With the help of any PC, Mac, iPad or Android tablet on a high speed Internet connection, UW-Eau Claire students can access their documents and use programs as if they were in a computer lab on campus. Lab Anywhere allows access to software titles from the general access computers from almost anywhere.

Systems Administrator Thomas Pemberton said any active student or faculty member can access the virtual lab and use it.

Microsoft Suite is available on Lab Anywhere as well as most other programs available in general access labs. However, Pemberton said the Adobe Creative suite could not go into the virtual lab because of licensing issues.

“Certain companies have different licensing rules where you can install it in a physical lab, but they won’t let you virtualize it and put it on a server,” Pemberton said.

Although some software is not available through the virtual lab, Pemberton said if students think a piece of software would be useful and it is not available through the virtual lab they should send a request to the Learning and Technology Services Help Desk.

“It’s not always going to be possible, but we can certainly try it,” Pemberton said.

Scotty Lange, a senior finance major, said he used the virtual lab in his IS 240 class when he had to use Microsoft Excel.

“The Excel on windows is different than on Mac. I have a Mac so that is pretty much what I used (the virtual lab) for,” Lange said.

He said he was able to sit at home, do his homework and the program was easy to access. The first time he used the virtual lab, he said he had to set it up on his computer and after that it was on his desktop so he could just click on it.

Lange said one benefit of using Lab Anywhere is being able to stay out of the cold weather.

“You sit at home in the warmth and don’t have to enter the tundra all the time,” Lange said.

Pemberton said the technology is convenient for students and they can access software from home they might not have installed on their own computers. For example, Pemberton said a chemistry major could access a piece of chemistry software
from home.

Paige Skeie, a senior public relations major and web design minor, said she uses Lab Anywhere for her web design classes.

“I’ve used lab anywhere for a lot of my web design classes just because I don’t have Visio and MySQL and other programs like that,” she said.

She said it is beneficial to use the virtual lab because she can use the software that she doesn’t have installed on her computer
from home.

“It’s so convenient and easy to use. I really wish a lot more people knew about it.”