Multi-purpose specialty labs

Robert Belles; Jacob Miller

Hands-on experience in computer science curricula in today's environment is a virtual must. In general, it is possible to create computer labs that will address this need for a variety of students and classes. Even if these labs are not utilized in class, they must be available for students to obtain experience out of class. However, in order that these labs are available for many students from different classes to use, they must by definition be very restrictive in what students can do on the systems. In particular, students cannot generally make modifications to the configuration of the operating system or install applications without impairing the next student's ability to use the system. Moreover, students cannot generally install specialized operating systems or software in a general use lab.In order to give students experience in many areas of computer science, particularly in the areas of system and network administration, it is necessary to have labs where students have complete control over the environment. This type of lab would typically be used by a single class or perhaps a single section of a class meaning that it spends most of its time sitting empty. Computer labs are expensive not just in terms of equipment cost but also in terms of space and administrative requirements. This makes having many highly specialized labs impractical. In this paper we describe how these needs can be addressed with a minimum of space, equipment cost and administrative costs. The proposal outlined here can be implemented by any college that plans to have any sort of computer labs available.

Multi-purpose specialty labs

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Multi-purpose specialty labs

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