Discover the New MOAC Virtual Lab Experience

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Discover the New MOAC Virtual Lab Experience
Cliff Snyder MOAC Consultant John Wiley
Sons csnyder_at_wiley.com
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Agenda

• MOAC and Microsoft IT Academy
• Labs in an Academic Environment
• Why Hosted Virtual Labs?
• Value Proposition
• Value Scenario
• Demo
• Courses Under Development

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Microsoft Official Academic Course (MOAC)

• Written and published by Wiley Publishing
• Oriented towards academic certification
  environment
• High schools and colleges
• Solid content and PowerPoint presentations
• Labs designed to work in a classroom environment
• Available to any academic institution
• Ancillary materials
• Test banks
• Homework assignments

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Better Together MOAC and Microsoft IT Academy

• Benefits
• Associated with the Microsoft brand
• Free subscription to MSDN AA
• Dues for one MCT paid annually
• Permitted to use MOC
• Free E-Learning
• Reduced price for certification testing
• Microsoft TechNet Plus Direct subscription
• Lab licenses Office, Server, many others

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Labs in an Academic Environment

• Historical Perspective
• Teaching Windows NT 4.0 in late 90s
• Labs were unorganized each student did his/her
  own install of Windows NT Server 4.0
• Teaching Microsoft products was new to most

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Labs in an Academic Environment

• Historical Perspective (cont.)
• With Windows 2000 labs were more organized, but
  still a problem
• Needed to have several classes use the same
  computer lab in a day
• adding removable hard drives to facilitate
  multiple classes
• Labs were hard-wired instructors computer
  was a Domain Controller student machines were
  members of the domain
• Causes all sorts of problems

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Labs in an Academic Environment

• Current Situation
• Windows Server 2003 MOAC
• Labs are more organized, but still a significant
  problem
• When the MOACs were written, it was assumed that
  labs would be like MOC labs
• Then Microsoft moved to Virtual PC Converted
  the labs to a virtual environment

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Labs in an Academic Environment

• Current Situation (cont.)
• Microsofts process for delivering virtual
  machines is cumbersome
• To run virtual machines in Virtual PC, student
  machines need to be quite powerful
• Still a fair amount of work for the instructor to
  set up the classroom
• Still had the problem of students locked in to
  doing labs in the classroom

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Labs in an Academic Environment

• Current Situation (cont.)
• Most institutions using MOAC independently create
  their own solutions to Virtual PC labs
• Usually involving removable hard drives
• Popular solutions use a domain, with student
  computers being domain workstations, locked down
  with group policy
• Virtual machines are permitted to be stored only
  on removable hard drives

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Why Hosted Virtual Labs?

• Instructor/Institution Pain Points
• Keeping laboratory classrooms up-to-date with
  hardware sufficient to run student labs is
  difficult, especially in the Virtual PC
  environment
• Budget cycle
• Predicting hardware needs
• More capable machines needed to support Virtual PC

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Why Hosted Virtual Labs?

• Instructor/Institution Pain Points
• Difficult for academic institutions and
  instructors to set up labs for their students
• Several courses run on same machines during the
  same academic semester/term
• Task of setting up labs often falls to instructor

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Why Hosted Virtual Labs?

• Instructor/Student Pain Points
• Even with a Virtual PC version of the labs,
  students are still required to perform labs in
  the college computer laboratory room
• Students continually ask for the flexibility to
  do lab assignments anywhere, anytime

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Why Hosted Virtual Labs?

• Microsofts Objectives
• Deliver a hosted service-oriented virtual lab
  solution supporting MOAC
• Provide a unique and ground-breaking product and
  student/instructor experience

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Value Proposition

• Audience
• Students
• Instructors
• Academic Institutions

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Value Proposition

• Virtual Labs made available for the use of
  students and instructors in support of MOAC
  courses are being delivered for the first time
  both to a classroom environment and as a separate
  lab offering uncoupled from Microsoft e-learning
  courses or other offerings.
• The ability for students to access hosted virtual
  labs at a time and place convenient to them and
  to their instructor provides greater flexibility
  to the student and opens up distance education
  opportunities to the instructor.
• Such a hosted format for virtual labs allows for
  remote access to content over the internet,
  without the time it takes to set up computer
  laboratory machines, nor the cost to institutions
  in supporting and maintaining internal network
  infrastructure to be able to offer such labs
  internally.

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Value Scenarios

• Value Pillars
• Flexibility
• Reduced Costs
• Time Savings

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Demo
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MOAC Virtual Labs Under Development or Planned
(Subject to change)

• MOAC 70-640 Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  Active Directory Configuration
• MOAC 70-642 Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  Network Infra Configuration
• MOAC 70-643 Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  Application Configuration
• MOAC 70-620 Windows Vista Configuration
• MOAC 70-622 Supporting and Troubleshooting
  Applications on a Windows Vista Client for
  Enterprise Support Technicians
• MOAC 70-431 Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  Implementation and Maintenance
• MOAC 70-646 Microsoft Windows Server 2008
  Administrator
• MOAC 70-236 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
  Configuration

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Questions?
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Plan B

• Screenshots of Hosted Virtual Labs

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User Experience (1)
MOAC Virtual Labs login page
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User Experience (2)
Lab Selection page
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User Experience (3)
Lab Viewer Launch page
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User Experience (4)
Default view upon lab launch
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User Experience (5)
Lab instructions open Default View
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User Experience (6)
Lab interface overview
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User Experience (7)
Lab instructions open Overview
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User Experience (8)
Lab instructions open Detailed steps showing
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User Experience (9)
Lab instructions open Resources
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User Experience (10)
Lab instructions open Table showing