The focus of this contribution is to propose a novel centralized authentication and authorization system, which can be used to share laboratories. This system optionally relies on existing mechanisms, such as those used by universities -e.g., Shibboleth, OpenID- or by social networks -e.g., Facebook Connect or Google with OAuth-. However, it still supports schools or universities not counting with an existing system, by providing its own system. The authentication and authorization system will be registered in other RLMSs. This way, users registered in the central system can consume laboratories from other institutions. This development is part of a project that includes the integration of the FCEIA-UNR lab with social networks. Based upon a previous development of a Remote Laboratory Management System at Universidad de Deusto, the authors also explain the advantages and drawbacks of the centralized approach.

1. Development of a Remote Laboratory
Management System and Integration
with Social Networks
F. Lerro1, P. Orduña2, S. Marchisio1, J. García-Zubía3
1
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina
2 DeustoTech - Deusto Institute of Technology, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
3 Faculty of Engineering, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

2. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
• Description
– The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the use of social
networks at the University
– Previous Development
Step by step
– This Project
The characteristics of the implementation
– Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

3. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
Our lab
 Easy to use
 No need to install plug-in or
application (HTML based)
 Multiplatform
 Need to have users
previously registered
 Previous tests accessible at
any time
No user’s category
Teachers can’t check what
the student have done
No forum
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

4. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

E-ducativa LMS




Multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Solaris, Unix)
Multi-Language (Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian)
Forums
User’s categories
Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

5. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Facebook




Almost all students at UNR have an account
Allows communication between students and teachers
Use of Facebook groups
Allows OAuth for authentication
No user’s category (all users have the same priority)
No connection with our lab
Not prepared for education
Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

6. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Integration with WebLab-Deusto
 FCEIA Remote Laboratory can access to WebLab-Deusto’s
experiments
 WebLab-Deusto users can access to FCEIA Remote
Laboratory
 Simple integration
Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

7. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
Integration with WebLab-Deusto
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

8. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
How we conceive the educational process
 The active participation and collaboration of students and
teachers in the production of knowledge is becoming an
important teaching strategy.
 In the scientific technologic experimental training, the role
of the practice laboratory is essential
 Among the great variety of didactic resources, the remote
laboratory is a tool “at the service of”, that can be
integrated at any time to support learning activities.
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

9. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
2007
• First remote Lab at FCEIA created by students
 Previous Development
Step by Step
2008
• Improvements made after students critics
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation
2009
• Full implementation of the lab and new experiments
added
2010
• Total acceptation by students
2011
• New remote laboratories projects
2012
• E-ducativa LMS integration and new laboratory
added
2013
• Federated to WebLab-Deusto

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

10. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
Building a RLMS
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

RLMS
Laboratories
Conclusions
Experiments
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

11. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
Requirements
 Easy share of the Laboratory to educational institutions with
no infrastructure rather than Internet access
 Social networks authentication in addition to local
authentication
 Users with different permissions (administrators, teachers,
students, tutors)
 Possibility of adding new laboratories easily in spite of lab’s
architecture
 LMS integration
 WebLab-Deusto federation
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

12. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
Proposed user’s administration layout
 Previous Development
Step by Step
FCEIA Remote
Laboratory
Administrator
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Institution A
Administrator
Institution B
Administrator
Institution n
Administrator
Conclusions
Classroom A
Teacher
Classroom B
Teacher
Classroom A
Teacher
Classroom n
Teacher
Students
Students
Students
Students
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

13. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
Characteristics of the implementation
 Easy share of the lab to other institutions means centralized
system
 Teachers can check the evolution of the learning curve of
their students on labs that allows it
 The system only handles authorization and authentication
(microRLMS)
 As microRLMS makes it more flexible on the addition of new
laboratories with different architectures
 A software library was made to facilitate the integration
with existing laboratories all over the world
 The existing labs at FCEIA are now independent software to
the MicroRLMS
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

14. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

15. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

16. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
Social Networks integration
 Remote Laboratory as Facebook application
 Facebook or Twitter user to authenticate
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

17. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Conclusions
Pros
 Simple authentication and authorization with Social
Networks
 Deployed in cloud basis (centralized)
 Easy sharing
 New laboratories available to all institutions
 Low learning curve (very easy to use)
 Can also be installed on multiple servers
 Compatible with traditional RLMS
Cons
Single point of failure
No possibility of using local directory servers
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

18. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
 The Scenario
Sharing laboratories and the
use of social networks at the
University
 Previous Development
Step by Step
 This Project
The characteristics of the
implementation

Final Comments
 This system provides institutions with no infrastructure the
possibility of accessing remote laboratories all over the
world
 It can be adapted to different type of systems
 The schedule or queue is managed by the final lab, but no
by the microRLMS
 It can be created different categories of users and groups
Conclusions
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

19. Development of a Remote Laboratory Management System
and Integration with Social Networks
Keywords
Sharing
Simpler
Multiplatform
Scalable
Connected
F. Lerro, P. Orduña, S. Marchisio, J. García-Zubía
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013

20. Development of a Remote Laboratory
Management System and Integration
with Social Networks
F. Lerro1, P. Orduña2, S. Marchisio1, J. García-Zubía3
1
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Ingeniería y Agrimensura. Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina
2 DeustoTech - Deusto Institute of Technology, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
3 Faculty of Engineering, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain
ICBL CONFERENCE 2013 – Florianópolis, Brazil
November 6 – November 8, 2013