185 - 238 CCNA 2: Routers and Routing Basics v3.1 Instructor Guide – Appendix B
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©
2004, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Students will usually access the equipment in the evening or on the weekends from their
homes or another location with Internet access. Some instructors may choose to implement
use of the NETLAB system within the classroom. This is especially useful when students are
just beginning to learn new configuration tasks.
Instructors can use the instructor-led lab features of NETLAB to lead the class through a lab.
During instructor-led sessions, the instructor can issue configuration commands to one or
more devices while students shadow the Telnet session of the instructor. Another way
instructors can use NETLAB within the classroom is the team approach. A team of students is
given an assignment to configure one or more of the routers in a topology. The team can use
NETLAB to share access and control over the routers while other teams try to configure other
routers in the topology. Since NETLAB can save and store these configuration files, it is easy
for the instructor to evaluate the performance of each team.
NETLAB has also been used by instructors to review the work of students on real equipment.
During each lab reservation, NETLAB records every command and router output in log files.
The final equipment configurations of students can be saved for instructor review. This feature
allows instructors to determine the ability of students to implement the concepts learned in the
classroom. Instructors can also identify and correct common mistakes that are made by
students during lab exercises.
NETLAB is currently deployed as a pilot program at selected Cisco Networking Academies.
Upon the successful completion of this pilot program, Cisco will offer NETLAB to all Cisco
Networking Academies. For information on how to become one of the Academies that
participates in the NETLAB project pilot, please e-mail
. Interested
Academies will receive a survey that will help identify any changes that will need to be made
for the NETLAB tool to function and information on how to order the necessary equipment.
Please e-mail
with any questions or requests for additional
information. This process is designed to minimize potential deployment problems and to
enhance the success of a production deployment. Academies will be selected for this program
based upon a review of several factors. Technical capacity will be one of the more important
criteria. A survey will be provided to interested Academies to identify the requirements for a
successful solution. Academies will need to have the proper infrastructure in place and must
be able to demonstrate a sufficiently high level of technical expertise.
To learn how to utilize NETLAB, the Cisco Networking Academy Program has created an
online curriculum and comprehensive administrator, instructor and student guides. Although
NETLAB seems intuitive and easy to use, administrators and instructors should spend time
becoming familiar with the numerous features of NETLAB.
Web Links
NGD NETLAB:
http://www.netdevgroup.com/netlab.htm
