Provide pre-calculated output for slower servers?

[widdowquinn]

An alternative to replacing slower servers that might also mitigate against network outages and other interference could be to have the precalculated output available via a link.

The main advantage is that students could then get through the course within a set time, and not have to wait around for remote sites to deliver results at variable speeds.

However, if students could just click through pre-packaged results they would not need to ensure that their data submission and option choices were correct (negating practice in real-world use of the tool). They could also, in principle, just click through without submitting any data or getting any practice.

If something went catastrophically wrong (external network down) then having results ready to share could be helpful. However, I don't think it's a good idea to make them directly available from the start of the workshop.

My proposal is to have results from each analysis available locally in case of major disruption, but not to make them a standard part of the workshop.