Teaching Operating Systems-Programming Assignments Approach

Operating systems classes always include a heavy lecture component to explain topics as operating systems architectures, synchronization, process management, memory management and file system.However in addition to these lectures students need some form of personal exploration to investigate how the concepts and algorithms are implemented. The authors report a series of programming assignments designed for operating systems course to impart the kernel programming experience to the students. Simulation of functionalities of operating systems, survey of contemporary operating systems, implementation of shell, that acts as OS interface to the user and addition of new API to an existing operating system. These projects are of moderate complexity but require the students to understand advanced concepts of operating systems. Results show that these assignment increase understanding level of core concepts and also expose students to complexity of a real operating system. The programming assignments were specially designed so as to make students explore the various components of OS. The authors found that these assignments definitely enhance the learning experience and there was a remarkable change in the learning level of the students as evident in the grades obtained by the students.