Remote laboratories have been developed at many universities worldwide to provide students with access to apparatus and experiments via the Internet around the clock, thus giving partner institutions the opportunity to share resources, expensive equipment and specialized laboratories, whether within a single country or at regional and international levels. Universities usually implement learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle and Blackboard to enable students to interact, carry out learning activities and access remote labs. However, remote labs generate enormous amounts of data, which is stored, processed, analyzed, and accessed using centralized systems that lack transparency, traceability, security features, trustworthiness, and reliability. In addition, they are vulnerable to the single point of failure problem due to centralization. The application of blockchain technology in remote labs is proposed as a promising solution for future online learning as it combines a new pedagogical approach with various state-of-the-art technologies in an era that embraces Education 4.0 as the education norm. Furthermore, a novel blockchain-based framework for remote labs allows data streaming and transfer in a decentralized, transparent, traceable, reliable, secure, and trustful manner, where only authorized peers can join or access the network, thereby providing privacy of students’ data files and reports. An initial pilot of an Ethereum-based remote lab show promising result for effective management of online experiments, originally hosted in a Moodle LMS.

Remote practical experiences are nowadays essential in the context of distance education, because students cannot use face-to-face traditional laboratories. These remote laboratories can be used by faculty within virtual classrooms, so that students can carry out their on-line experiments in a ubiquitous way – from anywhere and at any time. But these activities cannot be isolated from the learning process of students. Therefore, the services provided by a remote laboratory must be integrated into the institutional Learning Management System (LMS), in order to be employed during the whole learning process. In this work, a fully-functional example of the integration of service-oriented remote laboratories into a LMS is presented, where the Moodle platform has been chosen as a representative LMS

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, technology is advancing at a pace much faster than what individuals, societies and nations can cope with. Internet of Things (IoT) is one such technology that is sweeping the economic, business and service landscapes with its disruption mechanisms that influence areas such as smart homes, hospitals, cities, as well as transportation and energy utilization with many exciting and novel applications. Additionally, the job market is evolving at a rate that makes it difficult for universities to sustain a stable programme structure, especially in engineering and information and communication technology disciplines as well as specializations and domains associated with technology. While several universities worldwide have established IoT degree programs at bachelor and master levels, institutions in developing countries are still contemplating the idea of pioneering such venture due to a number of reasons related to technology vacillation as well as market and social acceptance. Princess Sumaya University for Technology has therefore designed a bachelor degree programme on IoT Engineering in order to bridge the gap in the Jordanian ICT market and to meet demands for specialized engineers in this rapidly evolving area. The university adapted an optimization design process of the program including a cycle of consultation with stakeholders, followed by a formal procedure of rectification and accreditation. The proposed program was successfully a launched at the beginning of the academic year 2021/2022 with an intake cohort of 50 students.

A state-of-the-art eLearning renewable energy course, which consists of a number of topics and a practical component with several experiments, has been designed to showcase the paradigm for reform and modernisation of engineering curriculum in Jordan. The online experiments were physically distributed in four universities that cover most of the geography of the country. The experiments can be conducted by students over the internet at any time from anywhere by any student in the country. The eLearning course was piloted and delivered to students jointly in four universities over a period of two years. The experiments encompassed topics on wind and solar photovoltaics power generation, solar tracking control, hybrid energy and fuel cells. The teaching effectiveness from the perspective of the students was investigated and feedback from faculty members, technicians and students supporting the delivery of the courses was explored. The results actually show a promising endorsement by students of this innovative approach and demonstrate clearly their passion for reform, renovation and novelty. The new model for the online course may be integrated into the corresponding curriculum and engineering study plans as its evaluations by both professors and students were found significantly favourable.

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) offers decentralized storage and data sharing, which are critical for the functionality of Blockchain of Things (BCoT) systems. Despite its advantages, IPFS faces challenges such as scalability, latency, and resource management issues that hinder its effective integration into existing blockchain infrastructures. This study explores the implementation of Docker containerization to enhance IPFS performance within BCoT environments. An experimental testbed was established, comprising an IPFS node and an IPFS Cluster peer deployed as Docker containers, to evaluate the latency of file operations across various sizes and analyze containerization’s impact on data storage and retrieval efficiency. The proposed Dockerized IPFS implementation demonstrates substantial performance improvements over traditional systems, achieving latency reductions of up to 75% for small files (1–256 KB) and a three-fold decrease for larger files (64 MB). Specifically, write operations were reduced from 1000 ms to 300 ms, while read operations improved by 40%, decreasing from 2500 ms to 1500 ms. Additionally, the containerized approach yielded lower latency than previous standalone IPFS deployments. The study emphasizes the significance of dynamic resource allocation in optimizing resource utilization, thereby enhancing the overall performance of IPFS Clusters within BCoT frameworks. By leveraging Dockerized IPFS, BCoT systems can achieve more efficient off-chain storage solutions, facilitating improved data management and interoperability in decentralized applications.