WebLan-Designer: a Web-based system for interactive teaching and learning LAN design

Until recently, it has been difficult to motivate students to learn about wired and wireless local area network (LAN) design as they typically find the topic very technical, dry when delivered and even boring. A Web-based system (named WebLan-Designer) has been developed at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) that gives students an interactive, hands-on flexible learning experience in both wired and wireless LAN design. The WebLan-Designer is suitable for classroom use in courses in computer networking at introductory level. The paper describes the architecture and the implementation of the WebLan-Designer and states its potential benefits as an aid both to classroom teaching and to student-centered learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the tool and its future development.