Article

A virtual laboratory environment for online IT education

Authors:

Lee J. Leitner,

John W. CaneAuthors Info & Claims

SIGITE '05: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education

Pages 283 - 289

https://doi.org/10.1145/1095714.1095780

Published: 20 October 2005 Publication History

Abstract

We have developed an Internet-connected, client/server environment that can perform operations of arbitrary scope under the control of remote users. We describe the results of our initial work to apply this remote-access technology to the creation of a laboratory environment for use by online students in information technology programs. Our objective is to provide distance-learning students with a remote laboratory experience that replicates key aspects of the traditional, on-campus laboratory environment to the maximum possible extent, providing distance-learning students with an effective and satisfying laboratory experience. In many cases, online students are denied laboratory experience entirely, are asked to construct their own laboratory, or must substitute simulation for direct experience. Our remotely accessed, virtual networked laboratory environment applies technology to restore the key aspects of the traditional laboratory experience to the online student. This paper discusses the progress of our work so far, describing our traditional laboratory model, virtual laboratory technology and architecture, the mapping of the laboratory model to our environment, and our initial laboratory procedures and protocols. We are at the stage of prototyping laboratory activities developed for study of computer networking. This paper also discusses the results achieved from our prototype activity, which demonstrated both the feasibility and limitations of our approach.

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Cited By

Jeffery ARogers SPringle JZholobenko VJeffery KWisniewski KHaxton KEmley D(2022)Thinglink and the Laboratory: Interactive Simulations of Analytical Instrumentation for HE Science CurriculaJournal of Chemical Education10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c0106799:6(2277-2290)Online publication date: 31-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c01067
Yuan DCross B(2016)Designing, Developing, and Evaluating a Cloud-Based Laboratory for Online STEM IT StudentsHandbook of Research on Cloud-Based STEM Education for Improved Learning Outcomes10.4018/978-1-4666-9924-3.ch005(64-78)Online publication date: 2016
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9924-3.ch005
Miles CChan K(2016)Building an end-to-end ISP broadband infrastructure as an advanced networking subjectComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.2166724:1(16-26)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/cae.21667
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A virtual laboratory environment for online IT education
1. Applied computing
  1. Education
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        Information science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGITE '05: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Information technology education

October 2005

402 pages

ISBN:1595932526

DOI:10.1145/1095714

General Chair:
Rob Friedman
New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 20 October 2005

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SIGITE05

Sponsor:

SIGITE05: ACM Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education Conference 2005

October 20 - 22, 2005

NJ, Newark, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 176 of 429 submissions, 41%

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Cited By

Jeffery ARogers SPringle JZholobenko VJeffery KWisniewski KHaxton KEmley D(2022)Thinglink and the Laboratory: Interactive Simulations of Analytical Instrumentation for HE Science CurriculaJournal of Chemical Education10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c0106799:6(2277-2290)Online publication date: 31-May-2022
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c01067
Yuan DCross B(2016)Designing, Developing, and Evaluating a Cloud-Based Laboratory for Online STEM IT StudentsHandbook of Research on Cloud-Based STEM Education for Improved Learning Outcomes10.4018/978-1-4666-9924-3.ch005(64-78)Online publication date: 2016
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9924-3.ch005
Miles CChan K(2016)Building an end-to-end ISP broadband infrastructure as an advanced networking subjectComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.2166724:1(16-26)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/cae.21667
Yuan DCross B(2014)Evaluating and using cloud computing for online hands-on learningJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/2591468.259149829:4(191-198)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2591468.2591498
Stoker GArnold TMaxwell PArmitage WFriedman RBaker K(2013)Using virtual machines to improve learning and save resources in an introductory IT courseProceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology education10.1145/2512276.2512287(91-96)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2512276.2512287
Stockman M(2012)Remotely Accessible Systems for Computing Sciences DisciplinesInternet Accessible Remote Laboratories10.4018/978-1-61350-186-3.ch019(380-396)Online publication date: 2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-61350-186-3.ch019
Pendegraft N(2011)Simulation, Games, and Virtual Environments in IT EducationGaming and Simulations10.4018/978-1-60960-195-9.ch509(1383-1390)Online publication date: 2011
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-195-9.ch509
Bochicchio MLongo A(2011)Collaborative Web Labs as a Service: Challenges and opportunities2011 First Global Online Laboratory Consortium Remote Laboratories Workshop10.1109/GOLC.2011.6086782(1-8)Online publication date: Oct-2011
https://doi.org/10.1109/GOLC.2011.6086782
Bochicchio MLongo A(2011)Collaborative Web labs as a serviceProceedings of the 2011 Frontiers in Education Conference10.1109/FIE.2011.6143129(GOLC1-1-1-GOLC1-8)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE.2011.6143129
Seay CTucker G(2010)Virtual computing initiative at a small public universityCommunications of the ACM10.1145/1666420.166644153:3(75-83)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1666420.1666441
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