Once all the constituent parts of the lab have been constructed - i.e. the VMs and the lab stages - you can create the lab itself. The lab object is where all these parts are brought together in a coherent whole (you may want to remind yourself of The Structure of a Lab).
From the tutor’s main menu, select Labs, and Create a new lab:
Enter a name for the lab - as ever, this should be descriptive enough so that you can identify it among others like it in a list. If you are working through the Paintbrush example, use the same values for Course Name and Course Number as in the above screenshot. However, when creating your own labs in the future, you should note the following:
- If you enter a combination of course name and number that does not match an existing course on the system, a new course will be created.
- If you enter a course number, and it matches an existing course on the system, it will automatically fill in the course name. So, when creating a new lab, if you want to add it to an existing course it is probably best to leave the course name blank and just enter the course number.
A green or red prompt text will appear underneath the course name advising whether or not a new course is going to be created, so you can check that the behaviour is as you would wish.
Once you have populated the basic lab data, you should select the lab stages you want to include in your lab. Use the << and >> buttons to move lab stages to and from the Selected Lab Stages pane – these lab stages are the ones that will be used in the lab. They will be delivered to the student in the order the appear in this pane – so if you want to change this order, use the up and down arrows to move a particular lab stage.
Finally, you need to populate the Students field. Here, you should enter the login IDs of the students to whom this lab stage will be published, separated with commas.
When you have finished creating your lab, click Save changes. At this point, the lab is immediately published to the students specified.
If you're working through the Paintbrush example, congratulations! You have just published your first lab in WLab!