A Virtual Laboratory for Teaching Linux on the Web

The shortage of experimental platforms needed for learning IT systems in a hands-on way is one reason for the lack of quality education in the area of IT. For most students who have access to a PC, their ability to experiment on that machine is limited by the risk of possible irrecoverable damage their experimentation may cause to the equipment. We report the development of a 'Virtual Laboratory for Systems and Software' that teaches the basics of Linux. The goal of this laboratory is to give the students a platform through which they can learn the essentials of linux. The student interacts with a virtual instance of a linux machine through the browser on his machine to learn basic tasks of linux system administration. The student's machine could be running any operating system (not necessarily linux). This obviates the need to have a linux machine on the part of the student. The lab consists of a suite of experiments designed as web applications which are based on IT Workshop courses at undergraduate level in universities.