May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil1 IRI-Easy: A Distance Education Software System Y. Wang, K. Maly, C. M. Overstreet Department of Computer Science Old Dominion University {ywang, maly,

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil2 Overview - Synchronous virtual classroom environment IRI-h provided support for heterogeneous network environments, heterogeneous platforms and introduced the notion of a commonly shared view of any shared activities among all participants IRI-Easy extends IRI-h functionality to allow simple on-the-fly set up and joining of collaborative sessions and is suitable for groups of participants located in isolated multicast-enabled Intranets

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil3 Features Each functionality mostly 1-2 clicks (very few 3) Session start and join simple and fast Java implementation Audio, video conferencing, tool sharing, gateways, white board, and pointer service.

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil4

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil5 Architecture sample - continued Two multicast sites connected by unicast tunnel Java server for authentication Directory server keeps track of all participants and sessions Join through multicast site or unicast tunnel

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil6 Features - continued Heterogeneous network environment Gateways Rate control for video and tool sharing Heterogeneous platforms Common shared view with multiple control Works behind NAT and with slow bandwidth participants

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil7 User interface

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil8 IRI-easy modes

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil9 IRI-easy modes

May , 2006ICBL 2007 Florianopolis Brazil10 Conclusions IRI-Easy works perfectly in Intranets IRI-Easy may have some problems with audio over low bandwidth connections when heavy tool sharing is done It’s not easy to design a simple interface for a complex system