Students education in various fields (such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is constantly looking for ways and techniques on how to motivate students to learn, how to increase their engagement and how to increase the e ciency of knowledge acquisition. Information and communication technologies are developing at a very rapid speed and o er many new opportunities that could be used for such purposes. This paper focuses on virtual laboratory technologies that could be very helpful for these learning problems especially for subjects that lose the interest of young people. We have conducted two pilots at a Slovak secondary school and university to analyse the usability of self-directed learning applied to teach networking topics such as software-defined networking and network functions virtualisation. This learning approach was enhanced by a developed virtual lab and a set of self-tests. Knowledge tests and questionnaires have been used to investigate the impact of this self-directed virtual lab-based learning approach on students motivation to learn, feelings, satisfaction with learning approach and knowledge gain. The results showed that students appreciated the virtual laboratory for improving learning and their motivation to learn and their knowledge acquisition was noticeably improved when the virtual lab was included.