Due to COVID-19 measures during the 2021 spring term, most of the teaching in the Molecular Modeling KJEM220 course at the University of Bergen had to be conducted digitally. This included practicals on computers
Fortunately, the NIRD Service Platform was available for molecular modeling teaching. This portal allows teachers and students to access the same Unix virtual environment, making online teaching more accessible.
Introducing CRaaS for balanced learning
— One of the most challenging aspects of digital teaching is to be sure that every student can have the same chance of success. To that extent, The NIRD Service Platform and its Desktop-VNC application were a true life-saver for our course when we lost access to the Linux practical room, says Thibault Tubiana, a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bergen.
Nevertheless, not all students had access to a Unix-based operating system, resulting in an imbalance among them. In response to this challenge, teachers and students were provided access to a virtual environment through Course Resources as a Service (CRaaS). This solution enabled students to connect to the new virtual environment directly from their web browsers, eliminating the need for prior knowledge or software installation. Additionally, students could easily install all necessary visualisation and calculation software using a custom installation script from the conda repository.
About the course
The Molecular Modeling KJEM220 course is taught at the University of Bergen. It aims to give an overview of the molecular and quantum mechanics models used in the investigation of a wide range of chemical properties. Most of the open-source software employed in this field are used in a Unix environment (such as CP2K or GROMACS).