The Operating System Laboratory, OSLab, is an online course to teach students about the principles of computer operating systems using a progressive approach and problem-oriented learning. OSLab focuses on the hands-on training experience of the students and will complement existing lectures. The course is modularly structured, each module covers a topic and is self-contained. A teacher can select modules according to his needs and easily add new modules to the course.
Three new modules have been created, namely, "Memory Management", "Distributed File Systems", and "Inter-Process Communication & Synchronization". This includes the theory section as well as the hands-on exercises. In the hands-on part the students have to solve programming and/or configuration tasks in order to deepen the theoretical knowledge.
Additionally, the OSLab tools framework has been improved. The framework basically consists of two Java applets and aims to present a common user interface for the hands-on exercises. The learners applet can be adapted to the special needs of the respective exercise and provides a graphical user interface in the Web browser for the remote hands-on exercises. If the learner solved the exercise he/she gets an encrypted passcode to be sent to the course tutor. The second applet is for the course tutor and allows to decrypt the solution sent by the learners and helps to organise the received solutions. Furthermore, the tutor can review the exercise solutions (e.g. programme source code) and is provided with a basic plagiarism finder.
Additionally, the OSLab tools framework has been improved. The framework basically consists of two Java applets and aims to present a common user interface for the hands-on exercises. The learners applet can be adapted to the special needs of the respective exercise and provides a graphical user interface in the Web browser for the remote hands-on exercises. If the learner solved the exercise he/she gets an encrypted passcode to be sent to the course tutor. The second applet is for the course tutor and allows to decrypt the solution sent by the learners and helps to organise the received solutions. Furthermore, the tutor can review the exercise solutions (e.g. programme source code) and is provided with a basic plagiarism finder.
Another central component of the e-learning infrastructure is the reservation system which manages the access to the laboratory resources. It has been reimplemented and provides some new features and a higher reliability.
| Title: | Operating System Laboratory (OSLAB) |
| People | Prof. Dr. Torsten Braun, Gerald Wagenknecht, Thomas Bernoulli, Matthias Scheidegger, Carolin Latze, Thomas Staub Dr. Attila Weyland, Dr. Markus Wulff |
| Duration: | 01.2006 - 06.2008 state:completed |
| Partners: | University of Neuchâtel, University of Fribourg, University of Rostock (Germany) |
| Index Terms: | operating system, OS, e-learning, laboratory, hands-on, interactive | Homepage: | OSLab |