Virtualisation and Visualisation – Improving Teaching and Learning in

Computer Science

Seán Duignan

School of Science

GMIT

Tony Hall

Education DepartmentNUIG

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Background

The application of virtualisation technologies to enhance teaching and learning:

– particularly in the subject areas of OperatingSystems and E-Commerce Infrastructures.

Significant scope for application to other areas of the computer science curriculum also.

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What is Virtualisation?

It’s not new!

Quite simply – virtualisation is the abstraction of computer resources.

Processor virtualisation (through time sharing) since 1959.

Shared printers in office environments?

The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) – development & execution environment - abstracts all of the underlying hardware.

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What is Virtualisation?

Virtualisation creates an external interface that hides an underlying implementation.

Very useful for focusing on specifics.

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Abstraction is not always useful!!

Sometimes it is better to be able to interact with the actual rather than the abstract:

e.g: To see or visualise the component(s) for oneself.

In a teaching environment though, this can be difficult to accommodate.

e.g: Providing someone with a machine to configure (format a hard-drive, install an OS etc….)Destructive and expensive!

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Machine / Device Virtualisation

…. through the use of virtualisation software products that provide for multiple virtual devices within a single physical device.

At GMIT we used VMWareTM as a teaching and learning aid on a number of computer science programmes.

Provides for multiple “virtual machines” to run in isoloation side-by-side on the same physical machine.

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Virtual Machines / Virtual Devices

• Each virtual machine has its own set of (virtual) hardware:

CPU, RAM, Disk, DVD-ROM, Network Interface etc.

….. upon which an operating system (various) and applications can be loaded.

• Within each virtual machine, the operating system sees a consistent collection of hardware, independent of the actual physical hardware components.

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Some screen shots…..

So you can visualise for yourself…….

Loading a virtual device Device boot / start-up Device execution Device shutdown Virtualised networks

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Appollo

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Appollo

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Appollo

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Appollo

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Loading another virtual machine

Virtual machines are described in a configuration file.

The actual virtual hard-disk is also stored as a “file” on the host machine.

The two, together, make the virtual machine fully portable.

Lets load another virtual machine - a Windows machine this time……

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Thor

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Thor

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<CTRL> + <ALT> + <Enter> maximises the screen!

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Virtual Networking…..

…….with just one physical machine.

Virtual machine can see, communicate with, log-in to, share etc… with the physical machine…… and vice versa.

Very useful for teaching and learning n-tier architectures and distributed systems.Visualisation facilitated through virtualisation!

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Although there is only one physical machine - this network contains two machines

Physical Virtual

Both machines have full network access

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Thor

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Multiple virtual devices…..

No problem running multiple virtual devices.

even with different Guest OS’s at the same time…..

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Appollo

Thor

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Legacy Devices….

We built some legacy devices too…..

Do you remember DOS 6 + Windows 3.1???

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Sean Duignan - GMIT

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Our Study….

We used VMWareTM as a core component on two undergraduate modules (year 3 and year 4).

35 Students in total.

Motivated by a “learning by doing” philosophy of education.

Students assigned challenging group projects to encourage socially cooperative and reflective learning.

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Student Experiences….

Feedback elicited through post-module surveys.

Largely very positive:

“We both found this assignment to be a worthwhile and interesting one, it gave us a real insight…….. We would recommend that this exercise be kept as part of the course for future 3rd year classes.

“I found I learned a lot about the workings of a computer and how different operating systems could affect the performance of a machine”

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Student Experiences….cntd…

“Overall I found this to be one of the more interesting things I’ve done at college. I liked the practical aspect of it and I found it easier to put more time in to it because it did interest me.”

“We encountered some problems and errors, which gave us a better understanding of the operating system and how to solve such problems.”

“The assignment was very good, doing hands on work rather than just reading about it.”

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Lecturers experience….

Lots of interactivity and discussion.

Students very engaged with the material.

“Hands-on” skills greatly improved.

Students appear to like the “secure sandbox” provided.

Some real creativity too.

Learning objectives / outcomes achieved???

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Conclusion

Significant scope for virtualisation technologies within the computer science curriculum and beyond.

Our experience has been positive, and in our opinion the exercises thus far have been very worthwhile.

We plan to continue with this research theme going forward as well as investigating the potential for virtualisation technologies as an ePortfolio platform for computer science students.

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Q&A and Contact Details

Go raibh maith agat!

Thank you for your time and attention.

Questions?

Contact Details:

sean.duignan@gmit.ie

Tel: (091) 742143