Web-based Creation, Development and Visualization of Multimedia Courses E. Meléndez†, S. Baldassarri‡, J. Larroy†, F. Serón‡, F. Rojas† †
‡
Area de Electricidad y Nuevas Tecnologías. Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón. Spain Departamento de Informática e Ingeniería de Sistemas. Universidad de Zaragoza. Spain e-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe a set of tools for continuous training over the net, that basically consist of an “assistant” for the creation and development of multimedia courses, and a “browser” of the course previously created. The assistant provides an easy and intuitive way for course creation. A new course can be created, even by people without programming knowledge. The predetermined pedagogical structure allows a high quality presentation. Within the course contents, text, images, voice, digital audio and digital video can be added. Moreover, for the student assessment, activities, evaluation and comprehension tests can be included. The other tool, the browser, allows the visualization and navigation inside a course in a user-friendly way. One of the main features is the possibility of bi-directional electronic communication between students and the professor (chat, e-mail, ftp). The student state data can be received by the professor and the corresponding evaluation can be done. At last, we can say that the developed tools were used in several courses and more than 1000 students successfully followed them. Key words: distance training, multimedia, course generation, course browser Introduction Nowadays competitive society makes fundamental the adaptation to new work methods by supplementary formation known as continuous training. For this purpose several kind of modalities have been developed, varying from the traditional courses to the distance ones [1]. The use of the new technologies has enhanced the apprenticeship curve because the student can receive information through all the multimedia resources: interaction with text, images, video, sound. Furthermore, distance training has several advantages over the traditional courses, either for the student or for the professor: For the student: • Spatial and temporal flexibility to follow the course • Individualized guidance and supervision • Lower costs because of an increase of specialized courses supply. • Continuous update of the contents For the professor or the formative center: • Use of tools for individual monitoring of the students • The professional activity can be developed by any kind of distance work • Increase of the potential number of students • Decrease of the equipment fixed costs • Arise of a new “market” of specialized professors
Although it’s known that the use of multimedia didactic materials enhances the comprehension ability by the user interaction and the multi-sensorial work, this advantages are not included in many of the “commercial” systems because of the excessive development costs, the lack of performance qualities of authoring systems and communication nets. Nowadays, in the distance and self training areas there are two “business” trends clearly defined: the massive sale of multimedia courses in CDROM, monitored by e-mail or by phone, and the use of Internet for offering distance courses in HTML with the on-line monitoring of the student managed like in a “virtual campus” (Web Course in a Box, Learning Space, WebCT) [2]. Even though the best proposals of both cases have ways for adapting the contents according with the previous knowledge of the student, the term distance multimedia training is not suitable. The CDROM courses are rich in multimedia contents but their use of the Internet media is very poor. On the other hand, the HTML on-line courses are well integrated in the net technologies but the multimedia resources almost doesn’t exist because of the size restrictions that internet imposes. The introduction of the contents by technical staff (experts in authoring programs like Macromedia and Asymetrix or HTML programmers) instead of the professor is another generalized drawback. The presented system allows the professor to create the multimedia courses without any previous study of the tool. The courses can be imparted at distance by the combined use of active programming of the Web servers, as support of the didactic structure, and the CDROM, as a storage and transport media. General Structure and Employed Technology The principal idea of the distance training models developed from this project is the use of a predetermined hypertext pedagogical structure that references, but not contains, the multimedia elements of the course. In this way, a professor without programming knowledge can directly create a multimedia course with the guide of the assistant program. The inclusion of contents is done from Office tools simply by drag and drop, and every format and size is automatically adapted to the visualization templates. The event synchronization is also automatic, depending on the selected elements. Another tools incorporated to the assistant allow the automatic generation of questions, hyperlinks, bibliography references and glossaries. A “custom made” developed browser is used to follow the course and it has two main functions: • Communicate with the web server for gathering the updates suggested by the professor and send a control file of the student work without personal intervention. For both purposes, an internet connection of any type (RTC, RDSI, ADSL, modem cable) is necessary. • Call the system and the Internet navigator tools (MediaPlayer, mail client, NetMeeting) for showing the hypertext and multimedia contents, stored respectively, in a database and in the CDROM. Finally, for managing the registration, monitoring and net communication processes, web based support tools were developed in each course, either for the administrator, the tutor and the student. In a remote way, using JavaScript [3], ASP (Active Server Pages) and database access, a tutor can: • Check the student operating system configuration • Look at any time the students progress state • Communicate with a person or a group of students by the net • Evaluate the results of the proposed exercises and questions • Obtain control statistics
Besides, the same system can be implemented with better performance qualities in a training class, connecting the computers by a LAN. The multimedia contents can be distributed to the equips from a central server. Supported Distance Contents Creation Training Models
Course Structure Multimedia Contents
Contents Update and Monitoring
Multimedia Off-line
Local
CDROM
CDROM
e-mail, telephone
Hypertext On-line
Local
Web-based
-
Web-based
Multimedia On-line
Local
CDROM/ Web based
CDROM/LAN
Web-based
Teleauthoring
Local/Web-based
CDROM/ Web based
CDROM/ On-line (AV Streaming)
Web-based
Table 1.- Different Training Models
The main system innovation is based on the use of properties of the Internet Microsoft IExplorer navigator. This tool stand out by the interconnection with the O.S., the integration with the Office tools and the compatibility with the Web servers and the predominant technologies in Internet. So it’s possible to configure with JavaScript and Dynamic HTML the buttons and tools of our course browser, to make calls to the multimedia components and operating systems resources, to develop executable applications with the Windows Host Scripting and to use the protocols http, ftp, smtp, pop, h.323, … in a transparent way. Furthermore, the navigator is free, can be distributed and is always updated. In fact, one of the strong points of the system is that the development time required for incorporating new technologies (MPEG-2, Audio and Video Streaming) is small since the major weight is “entrust” to Microsoft. Results The described system is the result of more than two years of multidisciplinary work. Training enterprises (FORTEC, ITA), social agents interested in professional training (FORCEM, Businessmen Confederation and trade unions) and students participated in the development and implementation of the different phases. Also, several enterprises have checked the management and monitoring tools, in particular Formación y Tecnologías S.L, responsible of the pedagogical validity of the obtained results. During the last two years more than 1000 students have followed the courses developed with the different versions of this system. The system has been adapted in various educative projects, each one with its distance training model and we can say that is “alive” because of its continuous evolution.
Versions
Assistant
Browser
Multimedia Contents
Monitoring
1998
VisualC++, ActiveX, VisualBasic, Access, DAO
Visual C++, ActiveX, IExplorer SDK, DAO
JPEG, GIF, WAV, AVI, MPEG-1, HTML
Internet Information Server (ASP), ODBC, DAO, JavaScript,Access
1999
ADO
IExplorer SDK, VisualC++, ADO
DHTML, VRML, Flash
ADO, IExplorer SDK, NetMeeting
2000
Structure Improvements
IExplorer, Javascript, ADO, Windows Host Scripting
HTML+Time, Speech Sintesis, MP3, XML
Automatic Mailing Tool
2001
Internet Information Cross-browsing Design Server, IExplorer SDK, Media Theater
MPEG-2, A/V Streaming SQLServer
Table 2 .- Chronology of the system evolution
In Figure 1 different versions of the application are exhibited. In first place, the figure shows version 1.0 of the assistant, developed with FORCEM funds for the Multifazil project. Then the browser is displayed with two different interfaces, one developed in CDROM for the Curso de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales course and the other, also in CDROM, about Curso de Gestión Medioambiental. At last, the work interface of the web server tools of the hypertext on-line course funded by ADAPT ADEF Guía para la Planificación de la Sucesión Familiar can be observed.
Figure 1 .Conclusions and Future Work As conclusions, we can say that it’s possible to combine multimedia contents and on-line distance training with the present Internet low bandwidth, resulting in powerful and cheap applications.
This kind of distance training is an ideal solution for a great amount of people , as was revealed in the carried out courses. This is specially true in Aragon, our region, where people is very dispersed geographically. During the development of these applications, a requirement of a system for giving a more practical support was detected. In this way, we have studied the possibility of using VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) for creating low cost simulators and now that’s also a reality [4]. For the future, we must say that this line of work must be remind in the moment that high velocity net generalized. The incorporation of MPEG-2 or A/V Streaming flows in the course contents is almost immediate. The use of an Internet navigator as a basic structure of work will allow the migration of the system to new educational platforms based on Windows CE/Linux like the STB (Set Top Box) and the 3G (Third Generation or UMTS) mobile telephones. References [1] Bates P.J. et al. “Telematics for flexible and distance learning (DELTA)”, CEC DGXIII, 1995. [2] Britain S., Liber O., “A Framework for Pedagogical Evaluation of Virtual Learning Environments”, http://www.jtap.ac.uk/reports/ [3] JScript Language Reference, http://msdn.microsoft.com [4] F. Rojas, S. Baldassarri, J.R. Lamenca, M. Rincón, F. Serón, “A VRML Practice Tool for Continuous and Distance Training”, WEB Based Learning Environments 2000.
