Experience in teaching engineering related subjects has shown that a complementary approach combining theoretical and practical exercises is vital for effective learning. Increasingly, teaching institutions are offering remote access to distant laboratories as part of an overall e-learning strategy. However, the majority of remote laboratories developed to date have suffered from a major deficiency, namely the provision of a web based environment that accurately recreates the group working and tutor driven experience of traditional on-campus based laboratories. This paper addresses one of these issues and presents an architecture for a collaborative learning environment for remote experimentation.