Software Systems toward Future Education
Flora Chia-I Chang*, Huan-Chao Keh**, and Timothy K. Shih**
*Graduate Institute of Educational Policy and Leadership
Tamkang University
Tamsui, Taiwan 251, R.O.C.
**Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering
Tamkang University
Tamsui, Taiwan 251, R.O.C.
Abstract
Distance Learning and Virtual University research is one of the most important issues in the literature
of Internet and Distributed Systems. The paper starts from the discussion of current distance learning
approaches, with a highlight of some potential research problems. State-of-the-art technologies toward
partial solutions of such problems will be discussed. The paper also covers some important research
projects such as communication tools for virtual university operations, as well as instruction design
and assessment systems. The methodologies to support the design of these systems rely on three
virtual university operation criteria: administration, awareness, and assessment. The conclusion of this
paper will cover suggestions and directions to the potential future university operations.
Key words: distance learning, virtual university, distance education, Web distance learning, virtual
classroom, broadband communication
1. Introduction
Distance learning is one of the most
interesting new directions of future education.
With the growing number of users on the
Internet, and the improvement of bandwidth as
well as network protocols, distance learning will
become possible in the near future. There are
several advantages to the new approach.
Students and instructors can be separated
temporally and spatially in a distance learning
program. Part time students and people who are
in a remote area can all benefit from the newly
developed distance learning system to learn
easier and in a more flexible manner. Another
important issue is information sharing. Due to
the network, course materials are broadcasted
easily to students and shared by instructors.
However, there remain some challenges to be
solved:
 Effective administration: Since distance
learning system will allow hundreds or even
thousands of students to join the class, how to
maintain effectively become an important
issue. We need tools to keep track of student
course enrollment and tuition accounting.
 Appropriate course content: Distance
learning will use multimedia presentation
tools to design course materials. How to
ensure the content presented by appropriate
media and how to ensure the correctness of
content are important.
 Broadband and real-time communication:
If synchronous distance learning will be used,
the underlying network infrastructure will be
essentially important to the communication
between student and instructor.
 Mobile Interface for the persistent look
and feel: Students are located everywhere. A
student in the distance learning course can use
any computer with appropriate setup from
different countries. It is important to maintain
a persistent look and feel for each individual,
such as the learning status, the electronic
notebook, and personal preferences.
 Student assessment and course evaluation:
Since students and instructors are not at the
same location, how to assess student
performance is an important issue. On the
other hand, how to evaluate the instruction
process and course material are also
important.
 Approval and trusty: Distance learning will
offer degrees. But, whether the industrial
world accept and trust the quality of distance
learning students is an issue. Also, if the high
level education office, such as the Ministry of
Education, does not approve for distance
learning courses, the motivation of
universities and students will be lower.
Current distance learning methods can be
divided into synchronous and asynchronous
approaches. Depending on bandwidth available,
different communication methods are used:
 Web-based course content: Most distance
learning Web site uses this approach. Web site
is relatively easier to develop. However,
Web-based content delivery does not allow
interaction between students and instructor.
 E-mail Q and A: Students can send e-mail to
instructor for questions and answers.
However, the communication is not real-time
interactive. Also, the load of the instructor is
increasing if the number of students becomes
large.
 Internet Telephony: Audio communication
is available. However, the instructor is
difficult to explain charts, diagrams, drawings,
etc. in the course material.
 White board and chat room: White board
allows instructor to draw simple pictures.
Chat room is better than e-mail since
questions and answers can be handled at the
same time. However, it is important to
integrate white board and chat room with
other presentation software (i.e., Microsoft
PowerPoint).
 Video-on-demand: Pre-recorded video can
be broadcasted on the network for multiple
students. However, a higher communication
bandwidth and multicasting networks are
required. Also, if video will be used with
other presentation materials (i.e., PowerPoint
slides), multimedia synchronization is another
important issue.
 Video conferencing and virtual classroom:
Video communication can be real-time, with
facilities to become a virtual classroom.
Electronic chalk will be useful in the
environment. The virtual classroom can be
integrated with other distance learning tools.
Most distance learning programs uses a
combination of the above tools. However, there
still remain some problems to be solved. One of
the most challenge issues is how to assess the
learning performance of students. Students are
located remotely. If exams are given to students,
it is hard to ensure an unbiased evaluation. If
teaching assistants will be assigned to the exam,
the strategy may encounter a difficulty if
students are randomly separated from each other.
Also, centralized exam process does not fit the
theme of distance learning. Distance learning
assessment should be taken not only based on
exam. Since distance learning will use computer,
it is reasonable to use computer to keep track of
individual learning behavior, and to evaluate the
behavior of student as part of the grading policy.
If the learning behavior on a computer is part of
the requirement, it is not the privacy of a student
when one is traversing a Web course. The
navigation behavior will be recorded. Analysis
can help the instructor and the student to work
better.
On the other hand, if exam will be given to
students, the distance learning system should be
able to generate individualized test for each
student. The generation can be a random
ordering of questions, or totally randomized
question content. This approach prevents
students from coping answers from each other.
However, it is still not possible to maintain an
unbiased evaluation if the student asks others to
help in the exam. If surveillant system is used,
the system needs to be integrated with some
intelligent system to ensure the student is taking
the exam.
In addition to the individualized test, a
system should be able to provide intelligent
tutorial, or individualized tutorial, to each
distance learning student. Tutorials can be
generated based on course content, the outcome
of test, and the behavior of course material
traversal. This type of system can either generate
a tutorial for each student, or generate a tutorial
for a group of students who made the similar
mistake. In the later case, a clustering
mechanism can be used to classify groups of
students.
Distance learning systems are discussed in
many articles. In the next section, we present
some of the important systems. However, the
design of a distance learning system should be
considered from the operational procedure of a
virtual university, or a distance learning program.
We will discuss an integrated procedure and
system in this paper.
2. Related Work
WAILE [2] is a Web-based Intelligent
Learning System, which provides intelligent
tools to support distance learning. Group
discussion tools are proposed in CHEER [4]. In
CHEER, the concept of virtual discussion room
is realized by allowing users to choose whatever
communication software they need. As a
consequence, different applications have
different combination of communication
facilities. In a paper presents Virtual University
(i.e., VLE [1]), students' classrooms are
dynamically located. The discussion also points
out that, active data is another challenging
research issue for distance learning systems. In
the MMU project [3], virtual university structure
is divided into three levels: Micro University,
Virtual University, and Macro University. Micro
University can be a software system, which
assists an individual to learn from his/her digital
documents. Virtual University offers such
documents to many students via Web technology
and digital communications. The aggregation of
Virtual Universities is a Macro University. A
join project to integrate many existing Virtual
University software systems is currently
developed by researchers from USA, Japan,
Taiwan, and other countries. Distance Learning
can be carried out by satellite communications in
a remote area. The technique issue and the
evaluation of educational benefits of a
satellite-based distance learning environment are
discussed in [5]. CORAL [8] is a distance
learning
environment
for
technical
communication education. The system provides
a course browser and a group of communication
tools. Similar approaches using WWW
techniques and Java applets are found in [11, 10].
Distance learning systems with interactive
classroom and CSCW systems are proposed [6,
7]. Laboratory-based distance learning systems
are discussed in [13, 14]. The discussion of
virtual university administration and operation
issues is found in [9, 17, 18]. The benefit and
trend of virtual university are also discussed.
3. Distance Learning Procedures
The organization of a distance learning or
virtual university program requires people,
facility, and procedures. In this section, we
discuss the persons involved in the organization,
as well as the operation procedures. As
illustrated in figure 1, the types of persons are
shown in ellipses. The procedure steps are
shown in boxes.
Before a student is able to choose courses,
the admission control needs the student to apply
for permission. After the student is able to enroll
in and to take several courses. The grade will
decide which course to enroll next. The
administrator of a virtual university will control
the curriculum development, and to promote the
distance learning program. Courses proposed by
the instructors will be evaluated and announced
in the university curriculum.
An author inside or outside the virtual university
will write textbooks. According to the textbook,
the course designer will use software tools to
design a distance learning course. This approach
is common in current distance learning programs.
A distance learning course designer can be an
instructor, but not necessary the same instructor
who will use the materials to each the course.
Computer assisted instruction allows the course
materials to be shared by many instructors.
Student
Administrator
Admission
However, each instructor may add his/her own
annotations to the course material. Annotations
may include extra references, on-line
audio/video clips, or simple drawing to the Web
based documents. Annotation will be different
from instructors to instructors. After the
instruction activity is delivered, instruction will
be evaluated. Improvement can be made to
the course content, the annotation, or the on-line
discussion activity if necessary.
The operation procedure needs supporting
tools. In the next section, we discuss an
integrated system, which is developed in
Tamkang University. The system is not
completed.
However,
most
of
the
communication tools, and course development
tools are in the phase of final refinement.
Author
Curriculum
Development
Course
Enrollment
Designer
Instructor
Textbook
Course
Design
DL Program
Promotion
Course
Annotation
Instruction
Activity
Grade
Report
Instruction
Evaluation
Figure 1. Procedures of Distance Learning Operations
4. An Integrated Distance Learning
Environment
In the past few years, Tamkang University
has a special interesting group of research
faculties from computer engineering, education,
and literature departments. The distance learning
special interesting group has developed several
distance learning tools, as well as course
contents. We follow the operation procedures of
a virtual university, and developed a set of tools
to be used by students, course designers, and
instructors. Some of the mort important tools
are:
 Persistent Look and Feel Agents
 A Course Development and Instruction
Assessment System
 A Course Annotation with Message
Broadcasting System
 A Communication Tool with Floor Control
 A Synchronized Lecture-on-Demand Tool
 A Student Notebook Tool
Students of the virtual university roam
from station to station. It is important to provide
a persistent environment such that students will
always obtain their personal profile. The
solution of such a roaming service involves
mobile agent technique. A mobile agent can
travel from station to station, with its execution
status attached. To implement such a mobile
agent involves station privilege control. Usually,
a mobile agent platform needs to be installed in
each student workstation. When the mobile
agent travels to the station, the agent platform
accepts it and invokes a child process to run the
mobile agent. The mobile agent will retrieve
personal information of the student from a
mobile profile. The profile will contain the
information such as personal notebook, learning
status, and the personal look-and-feel setup. A
student notebook tool allows the student to cut
and paste Web course content objects into a
personal notebook. The objects include test
paragraphs, pictures, animations, audio clips,
and possibly video records. The learning status
of each course taken by the student will be
recorded. The student should be able to continue
from a previously visited point in each Web
course. In addition, each student can setup some
look-and-feel personal data, which includes the
resolution and name of Web browser (IE or
Netscape), generic look-and-feel setup, personal
communication list, etc. The mobile person
agent serves as a front end of virtual university
access. Students will talk to this agent anytime
anywhere. Similarly, instructors will have
another agent. Agents will communicate with
each other. For instance, a student can look at
other agents, which represent their owners in an
on-line course. Via clicking on an agent, the
student can talk to each other. An example of the
mobile personal agent is shown in figure 2.
The delivery of distance learning course
materials needs appropriate tool. Current Web
page construction tools are for general purposes.
Some of these tools require
sophisticated
programming knowledge to accomplish a
professional Web site. However, for educators,
such as elementary school teachers, it is time
consuming to learn all of these programming
techniques. In addition, a distance learning Web
site should be intelligent enough to detect the
behavior of students, while they are traversing
the course material. Individual popup quizzes
may be given to the student for concentration
enforcement. We need a specialized tool for
course designers to develop and deliver
appropriate course contents. A course
development and instruction assessment system
is thus developed. The system has the following
main functions:
 Easy drag-and-drop interface, with just
enough functions for course designers
 On-line popup quiz design, without
sophisticated programming
 Automatic uploading of course materials
 Student navigation behavior supervision
 Student navigation analysis and comparison
 Automatic review course generation for
individual students
Figure 3 shows part of the course
development and assessment system. The system
provides a minimal set of functions, allowing the
course designer to design Web-based courses.
The designer can add popup quizzes to each
course unit. These popup quizzes will be
triggered according to the behavior of student on
the Web. For instance, if a student does not
access the Web browser for a long time, or visits
other Web sites, the popup quiz manager will
give the student a notice. Student behavior will
be recorded and analyzed. The analysis result
will be compared to give the instructor
summative information. In addition, the system
is able to generate individualized tutorials for
each student, based on the navigation behavior,
the outcome of a test given to the students, and
the relationship between the course content and
the test.
Distance learning can be synchronized. In
this case, communication tools are the most
important requirement. Current network
technologies allow communication on a
broadband infrastructure. However, not every
school
is
equipped
with
broadband
communication facilities. In addition, bandwidth
is not the only concern. Synchronized
communication requires real-time delivery of
audio, video, and other media. One of the most
important requirements is how can an instructor
make sure that each of his/her student has
received the message, either in a verbal, video,
or text form. Synchronized communication is
thus a very attractive research topic. In the
distance learning environment we have
developed, an on-line course annotation tool (see
figure 4) is included. The tool allows the
instructor to draw simple graphic objects on the
instructor’s terminal. Students on the remote
terminal will see the same drawing. The on-line
annotation tool is very powerful. It is not a
whiteboard system. The annotation tool can be
used in conjunction with other distance learning
presentation software, such as PowerPoint, Web
browser, or any application running on Windows.
The on-line annotation shown in figure 5 is one
of the communication tools. In the earlier stage
of our project development, we have proposed a
floor control mechanism. The mechanism
controls who can speak in a multiple user
communication environment. It is very
important to have this control mechanism.
Otherwise, simultaneous speeches on the
network not only cost congestion but also make
audio not recognizable. The four types of floor
control mechanism are:
 Free Access: All participants can listen and
talk, but this is disallowed mostly.
 Equal Control: Only one person can talk but
all participants can listen. An individual sends
a request to the speaker for the floor. The
speaker grants the control to the individual
(first come first serve-based). The first person
login into the Chat Room has the first floor
control. No chairperson is assigned. That is,
everyone has the same priority. Alternatively,
the instructor can be the chairperson. In this
case, the instructor will choose who to speak.
 Group Discussion: A participant can select a
group of persons that he/she wants to talk and
agrees to another group that he/she wants to
listen. When an individual is asked to listen to
another person, the individual can decide if
he/she wants to listen. If so, the name of this
individual is added to the listen group of the
talking person.
 Direct Contact: Two persons talk and listen
to each other (i.e., a private discussion
channel). This is for a private conversation in
the direct contact area. A person can have a
private discussion with his/her partner while
still joining the chat room.
The instructor chooses the Free Access, the
Equal Control, or the Group Discussion mode.
The Direct Contact mode can be turn on/off by
the instructor.
Figure 2. Persistent Look and Feel Agents
Figure 3. A Course Development and Instruction Assessment System
Figure 4. A Course Annotation with Message Broadcasting System
Figure 5. A Communication Tool with Floor Control
In a distance learning environment, video
clips (pre-recorded) can be integrated with slide
presentations. It is very important to synchronize
video with slide changes. Otherwise, the slide
presentation will be senseless. We have
developed a tool, which allows the coursed
designer or the instructor to record synchronized
lecture-on-demand presentations. While the
presenter is using a digital video camera to
record his presentation, the use of PowerPoint
slides can be recorded. The integration relies on
the Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) solution
provided by Microsoft. While saved as an ASF
file, the lecture-on-demand record can be
broadcasted to students. Figure 6 illustrates such
a system. The system can let users to select
video and audio configuration to meet different
devices and network infrastructures available to
the user.
From the perspective of students, we also
provide some tools. One of the successful
examples is the electronic notebook tool shown
in figure 7, which allows students to cut and
paste Web objects, including test paragraphs and
pictures, to be saved as HTML files. The system
is integrated with the annotation tool, as well as
some video and audio communication tools. It is
the hope that, the system can provide a computer
supported collaborative environment for
students to discuss homework, and to write a
team report. The electronic notebook is also
integrated with the personal mobile agent. We
believe that, the integrated environment will be
very easy for students to use, as well as for the
instructors to supervise the whole distance
learning process.
In order to support the above
communication tool, we are trying to build an
intra-university distance learning environment.
Figure 8 illustrates the network infrastructure.
The configuration is a test-bed of these
communication tools. We hope that, after the
prototype is implemented, the infrastructure can
be
extended
to
allow
inter-campus
communications.
Figure 6. A Synchronized Lecture-on-Demand Tool
Figure 7. A Student Notebook Tool
TANET
CISICO 2501 Router
T3
ISDN Network
T1
臺北校區
理學院
學外宿舍
Ethernet 10MB
ADSL Network
HP 7206 Router
文學院
B
M
100
155MB
CISICO 5000
Router
資訊中心
行政大樓
CISICO 6509
Router
CISICO 4700
Router
商學院
Media Encode Server
工學院
155MB
BandKeeper
100MB HUB
LAN
淡江大學
FDDI 環型校園網路
WWW Server
Multimedia
Database Server
CISICO 4700
Router
Media Encode Server
Multimedia
Database Server
Training
Center
Media Floor Control Server
LAN
Media Floor Control Server
WWW Server
100MB HUB
BandKeeper
Course Design Server
Training
Center
Course Design Server
Figure 8. A Broadband Network Infrastructure for Campus Distance Learning
5. Conclusions
The total success of distance learning or virtual
university paradise is still not coming yet. Even
if the technology can support such an operation,
there still remain some methodological problems.
As pointed out in this paper, since human are
colony
creature,
interaction,
especially
person-to-person contact cannot be replaced by
machines to human communication, social
behavior
seems
to
disallow
distance
communication. However, distance learning is
now successful in mission-based instruction, and
in community-based lifelong education. But,
team teaching is not yet ready in virtual
university. It is questionable, whether it is
political, or technical, for the society to the
approval of virtual university degrees. The
academia, the government, the engineers, and
the society need to work tightly, toward the great
success of future virtual university education.
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