Classroom Rstudio App

This is a simplified Rstudio OnDemand app that the Ohio Supercomputer Center uses for classrooms deployed via kubernetes. This guide assumes you already know how to deploy Rstudio via Open OnDemand. It focuses on customizing the classroom app to support isolated and shared R environments using OSC project spaces, where instructors can share packages and materials with students.

OSC’s classroom Rstudio app allows instructors to:

• Launch isolated Rstudio environments per course
• Share markdown, datasets, and packages with students
• Customize session parameters per classroom

Classroom Setup

Each classroom is assigned a dedicated project space on the cluster’s shared filesystem. Within this space, instructors organize:

• materials: Shared markdowns, datasets, and requirements
• Rpkgs: R packages for the classroom (created by instructor)
• data: Optional large datasets This structure ensures:

Instructors have full write access Students have read-only access to materials/ and Rpkgs/ Materials are copied to students workspace during launch time.

Environment Setup

The classroom_setup.sh.erb script creates class directories in the project space. It also creates a classroom workspace for each student under their $HOME.

Sharing Materials

Shared materials are copied into the student’s workspace using rsync, as defined in before.sh.erb.

Cluster Configuration

The app relies on structured configuration in the clusters.d YAML files

To enable classroom-specific options, define class specific variables in the cluster configuration file:

# /etc/ood/config/clusters.d/mycluster.yml
v2:
  custom_config:
    classrooms:
      rstudio:
        MATH101:
          project: PZS1234
          size: medium
          hours: 2
        BIO202:
          project: PZS5678
          size: large
          hours: 3

• Class name - displayed in the Rstudio app for student/faculty to select to launch a particular classroom, only visible to students that are in the classroom.
• project - OSC project name with corresponding linux group used for managing access.
• size - the resource requirements for the classroom, for example at OSC we define three classes: small, medium and large as configured in submit.yml.erb.
• hours - default duration for the interactive Rstudio session as specified by the instructor, e.g. 2 hours for a 90 minute class.

Launch Workflow

• Instructor logs into class.osc.edu
• Selects the Classroom Rstudio app
• Chooses their course from the dropdown
• Launches the session, installs required packages, and adds materials

The app:

• Activates the shared Rstudio environment
• Copies materials to the user's workspace under $HOME/
• Launches Rstudio in the student’s workspace