The VISIR (Virtual Instrument System in Reality) project is carried out by Blekinge Institute of Technology (BHT) in Sweden together with National Instruments (USA) and Axiom EduTech (Sweden).

Electrical experiments are common at schools and universities worldwide. Usually students execute experiments in the frame of traditional hands-on laboratories. The existing remote laboratories are more or less replicas of hands-on ones. Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality (VISIR) Open Lab Platform is a remote laboratory created by Blekinge Institute of technology (BTH) for designing, wiring and measurement of electronic circuits. A student creates circuit using instruments and wires on his “PC-screen”. Then, VISIR Open Lab Platform converts the student’s design to a real wired circuit and sends the measurement results to the PC-screen. Thus, VISIR Open Lab Platform is a real electronic lab environment which can be accessed at any time and from anywhere over an internet (Gustavsson, 2009).

There are three main scenarios for practical learning using VISIR Open Lab Platform (Feisel, 2005):

(1)   High schools and freshman university students. They can use VISIR Open Lab Platform for performing basic DC and low frequency AC circuits experiments related to Ohm’s and Kirchhoff’s laws.  Moreover, the students will become familiar with instruments, components, manuals, data sheets, circuit wiring, and other laboratory work.

(2)   University students who are familiar with components, circuit wiring and performing on complicated circuits experiments including transistors, operational amplifiers, AD converters, etc.

(3)   Experiments on fixed circuits, e.g., on printed circuit boards.

The Manual presents user interface and instruction and example of exercises how to use VISIR in class.

NOTE: This remote laboratory is used for design 2 supportive learning modules “Analog circuits’ measurements” and “How does the current flow?” (Physics) designed and developed by OLAREX consortium for secondary school teachers.