Vclass Presentation Component Kanchana Kanchanasut, DEC Director Dr. Akavute Sujare, DEC Consultant Mr. Chaiwarat Chaiyapotpanit, Project Manager Distance Education Center (DEC) Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)

Introduction

Vclass Presentation Componet was developed by Distance Education Center (DEC) in Asian Institute of Technology. The objective of the component is to transform live lecture into electronic data to be able to access and play back later on demand.

Vclass Presentation Component Concept

Two Problems The objective of Vclass Presentation Component is to transform live lecture into electronic data to be able to access and play back later on demand. –How to represent live lecture scenario by electronic data? –How to interpret that data and to re-produce the lecture scenario for on demand environment?

Lecture Scenario The lecture scenario that Vclass Presentation Component tries to capture consists of three objects. –Instructor, Slides Presentation, and Pointer In the scenario, while instructor is speaking, the slide presentation shows the page related to the topic. Moreover, the pointer is spotted on the slide to show the exact location of information that the instructor is saying.

Representing the Objects Vclass Presentation Component represents the objects in lecture scenario by basic multimedia elements as follow. Instructor A Video or Audio Slides One picture for each slide. Pointer An arrow picture.

Representing Temporal Relation (1) How to represent temporal relations among Video, Slides and Pointer coordinates in this scenario?

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:00:00;no action!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:02:00;slide(1);point(x1,y1)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:02:30;slide(1);point(x2,y2)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:03:00;slide(2);point(x3,y3)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:03:40;slide(2);point(x4,y4)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:04:10;slide(3);point(x5,y5)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:05:10;slide(4);point(x6,y6)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:05:50;slide(4);point(x7,y7)!

Representing Temporal Relation (1) 00:07:00;no action!

Representing Temporal Relation (2) An example of events file (temporal specification). 00:00:00;no action! 00:02:00;slide(1);point(x1,y1)! 00:02:30;slide(1);point(x2,y2)! 00:03:00;slide(2);point(x3,y3)! 00:03:40;slide(2);point(x4,y4)! 00:04:10;slide(3);point(x5,y5)! 00:05:10;slide(4);point(x6,y6)! 00:05:50;slide(4);point(x7,y7)! 00:07:00;no action!

Synchronization Engine Synchronization engine interprets events file then controls slides and pointer coordination as follow the specification inside. Synchronization engine also handles pause, resume, seek forward and backward operations in addition to normal playback.

Synchronization Algorithm

Playback Position

Synchronization Algorithm Current Block Playback Position

Normal Playback

Seek Forward

Seek Backward

Other Operations Pause/Resume –do nothing Stop –seek backward to the beginning and pause

Vclass Presentation Architecture

Runtime Objects There are four important objects exist at run time. –Video/Audio Player object Play the video or audio according to the assigned file location –Timer object Iteratively activate Sync Engine every specified time interval –Sync Engine object Load and interpret temporal specification, synchronize the slides and pointer with playback time position from Video Player –Document object Render slide and pointer on the screen as follow the order from Sync Engine

Runtime Objects Collaboration

Main Process

Objects Deployment Left Frame Right Frame

Objects Deployment Document object Video object Video control object Timer object Sync engine object Left Frame Right Frame

Authoring Process

Main Activities Transforming live lecture into electronic data is not an automatic job. The following are main activities to be done manually. –Video Recording the Lecture –Preparing Multimedia Resources –Making an Events File (temporal specification) –Deployment

Video Recording the Lecture Use one or two cameras –Focus 1 st camera on the instructor –Focus 2 nd camera on the slide presentation (optional) The video in the 1 st camera will used for displaying and synchronizing with slides and pointer. The video in the 2 nd camera will be used internally as a reference when making events file later after the lecture.

Preparing Multimedia Resources Transform analog video in the 1 st camera to digital and save in a file (this requires a video capture card.) Take presentation file (generally PowerPoint file) from the instructor and save each page as a graphic file.

Making an Events File Use the Vclass Presentation Authoring Tool Open video file Play the video Open slide and mark pointer position by using the video in 2 nd camera as a reference.

02:00:00;slide(1);point(100,150, right arrow)

Deployment There are several options to deploy the lecture –Make a CD and distribute to students –Put on Web Server and Video Server –Put the lecture on Vclass LMS

Deployment (1) Put in CDs

Deployment (2)

Deployment (3) Vclass Server

Integrating with Vclass Learning Management System

What’s Vclass LMS? Vclass LMS was developed for managing students and lectures that was produced by Vclass Presentation Component.

Vclass LMS Functions The following are major learning management functions that the system provide. –Course information & structure management –Student learning statistic & tracking –Student registration and course enrollment –User profiles and accounts management –Communications –Provide course structure browsing and accessing to pre- captured lectures.

Vclass Data Model (1)

Vclass Data Model (2)

New Version of Vclass LMS More functions Open source Free distribution Beta version ~ end of March

Benefit from Integrating with Vclass LMS The presentation component can work alone offline. But, to provide more classroom like environment to the student, the Vclass system is needed.

Dependency of Components

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