fax and telephone communications are all well-handled.

The project manager will arrange partnership agreements with all partners to determine the role and contribution of each partner in the project. All project activities will be divided among partners according to their experiences and capabilities in fulfilling the project goals