Towards virtual laboratories: a survey of labview-based teaching/learning tools and future trends

The computer technology and the Internet have the potential to provide a highly interactive andpowerful learning environment for engineering disciplines. Many academic courses that teachengineering subjects have already begun incorporating virtual instruments as teaching andmeasuring tools for student use. This paper reports some of the LabVIEW software applications.The paper aims to provide some background knowledge about the tools and to show alternativedelivery methods, which may change the traditional practices. The main focus in the paper is givento the common problems (such as user friendliness, cost and compatibility) faced by the institutionsand the educators, and it provides some guidance for the selection of the most suitable toolsrequired. Finally, the paper contemplates the future trends and provides some discussion