Online engineering practice is offering nowadays new potentials for training of measurement technologies and experimental procedures. In a laboratory mainly devoted to instrumentation for measurement by hands-on activity in engineering fields, students and engineering professionals are using, at present, online experiments in a blended-learning approach. A set of experiments has been designed and developed as well as some virtual simulators. The experiments integrated in a Moodle platform are using a Web-server system based on LabVIEW 7.1, linked to them by data acquisition interface cards, a video server, and a booking system developed as an extension of the Moodle platform. This paper reports a particular setup specially designed for remotely measuring and determining mechanical material properties and its combination with the design of a highly interactive user interface. The user may remotely conduct the experiment, getting numerical, graphical, and live video output information and receiving e-mailed experimental results.

—The use of emergent technologies in the classroom is mandatory since very early stages considering their presence everywhere, from entertainment to the advertisement areas. Recognizing that fundamentals in electricity have very low level of popularity in secondary schools, different applications have been developed to test the interest of following in the future other developing tools in this field based in augmented reality technologies. The work describes the use of one of the applications tested with students 12 to 14 years old in terms of adequacy, student engagement and student achievement of specific goals. A technical short description is included as well as the implementation of the test with secondary students. Results from this study show that the use of AR applications has effective potential to be used in the classroom as an experimental tool, stimulates student engagement in class activities and enables students to build a self-efficacy in AR use being a good predictor for students’ learning.

This paper presents an exploratory study about educational potentialities of an augmented reality (AR) application developed for DC circuit fundamentals. Particularly the study aims to characterize student involvement using the application as well as its use as an additional experimental tool and to characterize how students perceive their experience and their learning through the use of this AR application. It is also briefly described how this application was developed and how the exploratory study was implemented involving STEM students. The AR application confirmed to be manageable and students have explored its configurations intuitively. Additionally, the AR tool usability according to our preliminary results showed to be effective for the AR developed application purposes, has induced student satisfaction and revealed very good student perceptions about learning perspectives. So, this study showed this AR application for DC circuits has a great educational potential.

The use of skinfold thickness measurements to evaluate the distribution of subcutaneous adipose tissue and to predict body fat has recognised advantages. However, the different types of skinfold calliper available present limitations that make them unattractive and perhaps less used in daily practice. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy and functionality of a new digital skinfold system, the Liposoft 2008+Adipsmeter V0 (LA), for measuring skinfold thickness and determining body fat proportion (%BF). Skinfold thickness measurements made by the LA were compared with those obtained with a Harpenden (H) calliper from two samples of adults (n45) and older adults (n56) in a university-based cross-sectional study. A comparison was also conducted between estimated %BF from skinfolds and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Bland and Altman plots show that skinfolds measured by the LA and H calliper are in high agreement, with a mean difference of 0·3 (95 % CI − 3·1, 3·4) mm. In regard to the %BF estimated from LA and H skinfolds measurement, the LA produced a similar approximation to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry %BF, with a mean difference of 0·2 (95 % CI − 0·8, 1·2) %, compared with %BF obtained with the H calliper. The LA system is an accurate instrumentation and represents an innovation in the evaluation of skinfold thickness and body composition based on anthropometric measurement.

Electricity fundamentals, as is the case of direct current or DC circuits, are still a problem among secondary school and even freshman university students. On the other hand youngsters are proficient users of emergent technology items. Having these features in mind the work presents different augmented reality approaches to DC circuits in order to contribute to attenuate these difficulties and to evaluate the potential of that technology in this area.