Dealing with Scalability of Laboratory Sessions in Computer Science University Courses

Abstract

The increase of the number of students enrolled to bachelor degree computer science and information technology courses brings new challenges for universities and educational institutions. It has been recognized that laboratory session is an essential element in computer science education, as it supplements the classroom presentations as many topics cannot be treated adequately without first-hand experience in using actual computer systems. However, current platforms for online learning courses do not pay enough attention to the laboratory sessions. In this paper, we identify requirements and explore novel paradigms together with state-of-the-art technologies in the area of education and infrastructure management in order to deal with previously mentioned issues of laboratory session scalability. As an outcome, we propose a system architecture for execution of computer science courses laboratory sessions using container-based virtualization and paradigms of blended learning and consider its implementation variants.