Arduino Learning Remotely

[ArduinoEdu]

Hello! Have you seen the new landing page that can support you for remote learning using Arduino?

Click on this link to learn more! : arduino.cc/remotelearning

Hoping this is helpful for you!

You can use this forum for any questions or discussions about it!

[TheMemberFormerlyKnownAsAWOL]

Here it is as a clickable link

[generaleccentric]

I teach physical computing at a visual arts university, and when the administration asked me if I could teach my course remotely in the Fall semester, I immediately said 'yes, no problem!". I have a series of video tutorials that the students watch before class that introduces a set of topics and in class they complete a series of exercises to get the hands-on experience. During class I'm moving from desk to desk, helping students to troubleshoot their circuits.

It's this "troubleshooting" aspect that has started to concern me. In Arduino, there's two different aspects of identifying problems. There's software troubleshooting and then there's hardware troubleshooting. If we move from face-to-face to remote teaching, the software troubleshooting can be done in a video conference with the student sharing their screen with me. This isn't a problem at all.

However, once I thought about it, I realized that troubleshooting hardware issues remotely will be much more difficult, if not impossible. I can stare at a breadboarded circuit for ten minutes and not see that a jumper is plugged into the wrong hole. If it's difficult in a F2F situation, how is it even possible to troubleshoot when looking at a student's photograph, or even a video?

I'm at the point now that I'm looking for Arduino simulators. I need a simulator that can run on OS X, that can be managed easily by a art or design student who does not have access to in-person hardware support.

I've looked at Xevro's Arduino Simulator, but it adds a level of complication--you have to edit the software code to make it work--that quite frankly I don't need when trying to introduce programming and electronics to artists and designers.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Power_Broker]

If it's difficult in a F2F situation, how is it even possible to troubleshoot when looking at a student's photograph, or even a video?

Many people on this forum are able to help with hardware troubleshooting projects every day. It's definitely a challenge for the reasons you mention, but it is possible. I think a lot of it comes down to asking the student correct and detailed questions (i.e. "Do you have the GPS TX wire connected to the Arduino Mega's Serial1 RX pin?").

Making sure students take "good" pictures of their project also helps. You might require several pictures of the same breadboard wiring at different angles if needed.

Another thing to consider is asking for students to create hand schematics of their wiring.

Also, do your students have multimeters and/or O-scopes? If so, you can ask them to measure the voltage/signal at certain points of their circuits to give you an idea what's going wrong.

I'm at the point now that I'm looking for Arduino simulators. I need a simulator that can run on OS X, that can be managed easily by a art or design student who does not have access to in-person hardware support.

I've looked at Xevro's Arduino Simulator, but it adds a level of complication--you have to edit the software code to make it work--that quite frankly I don't need when trying to introduce programming and electronics to artists and designers.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'll be honest, I'm a millennial electrical engineer with a fair amount of experience with computers and I can't figure out how to properly install and launch that program to where it gives me the project editor UI. I'm wondering if it's difficult for me - how are art/design students going to use it?

Personally, I think developing hardware troubleshooting skills is 100% necessary for anyone who is learning embedded design and using a simulator is more of a crutch than an aid. If the students never touch and debug Arduino hardware, I think they'll have a rude awakening when they start their first major robotic art project.

[generaleccentric]

Thanks for your reply. Your suggestion about being clear about where wires are attached is a good one.

Taking photos of their work is a last resort (in my view), as it is cumbersome to take and send photos during a synchronous video chat. The students will not be at school--they'll be at home at their kitchen table. I could add a cheap $15 multimeter to their Arduino learning kits, but o-scopes are not an option.

My thinking about the simulator is that I would get them to first build a working circuit in the simulator for validation, and then get them to build it on the breadboard. I do require them to draw a schematic, but as you might guess, for a lot of artists the idea of a "circuit" flow is difficult one to grasp, at least until mid-term.

[BreddGar]

Hello! Have you seen the new landing page that can support you for remote learning using Arduino?

Click on this link to learn more! : arduino.cc/remotelearning

Hoping this is helpful for you!

You can use this forum for any questions or discussions about it!

Ok.

[generaleccentric]

My thinking about the simulator is that I would get them to first build a working circuit in the simulator for validation, and then get them to build it on the breadboard. I do require them to draw a schematic, but as you might guess, for a lot of artists the idea of a "circuit" flow is difficult one to grasp, at least until mid-term.

I'm considering the Javascript circuit simulator at lushprojects.com as a simple way for students to try out simple circuits. It's not ideal because it does not like a simple OR circuit made with switches. However, it seems universally available.

Tinkercad has a pretty good GUI simulation that should permit students to build their Arduino device on a virtual breadboard. If they run into problems they can share it, and once it's working as expected, they can then build the actual device.

That's where I'm at, anyway...

[tcpipchip]

Hi, in 1999, my Dissertation was to how to make real experiments with  microcontrollers remotely.

That time i used the 89C52.

That idea was growing and at same year we created the REXLAB (REMOTE EXPERIMENT LAB) and is online today!

You can make real experiments with ARDUINO

Look at

http://relle.ufsc.br/labs/4

Thank you!

Here my Dissertation draft

http://www.inf.furb.br/~maw/dissertacao/

enjoy
(email removed)

[Grumpy_Mike]

I can stare at a breadboarded circuit for ten minutes and not see that a jumper is plugged into the wrong hole.

Yes we can all do that. But if you are on a video contact with them you can ask them to perform operations and get instant feedback. Something that can take several days through a forum conversation. Also unlike the Forum they will not be able to ignore your requests to measure that voltage or fully describe what they are expecting the hardware to do.

It will be much more of an exercise in improving your trouble shooting skills as your students.

I remember one of my students who had an experiment in another lab, coming into my lab and asking me why an if statement didn't seem to be working. I told him to remove the semi colon from the end of the if statement, and if that didn't do it come back and I would take a look. He did come back, but only in astonishment to ask be how I knew. 

When faced whit a seemingly impossible situation one good tip is to do something and see if that something makes a change that makes sense. Often this will give a clue as to what is happening. I call this approach "prod the jelly (or jello) and see how it wobbles".

I would not bother with simulators as while they can be good at reproducing the working of code then are quite hopeless at simulating the sort of sensors or peripherals of a real device.

[Klaus_K]

I agree with Grumpy_Mike, I would not bother with simulation for Arduino. With the development of flash memory and in-circuit debugging, simulation has become mostly irrelevant for microcontroller software development. The simulator development for microcontrollers cannot keep up with the number of devices coming to market.

If you want your student to develop their programming skills without hardware issues develop a fixed baseboard with a couple of sensors for Arduino and let them use that. But then you take away some of the fun of Arduino. There are plenty of other ways to just program in all kinds of languages and platforms with fixed hardware aka PC/MAC, phones, tablets, Raspberry Pi but with Arduino you get a good mix of cheap and easy hardware and software development.

[mbertram]

I teach robotics at middle school in the US. Since it's likely that we will be delivering online content, I've decided I would provide students with the Arduino Student Kit.  I have a couple of questions.
1. Is there a teacher's guide to this? I see the student curriculum with the student notebook but no teacher guide.
2. Is the notebook available in google docs format? 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Klaus_K]

@mbertram - Please create a new post with your question. Older posts only get flagged for people who have posted there. New posts get more attention. Choose a good subject line.

[PierVona]

@mbertram - About the Arduino Student Kit I can tell you that there is no guide document for teachers but, once logged in, in each lesson you will find many teacher notes attached with advice, expected time, teaching ideas, lesson objectives and etc. You will also find several step by step "further notes" for the exercises.