Collaborative Web-based Technologies:

a comparative review and live demonstration,
with special focus on distance learning opportunities
Ilya Zaslavsky, zaslavsk@rohan.sdsu.edu
GIS Staff Scientist, EC/CSE, SDSU
Assistant Professor, WMU Geography
with help from:
Kris Stewart, Director of EC/CSE, stewart@sdsu.edu
Xiangwei Li, Graduate Assistant at EC/CSE, li@edcenter.sdsu.edu,
Kathleen Baker, Graduate Assistant, Western Michigan University, 97baker@wmich.edu
 
presented April 23rd, 1998, at the Ed Center, using NT, SUN Ultra, and X-Terms
to be followed by a hands-on workshop April 30th, 1998, Ed Center, 1pm
 

OUTLINE

  1. Brief introduction to the Ed Center
  2. Collaboration and distance learning over the Web
  3. Collaborative Web-based environment for distance teaching from SDSU to WMU, using NetMeeting and DocReview
  4. Other collaborative Web-based technologies (connection to 130.191.18.203 and .209 (NT machines), .200 (SUN Ultra))
  5. Comparison table
  6. Tcchnical and pedagogical challenges
  7. Questions and discussion
 

 

1. Introduction to the Ed Center

Education Center on Computational Science and Engineering is an NPACI activity focused on undergraduate education and outreach. NPACI (National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure) is one of two NSF-funded partnesrhips of universities and national laboratories, with the mandate to create and maintain national supercomputing environment.

The Ed Center opened on SDSU campus October 10, 1997. It has three staff members: Kris Stewart, Director; Ilya Zaslavsky, GIS Staff Scientist; and Dolores Candelario, Assiatant to the Director. At this time, we aslo employ 5 student assistants.

The mission of the Ed Center is to support the incorporation of high-performance computing tools and methodologies, developed by NPACI partners in particular, into undergraduate curricula in SDSU and CSU, as the largest and most diverse undergraduate system in the nation. We have focused on such tools as VRML, Java applications, digital libraries, web-based collaborative environments, protein data banks, etc. Disseminating information about NPACI technologies, establishing contacts between SDSU and CSU faculty, on one side, and NPACI researchers, on the other side, and collaborating individually with faculty on selected research and curriculum development projects have been some of the main directions of our work.

We inaugurate today Ed Center's seminar series, with a presentation on collaborative Web-based technologies. The goal of the seminar series is three-fold:

  • to present the most recent advances in computational technologies, as adapted for undergraduate curriculum
  • to create a resource for SDSU and CSU faculty as a series of Web pages, including a discussion forum, an updatable series of links, downloadable software and instructions, etc.
  • to serve as the starting point for individual collaboration with faculty.
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    2. Collaboration and distance learning over the Web

    The range of technologies under the umbrella of "distance education" is astounding. The evolution of the Internet and the World Wide Web, with its hypertext and multimedia capabilities, essentially redefined the whole concept of teaching at a distance. Many university courses use the Web to supplement classroom instruction. Instructors place on the Web course syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, maintain discussion forums, etc.

    There is a lot of literature summarizing this development from pedagogical as well as technical perspectives. SDSU's page "Instruction and the Internet" is a useful starting point (a bow to the Department of Education Technology, and Dr. Bob Hoffman personally). Resources for distance education is an excellent collection of relavant links maintained by Professor Charles Darling, Capital Community-Technical College, Hartford, Connecticut. World Lecture Hall, organized at University of Texas - Austin, maintains links to hunderds of courses on-line.

    Special software has been developed to efficiently archive and retrieve lecture materials, including video and audio recordings. An example of such a system is North Carolina State University's Web Lecture System (WLS), a set of tools for preparing lectures as sequences of HTML documents and Java applets,  with synchronized audio and video. A white paper about WLS by Richard Klevans is accessible here.
    Some examples: Computer ethics course, a video demonstration.
    A very useful system as a supplement for classroom courses or for broadcasting, though not for synchronous interactive settings (and it is free!)
     
    The new milestone in Web-based instruction is fully interactive environments, where instructors and students could collaborate in real time, via two- and multi-way videoconferencing and application sharing. Significant advantages of Web-based collaboration over other interactive systems (interactive television, etc.) are LOW COSTS and VARIETY OF INTERACTION MECHANISMS that are implemented . Disadvantages are related to low bandwidth, delays, and lack of stability of standard Internet connections. Though technical difficulties are quite predictable in this case, psychological problems for both students and instructors have not been explored so far. Also unexplored are the ways to replicate various classroom techniques in the distance learning setting, and incorporate these tools into university curricula.

    These issues are at the center of our experimental teaching over the Web reported here, and of our review of the available software for synchronous distance learning.

    The collaborative environments we will discuss are to some degree an extension of tools developed for collaboration between researchers. Such specilized Web-based collaborative environments as MICE, Biology workbench, etc. will be discussed in upcoming seminars.

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    3. Collaborative Web-based environment for distance teaching from SDSU to WMU, using NetMeeting and DocReview

    I have taught two classes from SDSU to Western Michigan University, Geography Department, during the Fall'97 and Winter'98 semesters. The classes are “Geographic Data Handling and Mapping”  (Geog 567) and “Geographic Information Systems” (Geog 569). In March 1998 we presented the outcomes of the first semester of the experimental distance teaching over the Web, at the annual meeting of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. Earlier talks were presented to the annual meeting of the East Lakes Division of the AAG, and to WMU deans and faculty. A paper summarizing the experiences of the first semester can be downloaded from our Web site.

    We will follow this introduction with the ACSM slide show, and then with live connection from our demo computer at 130.191.18.203 to 141.218.61.139 (WMU GIS Lab) and 130.191.18.209 (SDSU, EC/CSE NT workstation)

  • Summary of NetMeeting features: overview, installation and user's guide
  • Shared applications:
  • chat window (ability to broadcast to everyone in chat, or to specified user)
  • whiteboard window (nicely implemented, multi-page, with ability to accept pasted graphics, with pointer and locking tools, selection, zooming, page sorting)
  • sharing any Windows application, including DOS windows (allows either broadcasting the application from one computer to others, or collaborating in applications, with gaining and releasing control)
  • audio and video conferencing is embedded (with the possibility to switch audio and video to other participants)
  • The asynchronous part: the DocReview system (Charlie Hendricksen, U of Washington)
  • Summary of student responses to questionnaires: the results of the two semesters
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    4. Other collaborative Web-based technologies

    Colaboration in NetMeeting is based on the "shared display" model. Unlike NetMeeting, all systems in this group are based on  shared Java applications, and exchanging API calls between the Java core, and applications defined to the system. The Web server controls multiple sessions, which consist of shared applications, such as chat, whiteboard, Web browser, etc. Big advantage of these systems: they are multiplatform! (and free, too)
     

    Tango

    Habanero

    SciVis

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    5. Comparison table

    This table is our first attempt to summarize some of the important features of the four software systems for distance collaboration.
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    6. Technical and pedagogical challenges

    We do have answers to some of these, and will very much appreciate your input.

    Technical problems:

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    7. Questions and discussion

    Some possible applications of the technology

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