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In 2013 all students were able to successfully complete the data analysis tasks
after a very short introduction to the system and the concepts (total of 3 h). We
observed, however, that the current environment, with two different interfaces for
the data and the computing facilities, is not easy to grasp and use. Although this is a
general usability problem for all users, it is more prominent for teaching due to the
background of the students and time available for the exercises.
By using the NSG we can delegate more of the work to the students, compared
to experiences with previously used teaching environments, in particular concern-
ing data management, because the system already supports it. This reduces our
preparation time.
Finally, we deliberately have not explained the system architecture to these
students, omitting technical details as much as possible to facilitate the course.
However we noticed that it is important for students to understand what happens
behind the scenes of the NSG, in particular to understand the long waiting times.
Moreover, the students also need to be responsible for starting useful experiments
because these will consume shared resources.
The task given to the students comes close to a real-life example as researchers
would experience it at an academic or industrial research institution. Employing a
science gateway as central hub in teaching has several advantages. The uniform
workflow representation improves the traceability and reproducibility of all simu-
lations. The portal itself serves as communication platform facilitating the exchange
of information and data. Furthermore, the convenient access to vast computing
resources enables the generation of datasets of suf
cient size for a proper statistical
analysis.
16.4 Conclusions
The examples presented in this chapter illustrate that science gateways based on the
WS-PGRADE technology have been successfully adopted in a large range of
educational activities in Europe. In this chapter we presented examples illustrating
how the science gateways support practical assignments of two types: generic
distributed computing exercises on grids and clusters, and scienti
c assignments on
customized portals for life sciences and game development education.
The web interfaces provided by the WS-PGRADE based science gateways
facilitate their adoption in courses of short duration, where the time for training is
limited. The gateways also hide some of the dif
culties in using large distributed
infrastructures that are needed to perform the practical exercises, while highlighting
the bene
ts of their usage for learning advanced concepts and tools. Setting up such
rich teaching environments normally takes much effort. The science gateways
presented in this chapter facilitate the construction of an attractive, advanced, and
easy-to-use environment for the practical assignments, without having to spend too
much effort on the technical preparations.
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