AWS Academy Learner Lab

Educator Guide
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE

Table of contents
Purpose ....................................................................................................................................................................... 1
How to create and access a Learner Lab ............................................................................................................... 2
How to add students to a Learner Lab .................................................................................................................. 3
How to track spending and activity in a Learner Lab .......................................................................................... 4
How to view the spend summary for an individual student .............................................................................. 6
How to view and troubleshoot a student's lab workarea................................................................................... 8
How to view a Learner Lab in Student View ......................................................................................................... 9

Purpose
This document provides educators with instructions for using AWS Academy Learner Labs.
AWS Academy Learner Labs offer a long-running lab environment that is suitable for student projects
over a period designated by the educator. AWS Academy educators can create Learner Lab classes and
add students. Learner Labs are independent from other AWS Academy courses, and educators can use
this environment with their students.
Each student in a Learner Lab class has a $100 USD AWS platform credit to use for the duration of the
class. Within this class, students have access to a restricted set of AWS services (see the Resources area
of the AWS Academy Portal for the list) for educator-designed project work, lab exercises, or practice.
Not all AWS documentation walkthroughs or sample labs that operate in an AWS production account
will work in the Learner Lab environment. Services that students deploy are available until the end
date designated by the educator or when the credit has exceeded $100 USD.
Each session lasts for 4 hours by default, although students can extend a session to run longer by
choosing Start Lab to reset the session timer. At the end of each session, any resources that a student
created will persist. However, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances are
automatically shut down. Other resources, such as Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)
instances, continue running. Keep in mind that some AWS features can incur charges between sessions
(for example, a load balancer or NAT gateway). Students might want to delete those types of resources
at the end of a session and then re-create them as needed.
Students have access to this environment for the duration of the class that they are enrolled in. When
the class ends, student access to the Learner Lab environment also ends.

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AWS Academy Learner Lab
Educator Guide
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE

How to create and access a Learner Lab

Note:
• These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Working with Students (optional) section, see How to Create
and Delete a Class.
• You must complete the Educator Getting Started with AWS Academy course in the AWS
Academy LMS before you are able to create a class or Learner Lab.

1. Log in to the AWS Academy Portal and navigate to the LMS.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Account > Create a class.

3. For Course, choose AWS Academy Learner Lab and fill in the remaining fields. You are notified
by email when the course is available to teach.

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Educator Guide
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How to add students to a Learner Lab

Note: These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Working with Students (optional) section, see How to Add Students
to the AWS Academy LMS (Canvas).
1. From the Dashboard, locate the Learner Lab course that you created.

2. In the navigation menu, choose People.

3. Choose + People in the upper-right corner of the page.

4. Provide a comma-separated list of student email addresses, and choose Next.

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5. Fill in the names of students as needed, and then choose Next.

6. Confirm the information, and then choose Add Users.

How to track spending and activity in a Learner Lab

Note: These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Managing Lab Exercises (optional) section, see How to View a
Student’s Lab Cost and How to View a Student’s Lab Time.
1. In the navigation pane, choose Courses, and then choose Modules.
2. Choose the link for the Learner Lab that you want to track spending or activity for.

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3. Choose Analytics, and then choose the option for the report you want to see.
• For an overview of spending by student per month, choose Accounts.

• For a report of spending by student, choose Lab Cost.

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• For a report of the time that a student used the lab environment, choose Lab Time. Note:
If a student exits the lab environment without choosing End Lab, it might appear that the
student spent more time using the environment than they actively did.

How to view the spend summary for an individual student

Note: These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Managing Lab Exercises (optional) section, see How to View a
Student’s Lab Cost.
1. In the navigation pane, choose Courses, and then choose Modules.
2. Choose the link for the Learner Lab that you want to track spending for.

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3. From the dropdown menu, select the student who you want to track spending for.

4. Choose Cost.

A detailed description is displayed of the services used and their costs.

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Educator Guide
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How to view and troubleshoot a student's lab workarea

You can log in to the AWS Management Console with a student’s lab environment account while they
are completing a lab exercise. This allows you to see everything that the student has configured so you
can help them to troubleshoot.
Note: These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Managing Lab Exercises (optional) section, see How to Troubleshoot
a Student’s Lab Workarea.

1. In the navigation pane, choose Courses, and then choose Modules.

2. Choose the link for the Learner Lab that you want to troubleshoot.

3. From the dropdown menu, select the student whose lab workarea you want to access.

4. Choose Workarea.

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5. To open the AWS Management Console, choose AWS.

You are logged in to the console and can see everything that the student has configured.
6. When you are finished viewing the student’s lab workarea, choose Modules in the navigation
menu to return to the course as a teacher.

How to view a Learner Lab in Student View

In a Canvas course, you can switch to Student View to navigate the course as a student.
Note: These instructions are also available in Canvas in the Educator Getting Started with AWS
Academy course. In the Guides: Working with Students (optional) section, see How to View a Course
as a Student.
1. To switch to Student View, from a course’s home page, choose Student View in the upper-
right corner. A purple border appears around the page to indicate that you are in Student View.

2. In the navigation menu, choose Modules, and then choose the link for the Learner Lab that you
want to view.
You are now in the lab environment as the student. Note: If this is the first time that you have
used the Student View, you might need to refresh the page to see and accept the terms and
conditions.

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3. To start the lab, choose Start Lab.

4. To access the AWS Management Console, after the lab starts, choose AWS.

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You are transparently logged in to a temporary AWS account, which you can use as long as the
lab session timer is active.

5. To see the lab instructions, return to the LMS and choose Readme.

6. To monitor spending, see the area at the top of the lab instructions. Note: This information is
provided by the AWS Budgets service and might be delayed by up to 8 hours. This is an
approximate view of spending.

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7. To monitor your remaining session time, see the area at the top of the lab instructions. Note: If
you are actively working and need more time, choose Start Lab again to reset your session
timer.

8. To delete all resources that you have configured in a lab and start with a fresh AWS account,
choose Reset. Important: All work will be lost and cannot be recovered.

9. When you are finished with the session, choose End Lab.
Any running Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances will be stopped. If you
return and restart the lab, any stopped EC2 instances will restart and any other resources that
you configured will still be available.

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