PID Control WebLab with LMS Integration Using SCORM

Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is an essential content of the Automation subjects in many Engineering degrees. The PID controller theory should be supported by some practices that help students to bring the “real world” into an otherwise theoretical education. This paper presents a PID Control WebLab that has been developed with a set of related learning resources using an innovative methodology. Traditional laboratories lessons have been adapted to an e-learning strategy based on a virtual laboratory embedded into a Shared Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) package along with a set of related learning resources. The result is a SCORM package including a learning path with specific theory, tests and a series of experiments where the assessment of the work performed by each student is recorded in the Learning Management System (LMS). The package itself constitutes a learning resource that can be reused in any SCORM supported LMS. This PID Control WebLab has been offered to 340 students of the “Industrial Automation” subject of the University of Jaén in the 2014-15 course. Several evaluations of this WebLab, also included in this paper, demonstrate that this proposal has produced excellent results in the knowledge obtained by the students, the WebLab has helped students to pass the subject final exam and it has been highly regarded by its users: the learners.