Virtual Lab recommendations

[Khokhaz]

Hi, 

I have done already theoretical part of the Big data preparation courses. I wonder what would be the best strategy to utilize the virtual lab timings. Shall I go one by one or  shall i collect all the exercises and do bunch of them and what would be the best lab reservation time slot  estimation for each of the exercise. 

Thanks 

[Cynthia_sas · Accepted solution]

Hi:
Here's a previous posting about the best use of Virtual Lab time: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Academy-for-Data-Science/Regarding-Best-use-of-Virtual-Lab-time/m.... You can gauge how long the exercises in a chapter will take, by looking at the demos that typically precede the exercises. If you are going to do both the demos and the exercises, then you'll to approximately double the demo time and then give yourself a little extra time for learning your way around the interface.

The recommendations I've gotten from most of the SAS Academy students working on the Big Data classes is that they watch the videos and demos in one or two chapters to get the overall idea of where the chapter is going and then they do the demos and/or exercises in those 2 chapters. Then they move on to another chapter.

You may not want to do everything in one marathon practice session. You may want to break it up so you can go back and watch any videos for further clarification if you feel you need reinforcement. It's definitely a good idea to watch the course videos while you're NOT connected to the Virtual Lab, so you're not letting the Lab sit idle while you watch the course lectures and demos. Remember that each exercise has a solution document that is INSIDE the e-learning course. And each demo also has the demos steps in a document INSIDE the e-learning course.

The PDF is provided as a reference, but when you go to do the work in the Virtual Lab, remember that the instructions that are INSIDE the course are the ones to follow because they have been adapted for use with the virtual lab.

We always recommend making a reservation for more time than you think you'll need and then as long as you cancel your reservation, explicitly, when you are done, your unused time will be returned to your allotment.

Cynthia

[kunliu]

Hi Cynthia,

can you please advise how to access virtual lab step by step? sorry to ask this question, however, I really confused even though I had read many posts here. Thank you

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  If you are using the SAS Academy for Data Science, the instructions are INSIDE the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).

  1 -- go to your My Training page and click on your package name (Big Data Professional, Advanced Analytics Professional, or SAS Academy for Data Science)

2--After you click on your package name, you'll transfer to the VLE where you can click on the icon for your module inside the package. For example, if you purchased the Big Data Professional package, you will first see this screen:

Then if you click on the first icon on the left, for the first module, you'll see more icons for all the content in this module (for Big Data Professional module #1, you see Welcome, 5 classes and Case Studies:

 Note the Virtual Lab Reservation System pane on the right side of the screen:

3 -- If you look at the Virtual Lab Reservation pane on the Right side of the screen, you'll see link for the Documentation. I suggest you save that Documentation to your local computer as reference:

This is where you make your reservation. I really encourage you to read the instructions in the documentation. You have 2 choices for how to make a reservation, Reserve Now or Reserve Later. Even with Reserve Now, that does not mean "the minute you click" -- since you are using the Virtual Lab on Amazon, we need to send a request to Amazon for the model image for your package to be loaded into a server for you. AND, Amazon will need to send us your logon credentials so we can give them to you -- this whole process takes 30-45 minutes from the time you click "Make Reservation" So, 'now' means in approximately 45 minutes.

Here's what the 2 reservation choices look like:

I recommend doing a Reserve Later or future reservation, as shown above. I like using it because I can change the time zone. I do recommend ALWAYS using Reserve Later and ALWAYS making a reservation for more than an hour. And remember the big advantage of the Reserve Later or future reservation is that the server will be ready at the time you pick.

4 -- when you click for a reservation, this is what you see:

5 -- The Virtual Lab support team just changed the way the system works so you now get an email when your image is ready. It looks like this:

And, then when you go back to your VLE window, in the Virtual Lab Reservation pane, you should see this:

You need to click the link that says to Launch the "SAS Virtual Lab".

  As I said in the previous posting, you should ONLY make a reservation for when you are ready to do work. Do NOT start up the Virtual Lab and let the time "burn down" while you are watching the class videos and lectures. It's better to watch all the lectures and demos in a chapter/lesson first and THEN make your reservation to do all the exercises in the Chapter/Lesson.

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

ps -- The Virtual Lab team has changed the Virtual Lab Reservation window so that the first time you open your VLE you will NOT see the reservation pane as I have shown it above. Instead, you'll see just a link to read the documentation. Then you'll have to click that you've read the documentation to "unlock" the ability to make a reservation.