ITiCSE '96 Proceedings of the 1st conference on Integrating technology into computer science education
Open Source Development with LAMP: Using Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP
Open Source Development with LAMP: Using Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP
Closed labs in computer science I revisited in the context of online testing
Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
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Lab-based learning that provides students with hands-on experience is an integral component of Computer Science (CS) education. Unfortunately, CS departments in many small institutions often lack the resources necessary to offer a full spectrum of lab courses in their curriculum. In this article, we present the setup and contents of a sequence of unsupervised online labs for a typical undergraduate database course. Problems that occurred during the implementation of the labs and how they were addressed are also discussed. The labs were designed to be fully self-explanatory with no need for teaching assistants, extra credit hours, or physical laboratories. The labs incorporate a tutorial style which allows students to learn new technologies outside of the classroom and apply them to a comprehensive course project. Multiple years of feedbacks indicated that the labs were effective in helping students learn and preparing them for real-world applications. Our experience shows that unsupervised labs, if properly designed and administered, can be a promising alternative to physical labs in CS education.