Computer model of a spectrum analyzer for a virtual laboratory: development and introduction to the educational process

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has changed the development plans of every country. Instead, governments had to constantly deal with ever-emerging issues in healthcare, education, economics and industry. As a result, there has been an accelerated introduction of digitalization in these spheres. Thus, an increasing number of people have started using electronic services that have improved their digital literacy. This feature has had a positive impact on society and helped to create new interaction tools between populations and governments, students and institutions, customers and companies. The article aims to analyze how studying radio electronics can be improved by involving new tools and how they can be applied in distance learning. This work presents the results of the development and application of a virtual radio signal simulation in the educational process in the form of a laboratory practicum. Working on this approach required specific research in the field; the foreign experience was observed and studied. The review allowed us to find out how digitalization and the application of digital tools affect the behaviour, cognition, and overall performance of students during the pandemic. The authors conducted a questionnaire among students to evaluate the features of the virtual laboratory work and their effect on the educational process. The results analyzed are given in the article. They showed that students highly appreciate the introduction of such tools in learning. Moreover, like the entire laboratory, the proposed model can be used in the educational process offline and with distance learning. Finally, the article describes the experience and results of the software package’s development and integration for the spectrum analyzer’s computer model and virtual laboratory work using the MS VS environment in C ++. The results of the conducted work demonstrate the versatility of the proposed approach, its positive impact on the educational process, high potential in the other spheres.