Information assurance courses delivered in an online environment pose challenges to the development of meaningful hands-on exercises for students. This article presents techniques on furnishing laboratory exercises to online students and presents examples of assignments drawn from the author's experiences in teaching online courses for over three years. These assignments have proven successful in enhancing the learning experiences of undergraduate and graduate computer science students in introductory and advanced courses in the area of information assurance. Typical courses include introduction to computer networks, computer and network security, information assurance, network management, wireless networks and applications, computer forensics, and risk assessment.