This was what I was going to say. As an example, a course I did on Coursera recently had an ubuntu VM you could just download and it ran everything that was req

This was what I was going to say. As an example, a course I did on Coursera recently had an ubuntu VM you could just download and it ran everything that was required for the course. This is probably quite prevalent in CS-related MOOCs and I think in most cases is a great idea.