Enhancing Engineering Education through Digital Twins and Interactive Manuals for Scalable Hands-On Learning

Abstract

Hands-on laboratory projects are central to engineering education but are constrained by limited laboratory capacity, staff availability, and accessibility challenges. This paper presents an educational framework that combines a digital twin of physical laboratory hardware with an interactive course manual implemented as a collection of interlinked Jupyter notebooks. The framework enables students to explore system behavior, test design choices, and iteratively refine solutions in a realistic simulated environment before transitioning to physical laboratory setups. The approach was implemented in a second-year Electrical Engineering project course at Delft University of Technology. Evaluation results indicate improved perceived course coherence, constructive alignment, and self-reported learning outcomes. Students reported feeling better prepared for physical laboratory work, and instructors observed a reduction in pressure on laboratory infrastructure. Importantly, the contribution lies not in the digital twin alone, but in its tight instructional integration with the interactive manual and course workflows, enabling seamless code reuse and a gradual transition from simulation to hardware. These findings indicate that well-integrated digital twins can support scalable, inclusive, and effective hands-on engineering education without replacing physical laboratories.