Help and manual

Teaching with the MitsuruTech Learning Platform

Everything the platform does, written for the person deciding whether to use it as much as for the person using it. Students write and run real Python, SQL, Java and web code in a browser, deploy web apps from GitHub to an address of their own, quizzes mark themselves, and there is nothing to install on a school machine.

A college’s first 365 days are free, up to 50 students and with no card, and one person learning on their own is free for ever. Every page below is public: no account is needed to read any of it.

Getting started

What the MitsuruTech Learning Platform does

A classroom platform where students write and run real Python, SQL, Java and web code in the browser, deploy apps from GitHub and sit self-marking quizzes.

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Getting your college set up

Open a college account, add your staff and students, and put a class on its first module. Takes about twenty minutes and needs no IT involvement.

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Colours and text for dyslexic and neurodivergent students

Every student and teacher can read the whole site, quizzes included, in a colour scheme, text size, spacing and font of their own, with or without an account.

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Running a class with nothing installed

No compiler, no IDE, no lab image and no technician. Students use the browser they already have, on a Chromebook, an iPad or a managed laptop.

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What a student sees

Where a student lands, what tells them something is new, and the three lists of their own work: courses, modules and tasks.

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Practice files: a student’s own work, outside any module

Every student gets their own files to try things in, in any language, separate from the work set for them and not marked.

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Book a free call about the platform

A free call with somebody who builds the platform, about what you teach and whether it would help. Give a work address, type the code, pick a time.

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Reporting a problem, searching and keyboard shortcuts

Tell us something is broken from the Support page, find any module, task or person with Ctrl or ⌘ and K, and press ? for every keyboard shortcut.

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Setting work

Set a Python exercise your class runs in the browser

Write the exercise, add hidden tests that mark it, and hand it to a class. Each student gets their own copy and runs real Python with no installs.

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Quizzes that mark themselves

Build a quiz from ten question types, set the attempts and the time limit, and it marks itself the moment it is submitted. Answers never reach the browser.

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Written assignments and hand-ins

Set a written task, say what may be handed in and how much of it, and collect the work on the platform instead of by email.

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Building a lesson a class works through

Put your words, pictures, videos and files into one page a class works through in order. Built a block at a time, with nothing to write in HTML.

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Every language a task can be set in

Python, Java, Go, Node, TypeScript, Bash, SQL, a real Linux terminal, HTML/CSS/JavaScript and diagrams. All in a browser, all really executed.

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Set a coding project with folders and many files, in the browser

A coding task can be a whole project: up to 50 files in folders, written, run and tested in the browser, with each student given their own copy of all of it.

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Use a real pom.xml, requirements.txt, package.json or go.mod in a coding task

A coding task names its packages the way a real project does, in the file the language’s own tools read, and every run installs them for the student.

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Set an HTML, CSS and JavaScript task

Three panes, a live preview, and no local server. Students edit the page, the styles and the script, and see the result beside them as they type.

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Set a SQL task with its own database

A query in one tab and the schema that builds the database in the other. Students run real SQL against real tables, with nothing installed.

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A real Linux terminal in the browser

A whole Linux machine in a browser tab, for teaching the command line without a lab, a virtual machine or an SSH account each.

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Diagram tasks: flowcharts, ERDs and sketches

Two kinds of diagram task: one written as text and rendered, one drawn freehand. For flowcharts, entity relationship diagrams and network sketches.

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Assessments: locking a task down

Put a task in an assessment mode that asks for full screen, records leaving it, and reports what happened on the page you mark from.

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Reusing a task, and sharing one with another teacher

A task belongs to whoever wrote it, not to the module, so it can be set again next year, on another module, or handed to a colleague.

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Copying a ready-made lesson from the library

The library holds lessons, tasks and files from MitsuruTech. Copy one into a module you teach and change it however you like.

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Ask AI: for students, for marking, and for building a task

Students ask Ask AI about their task and are helped, never given the answer; staff use it to mark, give feedback and build tasks. A college can switch it off.

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Deploying a web app from GitHub: Python, Node, Go, Java or a static site

Students deploy Python, Node, Go, Java and static HTML, CSS and JavaScript sites from GitHub to an address of their own. No cloud account, no card.

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Teaching AWS without an account: S3, DynamoDB and SQS for every student

Students get an object store, a NoSQL table and a queue speaking the Amazon S3, DynamoDB and SQS APIs, with a browser console. No AWS account, no card.

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Git repositories for every student and teacher, hosted for your college

Private Git repositories on our own server for every member of staff and student at a college, with their platform account. Push over HTTPS.

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Create a coding assignment from a Git repository, with hidden tests

Load a coding task straight from a repository on your college’s Git server, keep its test files hidden from students, and update it from a later commit.

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Give every student a Git repository to clone, commit and push

Each student gets a private repository made from their copy of a coding task, works in their own editor and pushes, and what they push is what is tested.

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Give one task a link anybody can open

Give any of your tasks an address of its own that anybody can open. Nothing is published, nothing is listed, and you can withdraw it at any time.

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Labs and samples

Labs: containers from a compose file

A lab is a set of containers from a compose file, written on the page or kept in GitHub: a database, an API, a cache. Set one up, check it and publish it.

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Ubuntu VMs: your own machine in the browser

An Ubuntu 26.04 machine with sudo, in a terminal in the browser: free with no account, kept between visits with one, and what each may reach.

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Security labs: Juice Shop, DVWA and WebGoat

Three deliberately vulnerable web apps, each in the student’s own private lab copy: attack it, explain the flaw and hand in evidence. Marking notes included.

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Sample labs: ready-made container labs and VM labs for teaching

Ready-made labs for classrooms, in the browser: databases, Git, web security, DevOps, Linux and networking. What each teaches, how to run it, and its code.

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PostgreSQL and PostgREST lab: a database and a REST API in the browser

A Postgres database and a REST API over every table, each student’s own, with psql and curl in a terminal. Run it free in the browser; the code is on GitHub.

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MySQL and phpMyAdmin lab with a sample shop database to practise SQL

A MySQL server with a sample shop database and phpMyAdmin already signed in, in each student’s own copy, with thirteen SQL exercises. Free in the browser.

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Git and Gitea lab: learn clone, commit and push on a Git server of your own

Each student gets their own Gitea Git server with a repository to clone, commit and push to from a browser terminal. No GitHub account. The code is on GitHub.

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OWASP Juice Shop lab: a vulnerable web shop to attack in your own copy

OWASP Juice Shop in each student’s private lab copy: over a hundred web security challenges across the OWASP Top 10, with nothing to install. Source on GitHub.

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DVWA lab: practise SQL injection and XSS on the Damn Vulnerable Web Application

DVWA in each student’s private lab copy, its database already made: SQL injection, XSS and more at four security levels. Nothing to install; source on GitHub.

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WebGoat lab: guided web security lessons with WebWolf in your own copy

OWASP WebGoat and WebWolf in each student’s private lab copy: guided lessons on injection, access control, JWT and more. Nothing to install; source on GitHub.

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Static routing lab: build routes on a small network in your browser

A static routing lab: two routers and two hosts built inside one VM, with FRRouting and vtysh, and a script that marks it. Free sample; definition on GitHub.

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OSPF lab: bring up dynamic routing on three routers in your browser

An OSPF lab: three routers and two hosts in one VM, FRRouting and vtysh, watch hellos with tcpdump, and a script that marks it. Free sample; code on GitHub.

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BGP lab: connect two autonomous systems in your browser

A BGP lab: two autonomous systems, AS 65001 and 65002, as routers in one VM with FRRouting, and a script that marks it. Free sample; the code is on GitHub.

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Valkey lab: learn a Redis-compatible key-value store with keys, expiry, lists and counters

A private Valkey store, Redis-compatible, for each student: keys, expiry, lists, hashes and counters in a browser terminal. Nothing to install; code on GitHub.

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Kafka lab: topics, producers, consumers, partitions and offsets in the browser

Each student gets a private Apache Kafka broker and Kafka UI: make a topic, produce messages, read them from the beginning and see offsets. Source on GitHub.

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Apache Spark lab: learn DataFrames and Spark SQL on a CSV file, with the Spark UI

A private Apache Spark for each student: load a CSV into a DataFrame, filter, group, query in SQL and see the jobs in the Spark UI. Code on GitHub.

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Hadoop lab: HDFS and MapReduce, with a file to put in and a word count to read

Each student gets a private Hadoop cluster: put a file into HDFS, list it, read it back and read a MapReduce word count. Source on GitHub.

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Linux privilege escalation lab: a setuid binary, a sudo rule and a cron job to break

A Linux privilege escalation lab: a setuid helper, a sudo rule and a writable cron job on a private Ubuntu VM, read by the teacher. Free sample; code on GitHub.

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DHCP and DNS lab: configure dnsmasq for a small network in your browser

A DHCP and DNS lab: students configure dnsmasq so two clients get leases, a fixed address and local names, on a private Ubuntu VM. Free sample.

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Ansible lab: configure a machine with a playbook, in your browser

An Ansible lab: finish a playbook that installs a package, fills a template and writes a unit file, then run it twice. A private Ubuntu VM, marked by a script.

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Observability lab: Prometheus and Grafana, with an alerting rule for the student to write

Each student gets a private Prometheus and Grafana watching a web server: ask in PromQL, draw a panel, write an alert and make it fire. Source on GitHub.

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VLAN lab: VLANs and inter-VLAN routing on one Ubuntu VM in your browser

A VLAN lab: students configure a switch, 802.1Q subinterfaces on a router on a stick and a firewall rule inside one Ubuntu VM, marked by a script.

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NAT gateway lab: masquerade and port forwarding with nftables in your browser

A NAT lab in one VM: a private host, a gateway and an outside server. Students set masquerade and a port forward with nftables. Marked by a script; free sample.

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WireGuard lab: build a VPN tunnel between two sites in your browser

A WireGuard lab: students build a VPN tunnel between two sites inside one Ubuntu VM, with keys and routes, marked by a script. Free sample.

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Incident response and forensics lab: investigate a compromised server in your browser

A forensics lab: a hacked server’s SSH and web logs in one Ubuntu VM, find the attacker’s IP and what was left behind, and a script marks it. Free sample.

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SQL injection lab: attack a weak shop search, fix the query and prove the fix

Attack a deliberately weak shop search in each student’s private lab copy, fix the query and prove it. Nothing to install; source on GitHub.

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Linux administration lab: users, permissions, cron and systemd in your browser

A Linux administration lab: users and groups, a shared folder, a cron job and a systemd service on a private Ubuntu VM, marked by a script. Free sample.

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Docker basics lab: learn containers, logs and restarts by fixing a broken service

Three containers in each student’s private lab copy, one broken on purpose: read its log, fix it and restart it with docker. Nothing to install; code on GitHub.

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Mutillidae lab: practise SQL injection and XSS on a vulnerable PHP web application

OWASP Mutillidae II with its database and directory in each student’s private lab copy: SQL, LDAP and script injection. Nothing to install; code on GitHub.

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WrongSecrets lab: find hardcoded secrets and learn where secrets belong

OWASP WrongSecrets in each student’s private lab copy: fake secrets hidden in code, pages and config to find. Nothing to install; source on GitHub.

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Web server hardening lab: fix a weak nginx configuration and check it with curl

Fix a deliberately weak nginx server in each student’s private lab copy: headers, folder listing, hidden files. Nothing to install; source on GitHub.

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Marking

Check student code for similar work, and see how it was built

Compare each student’s code with the others’ by structure, so renamed variables do not hide it, and see how it was built. Evidence, never a verdict.

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Marking work and giving feedback

See what each student saved, what their tests did and what they handed in, mark it, and talk to them about it on the work itself.

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Extra time, extra attempts and access arrangements

Give one student longer or another go at a quiz or a timed task, without changing anything for the rest of the class.

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Watch a class work, and present to them

See what every student on a module is doing as they do it, and put your own editor on their screens when you want to show something.

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Who looked at whose work

Every time somebody opens, edits, downloads or marks a student’s work it is recorded, and the student sees the same entries staff do.

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What students are told, and when

A task set, a comment, work sent back: each shows on the student’s own page and arrives by email once, and they can turn the email off.

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Running a college

Sharing worksheets, slides and datasets with a module

Upload a worksheet, a slide deck or a dataset to a module and everybody on it can open it straight away. Any file type, up to 20 MB, in folders you name.

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Getting a class onto a module in five minutes

Send one link and a class adds itself to the module, with a limit on how many places and an expiry date you set.

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Courses, cohorts and year groups

Group students by course and year so a module can be handed to a whole cohort, and last year’s class stays where it was.

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How people sign in

A code emailed to them, a password, Google, Microsoft, your college’s own directory, a passkey or a link from your VLE. Nobody invents a password.

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Who can do what: owners, teachers and college admins

Who may create, change, hand out and mark work: site administrators, college admins, module owners, teachers and students, and what each can touch.

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Adding, suspending and removing accounts

Add one account or a batch, suspend somebody without deleting anything, and remove an account knowing what goes with it and what does not.

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The bin: undoing a delete

Deleting a task, a module or an account puts it in the bin with the rows it was made of, so it can be restored whole rather than rebuilt.

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Sharing a lesson with the Library

Offer a lesson, task or file you wrote for review. A copy is filed in our Library, and is never published on the open internet.

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Your college’s settings

What a college administrator sets on the Settings page: the college’s details, who runs it, how people sign in, AI assistance, and the bill.

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Connecting your VLE

Link Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard or any LTI 1.3 VLE: students arrive signed in, the class list is kept, and marks can go back to the gradebook.

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Deleting your own account

Delete a personal account yourself, or ask your college to delete one it holds. Either way it is closed first, and can be brought back for 30 days.

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What it costs

What it costs, and how the free year works

Your first year free, up to 50 students. Then £300 a year for your first 50 and from £6 a student after, excluding VAT. Staff are free.

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