# Students' Acceptance and Tracking of a New Container-Based Virtual Laboratory
## 2 Background  
### Virtualization of Remote Laboratories  
Multiple examples of laboratories can be found in the literature, related to different fields of application [12; 13; 14]. The study of renewable energies such as wind and solar appears to be a field in which the use of low-cost remote laboratories is particularly handy [15]. In these studies, the concept of Laboratory as a Service (_LaaS_), representing resources as sets of services, is studied. Flexible configurations of remote can be performed [16; 17]. Laboratories can be easily developed using this technique within a virtual course. The LaaS paradigm allows the versatile creation of experiments on demand, using laboratory services. Each component is used as a web service, which can be hardware or software. In this sense, the MUREE project [18; 19; 20] applied the LaaS paradigm and represents a case example. The project addressed the necessity of Jordanian Institutions to update the learning of concepts renewable energy. In particular, it was concluded that the impact is positive from educational, research and socio-economic points of view, when using remote laboratories during the learning/teaching process of students. Other works related to this topic are [21; 22]. On the other hand, the concept of _virtual laboratory_ is also very relevant for our purpose: creating dynamic scenarios of practical learning and training. These laboratories must be based on virtualization and cloud computing paradigms. With these approaches, there is no need to provide students with hardware components. Only an Internet connection is needed to access the virtual laboratory. Several examples which use virtualization and/or cloud computing technologies can be found in [16; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27]. In addition to this, an e-learning platform called Tele-Lab was proposed in [28]. This environment is thought to train students in the topic of cybersecurity in a practical way. In this case, the scenarios are built by Virtual Machines (VMs) and virtual network devices. This approach had several drawbacks, such as resource allocation, availability and scalability, which could be solved with the use of Docker containers. The authors worked toward migration to containers to improve their platform Tele-Lab. In [29] the evolution of learning scenarios is described, and the employment of cloud remote virtual labs for teaching Computer Science Engineering, such as distributed computing and cybersecurity, is also presented. The main objectives were to improve grades and engagement of students, and to increment their interest in subjects. The employed laboratories are also focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. In addition to this, a recent work [30] addresses the implementation of remote virtual laboratories for the cybersecurity topic. In particular, authors present a new approach for creating scenarios to be used on the cloud. The developed platform is based on Emulated Virtual Environment-Next Generation (EVE-NG) [31]. Therefore, the virtualization and cloud computing paradigms are together employed to provide useful work environments to students. This system uses virtualization technologies to provide students with a work environment in the cloud, in which practical skills in Engineering can be acquired. For this reason, new challenges appear in the management of laboratories. Cloud computing, among other technologies, introduces a significant change in the way Information Technology (IT) services are consumed and managed. This evolution also affects the way in which educative institutions manage IT infrastructures to become smart campuses and universities [32]. Therefore, this work proposes and evaluates a virtual laboratory with containers, CVL, using the Linux Docker [9]. This way, it is possible to define and deploy dynamic virtual scenarios [33], in our case, in the topic of cybersecurity. A set of technical details will be described along this work. Additionally, an abstraction layer composed of Linux containers is provided to the students.