Description
CloudBank Classroom is a cloud-hosted, small-scale JupyterHub designed for teaching, built on an open-source interactive computing stack (Python, R, JupyterLab, and related libraries). It provides each learner with a modest allocation of persistent storage, memory, and CPUs as well as seamless authentication through their university’s identity management system, allowing them to log in with existing campus credentials. The environment comes preconfigured with widely used data science tools, enabling students to run code, analyze data, and complete assignments directly in the browser without local setup. Instructors can easily distribute materials, manage assignments, and support learners through integrated tools like nbgitpuller and grading extensions. By removing technical barriers, ensuring equity of access, and offering a consistent, reproducible workflow, the JupyterHub lowers the cost of teaching with data while remaining scalable to support classes of varying sizes. GPUs are expected to be available in the platform by fall 2026.
RP Description
CloudBank Classroom is a cloud-hosted JupyterHub for teaching, consisting of a Kubernetes-based hub and an assignment server that give each student a browser workspace with persistent storage and a modest share of memory and CPU. It is particularly well suited for courses whose assignments are Jupyter notebooks, and is often used for data-science, statistics, and introductory programming classes that would otherwise ask students to install software on their own machines. It includes a great deal of open-source data-science tooling - JupyterLab and Notebook, RStudio, and VS Code, with Python, R, and C++ - plus nbgitpuller for distributing materials and grading extensions such as Otter Grader. It is available to U.S.-based educators through an Explore ACCESS allocation.
Jobs Information
CloudBank Classroom has no batch scheduler, no queues, and no wall-clock limits, and it is not an allocation on a commercial cloud platform. Students and instructors work interactively in the browser: you open a notebook in the hub and it runs there, in a container sized by the course's configuration, with nothing to submit and no queue to wait in.
Each student gets their own persistent workspace, so files survive between sessions. Instructors distribute materials into student environments with nbgitpuller links and collect and grade work with extensions such as Otter Grader.
Course environments are set up with CloudBank rather than self-service; to arrange a course, or to ask which configurations are currently available, [email CloudBank support]. For what the platform provides and how to request it, see [ACCESS CloudBank for Classroom] and [CloudBank For Educators].