Hi Andres, Thank you for your excellent comments. I believe strongly that the instructor does much to create the learning environment, meaning the atmosphere or climate. If instructors believe in what they are doing and keep motivated about delivering the course content then the students will be engaged as well. I have taught in some very difficult situations, poor equipment, paint peeling, floor buckled and yet we had a great class because we as a learning group cared about each others' success. You are right about the balance between state of the art equipment and cost. As long as we can develop rapport with our students and illustrate the basic principles on the equipment then we can succeed. The learning environment must entail the affective domain as well as the physical setting in order to be most effective. Gary