A cloud framework for problem-based learning on grid computing

Training on Grid technologies has traditionally used existing Grid infrastructures to implement the hands-on education activities. However, these infrastructures are insufficient to develop all training skills as they can only be employed for the development of Grid applications, and they are limited for learning the management and configuration of Grid resources. The paper presents a set of educational activities grouped on a Project Based Learning (PBL) framework for training on Grid technologies. A Cloud-based tool has been implemented to provide Grid infrastructures as a Service on the cloud, with enhanced scalability and administration capabilities. The PBL has achieved a high impact in the teaching-learning process, addressing the training in all the necessary skills and efficiently providing Grid infrastructure resources on public clouds at a moderate cost. Finally, we evaluated the students' opinion on the activities achieving a very satisfactory result and a reasonable balance on the complexity of the PBL stages.