The Virtual Programming Lab is an Athabasca University initiative to allow students to interact with their tutors and each other while developing their projects. The lab provides a development environment and common development tools to aid the student as they study, including compilation output, language-specific syntax highlighting, and the ability to view certain files online. In addition, it allows students to easily share code with their tutor and other students for feedback and interactive aid. As they work, students can chat in realtime and request hints from their tutor.