Towards adopting Virtual Computing Labs in Libyan Higher Education Institutions

الملخص

           The majority of the IT infrastructure in Libyan universities is out-of-date and unable to support the demands of the present-day educational system. Computer laboratories constitute the corner stone of the practical sessions in IT colleges. In which students struggle to fulfil their practical lessons, and prepare course’s assignments.  Fortunately, Virtual Computing Labs (VCL) introduce a promising alternative supported by the big advances in cloud computing. In this research we found that the implementation of VCLs bring in flexible access, instant feedback, on the fly maintenance, top-notch equipment and lower costs which are considered as some of the great benefits wins the competition with physical computer labs. Based on Azure Lab Services as a virtual computer lab layer and Microsoft Teams as a collaboration layer, a collaborative VCL architecture that can replace the on-campus traditional labs is proposed.