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Portable Learning Environments for Hands-On Computational Instruction: Using Container- and Cloud-Based Technology to Teach Data Science

Published: 09 July 2017 Publication History

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in learning outside of the traditional classroom setting. This is especially true for topics covering computational tools and data science, as both are challenging to incorporate in the standard curriculum. These atypical learning environments offer new opportunities for teaching, particularly when it comes to combining conceptual knowledge with hands-on experience/expertise with methods and skills. Advances in cloud computing and containerized environments provide an attractive opportunity to improve the efficiency and ease with which students can learn. This manuscript details recent advances towards using commonly-available cloud computing services and advanced cyberinfrastructure support for improving the learning experience in bootcamp-style events. We cover the benefits (and challenges) of using a server hosted remotely instead of relying on student laptops, discuss the technology that was used in order to make this possible, and give suggestions for how others could implement and improve upon this model for pedagogy and reproducibility.

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Cited By

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  • (2021)Learning management system‐integrated spreadsheet exercises for facility location modelingDecision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education10.1111/dsji.1225220:1(29-42)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2021
  • (2021)Easy-to-Use Cloud Computing for Teaching Data ScienceJournal of Statistics and Data Science Education10.1080/10691898.2020.186072629:sup1(S103-S111)Online publication date: 22-Mar-2021
  • (2020)Ad hoc efforts for advancing data science educationPLOS Computational Biology10.1371/journal.pcbi.100769516:5(e1007695)Online publication date: 7-May-2020
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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences
PEARC '17: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2017: Sustainability, Success and Impact
July 2017
451 pages
ISBN:9781450352727
DOI:10.1145/3093338
  • General Chair:
  • David Hart
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 09 July 2017

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Author Tags

  1. bootcamps
  2. cloud computing
  3. data science
  4. docker
  5. pedagogy
  6. teaching

Qualifiers

  • Research-article
  • Research
  • Refereed limited

Funding Sources

  • Moore and Sloan Foundation

Conference

PEARC17

Acceptance Rates

PEARC '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 54 of 79 submissions, 68%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 133 of 202 submissions, 66%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2021)Learning management system‐integrated spreadsheet exercises for facility location modelingDecision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education10.1111/dsji.1225220:1(29-42)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2021
  • (2021)Easy-to-Use Cloud Computing for Teaching Data ScienceJournal of Statistics and Data Science Education10.1080/10691898.2020.186072629:sup1(S103-S111)Online publication date: 22-Mar-2021
  • (2020)Ad hoc efforts for advancing data science educationPLOS Computational Biology10.1371/journal.pcbi.100769516:5(e1007695)Online publication date: 7-May-2020
  • (2020)Developing Students' Written Communication Skills with Jupyter NotebooksProceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3328778.3366927(1089-1095)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2020
  • (2020)Between Scripts and Applications: Computational Media for the Frontier of NanoscienceProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376287(1-13)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
  • (2020)Using Containers to Create More Interactive Online Training and Education MaterialsPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2020: Catch the Wave10.1145/3311790.3396641(246-251)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2020
  • (2020)CHEESE: Cyber Human Ecosystem of Engaged Security Education2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273931(1-7)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
  • (2020)Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Online Learning Platform - A Study Of A Google Cloud Learning System2020 6th IEEE Congress on Information Science and Technology (CiSt)10.1109/CiSt49399.2021.9357311(236-241)Online publication date: 5-Jun-2020
  • (2020)The state‐of‐the‐art in container technologies: Application, orchestration and securityConcurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience10.1002/cpe.566832:17Online publication date: 19-Jan-2020
  • (2019)Cloud adoption for e-learning: Survey and future challengesEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-019-10021-525:2(1417-1438)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2019
  • Show More Cited By

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