Abstract:

During the training of specific software usage to potential users it is necessary not only to give an insight into the software in the form of lectures, but also to show specific operations with given software interface (single manipulations, particular sequences of manipulations, etc.). Previous authors’ work proposes solution, based on interception of student’s remote session on the server by teacher having administrator’s rights [1]. As a result it is managed to create a virtual computer with two sets of controls – two keyboards, two mice, two screens. One control set is located on the teacher’s side and the other – on the student’s side. That gives the ability to teacher and student to share the same instance of software product under study.
Despite of the fact that practical implementation of such infrastructure gave very positive results [2], given solution has a number of weaknesses, first of all in terms of security.

This paper is devoted to description of similar training simulator, however based on the “cloud computing” possibilities when teachers can manage virtual instances of the computers for the learning purposes whereas students connect remotely to the virtual computers and perform tasks. Teachers and students can also work together (simultaneously) if required.

Virtual training simulator could be based on such IaaS as AWS (http://aws.amazon.com/) where Windows 2003/2008/2012 server can be deployed in the “cloud”. The alternative could be Virtual Windows 7 Desktops from CloudMyOffice (http://www.cloudmyoffice.com/business-solutions/windows7). Remote control can be setup via Remote Desktop or using third party tools.
This approach gives a flexibility and security in comparison with the previous authors’ solution. Flexibility comes with possibility to clone, snapshot the virtual computers with all the settings and the software inside required for the lessons. Security is provided by virtualization – students connect to
non-physical computers and the security is managed by the cloud platform provider.

References:
1. Lavendels, J., Sitikovs, V., Steinmanis, J. One Simple Solution for Interactive Distant Teaching of Application Software Usage / In: Proceedings of INTED2012 Conference, 5th-7th March 2012, Valencia, Spain, ISBN: 978-84-615-5563-5, Published by International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED), 2012, pp. 1584-1589.
2. Lavendels, J., Sitikovs, V. Effectiveness of implementation of online lessons on the base of server’s remote control / In: Proceedings of the 5-th international scientific conference “Applied information and communication technologies”, Jelgava, Latvia, April 26-27, 2012, ISBN 978-9984-48-065-7, ISSN 2255-8586, pp.195-201.

Keywords:

Interactive distance teaching, training, cloud computing, collaboration.