Education & training
A consistent workstation for every student. From a school-owned laptop, a Chromebook, or whatever they have at home.
Cloud workstations with classroom features built in: instructor rosters, email-invite enrollment, one-click shadow on assigned students (with consent), snapshot per assignment. Same environment whether the student is in the lab, in the library, or on the bus.
The pain
- Imaging 30 lab machines for a Linux / CAD / security class every semester, then reimaging them the moment a student installs something interesting.
- BYOD reality: half the class is on a Chromebook, a quarter on a Mac, a quarter on a Windows laptop their cousin set up. Reproducing the lab environment on each is a quarter of the semester.
- Hybrid and asynchronous students who can't be in the physical lab, who need the same tooling, and who can't install a 40 GB CAD suite on their own machine.
- No visibility into what students are actually doing during a lab session. Walking the aisle works in person; it doesn't translate to a remote class.
With Canvex
- One workspace image per class. Every student gets the same workstation, every semester, with the right tooling preinstalled. Reset between assignments with a snapshot, not a reimage.
- Browser-native access from a Chromebook, an iPad, a school Mac, or a parent's laptop. Same UX, same performance, same security boundary.
- School Mode in the dashboard: My Classes page, instructor → student rosters, email-invite enrollment. Bulk-create a class, send the invites, students click in.
- Instructor can shadow a student's live session — view-only or view+control — after the student clicks Allow. Every join is logged. Replaces walking the aisle in the lab.
Recommended config
Most class deployments
For an intro programming, web-dev, or office-skills class: Standard tier (3–4 vCPU, 5–8 GB RAM) is the right pick. Cheap, plenty for VS Code + a runtime + a browser. Auto-pause keeps the bill predictable.
For ML, CAD, EDA, security research, or 3D content classes: Performance tier + a 12–24 GB GPU. Same workspace template across the class, GPU only on the students who are doing the GPU-bound assignment that week.
Spending caps + connection schedules to keep budget predictable across the semester. School Mode is included on every plan tier — no separate education SKU to negotiate.
What's working for you under the hood
School Mode
Opt-in classroom features: My Classes page, instructor-to-student rosters, email-invite enrollment. No extra plan tier.
Workspace template per class
Same image, same tools, same versions for every student. Reproducible across the semester.
Instructor shadow (with consent)Business+
Join a student's live session view-only or view+control, after the student clicks Allow. Every join is logged. Works on Linux and Windows.
Snapshot + restore per assignmentBusiness+
Snapshot at the start of an assignment, restore to clean state when it's done — or to recover after a student's experiment goes sideways.
Schedules + auto-pauseBusiness+
Restrict access to class hours, auto-pause idle workstations, set monthly spending caps. Compute bills track real usage, not headcount.
Works on any device
Chromebook, iPad, school-issued laptop, parent's old Mac. Browser is the only requirement.
The traditional answer — lab machines for the on-campus students, license keys mailed to the rest — works while the class is half on-campus, but the cost of maintaining both is roughly twice the cost of either alone. Cloud desktops collapse the two into one environment, give the instructor a way to actually help a stuck student remotely, and let IT recover their reimaging week.
Your first desktop, in five minutes.
3-day free trial. Cancel anytime before it ends.