Activities: EJSApp
Virtual and Remote Laboratories in Moodle
It is commonly accepted that digital media (such as simulations, videos, interactive screen experiments or web labs) can positively impact student knowledge, skills and attitudes. Consequently, tools such as Moodle and web-based online labs have become widespread in distance education in the last decade. Moodle supports the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events. Web-based labs make possible to illustrate scientific phenomena that require costly or difficult-to-assemble equipment.
There are two complementary approaches for web-based online labs:
- Virtual Labs or Experiments provide computer based simulations which offer similar views and ways of work to traditional labs.
- Remote Labs or Experiments use real plants and physical devices which are teleoperated in real time.
EjsS
Easy Java/Javascript Simulations (EjsS, https://www.um.es/fem/EjsWiki/ and https://gitlab.com/ejsS/tool) is a tool designed for the creation of: 1) discrete computer simulations and 2) web-accessible online labs in education of scientific and technical disciplines. With this objective in mind, EjsS supports connections with external applications, such as LabView, Python and Matlab/Simulink, and hardware, such as Arduino and BeagleBone boards.
A rich repository of EjsS simulations is freely available at: http://www.compadre.org/
EJSApp: bridging together Moodle and EjsS
To support the one-click deployment of virtual and remote labs into Moodle, we have developed the EJSApp plugin, which has the following features:
- Deployment of labs written in EjsS.
- Control user access to the deployed labs and distinguish between virtual labs (or simulations) and remote labs.
- Combined use of EjsS applications with Blockly (https://developers.google.com/blockly), a scracth-type visual programming language.
- Backup and restore. EJSApp provides maintenance facilities for labs, packaging them into Moodle course backups.
To get the feel of EJSApp, visit UNILabs, which is a moodle site that hosts a rich network of virtual and remote labs for students of the Spanish Open University (UNED) and other Spanish Universities, such as the Huelva, Complutense and Almeria Universities. All labs in UNILabs have been developed using the EJSApp and its extensions (EJSApp "private files" browser, Remlab Manager, EJSApp Booking System, EJSApp Collab Session and the Open Source Physics repository plugin).
GitHub
The code repository of this plugin can be found at https://github.com/UNEDLabs/moodle-mod_ejsapp
References
- Luis de la Torre, Maria Guinaldo, Ruben Heradio, Sebastian Dormido. The Ball and Beam System: A Case Study of Virtual and Remote Lab Enhancement With Moodle. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 11(4): 934-945, 2015.
- Luis de la Torre, Ruben Heradio, Carlos A. Jara, Jose Sanchez, Sebastian Dormido, Fernando Torres, Francisco A. Candelas. Providing Collaborative Support to Virtual and Remote Laboratories. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 6(4): 312-323, 2013.
- Luis de la Torre, Juan P. Sanchez, Ruben Heradio, Carmen Carreras, Manuel Yuste, Jose Sanchez, Sebastian Dormido. Creating web experimentation portals. International Conference on Interactive Computer aided Blended Learning, 2013, Florianópolis, Brasil.
- Ruben Heradio, Luis de la Torre, Jose Sanchez, Sebastian Dormido and Hector Vargas. An architecture for virtual and remote laboratories to support distance learning. In Research in Engineering Education Symposium, pages 579-587, Madrid, Spain, October 2011.
Tutorial Videos
Overview of EJSApp
Tutorial to add a simulation/virtual lab activity with EJSApp
Tutorial to add a remote lab activity with EJSApp
Overview of Open Source Physics, a free repository with more than 400 freely available EJS simulations
Overview of UNEDLabs, a network of virtual and remote laboratories developed with EJSApp
If you like this plugin, please support its development: https://www.paypal.me/ejsapp
Sets
Useful links
Screenshots
Moodle 3.3.1
When I click on a lab, I get only a download window to download the jnlp file.
Any suggestions to fix this?
I'm afraid you can't fix that. Embedded Java applets are no longer supported by any web browser, so we decided to deploy the Java applets through the Java Netjork Launch Protocol (JNLP), as desktop applications. This allows us to launch the applets with certain parameter that may be needed for the applications to run with all their features, but you can no longer have them embedded in you browser.
If you prefer the simulation (or remote lab) to be embedded in the browser (as we do), you should move to Javascript. EjsS allows creating Javascript applications in a very similar way as the Java applications were created, and you can add them to your Moodle course exactly the same way you do it with Java applets in an EJSApp activity.
Yes it is. I forgot to change the info here (I will do right now), but it works perfectly fine with Moodle 3.4
David, unfortunately, your I didn't read your message. I'm afraid I can't be of much help with your description of the problem. If you are still interested in fixing it, maybe we could have a skype meeting.
Embedded Java applets are no longer supported by any web browser, so I decided to deploy the Java applets through the Java Netjork Launch Protocol (JNLP), as desktop applications. You don't open jnlp files in the browser, the Operating System opens them. What is exactly your problem when opening a jnlp file? If you give me more details, maybe I could help you.
If you prefer the simulation (or remote lab) to be embedded in the browser, you should move to Javascript. EjsS allows creating Javascript applications in a very similar way as the Java applications were created, and you can add them to your Moodle course exactly the same way you do it with Java applets in an EJSApp activity.
The EJSApp private files browser serves for different purposes (saving and loading files related to EJSApp lab activities).
The address wasn’t understood
Firefox doesn’t know how to open this address, because one of the following protocols (jnlp) isn’t associated with any program or is not allowed in this context.
You might need to install other software to open this address.
Please help me on this error, thanks in advance.
Firefox is trying to open a Java file. Since Java applets can't be embedded into web browsers since a couple of years ago, EJSApp tries to open it through the JNLP protocol, which downloads and then runs the Java applet as a desktop application. However, for this to work, you need the Java Virtual Machine to be installed in your computer.
Anyway, I recommend you to use EJS Javascript applications instead of Java ones.
Using Moodle 3.5.2+, Postgres 9, PHP7.1
I get this error messagewhen upgrading from "3.1" to "4.0": Field "mainframe" does not exist in table "ejsapp"
Ricardo
Field "mainframe" does not exist in table "ejsapp"
More information about this error
×Debug info:
Error code: ddlfieldnotexist
×Stack trace:
line 561 of /lib/ddl/database_manager.php: ddl_field_missing_exception thrown
line 365 of /mod/ejsapp/db/upgrade.php: call to database_manager->drop_field()
line 818 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to xmldb_ejsapp_upgrade()
line 524 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins_modules()
line 1869 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 694 of /admin/index.php: call to upgrade_noncore()
The configuration (Trust certificate file path is set to default: Default: /var/www/moodledata/firmadia.pfx, Trust certificate password is empty, Trust certificate alias is empty). Do I need to fill in those variables? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!
I'm afraid you won't be able to make Java applets work with EJSApp any longer. Since a few years ago, this feature is not supported any longer, as web browsers do not support Java or Flash applications to be embedded in the web any more. There are a few residual elements like the ones you just mentioned that need to be deleted from the plugin, as they are no longer used. You should go with HTML5 EjsS apps instead of Java EJS apps.