1. Physics meets the Virtual University
DCOMP 01 Meeting
MIT June
Geoffrey Fox
Florida State University
Department of Computer Science and
CSIT (School of Computational Science and Information Technology)
400 Dirac Science Library
Tallahassee
Florida
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

2. Distance and Web-based Education
“From Computational Science to Internetics: Integration of Science with Computer Science”
Curriculum developed as web-pages: “Learning Objects”
Improving Standards enable higher quality authoring such as Macromedia Flash or Adobe Illustrator or nifty physics interactive simulations
Delivered at a distance (needs collaboration technology), in-class and/or asynchronously viewed by students in their own time
Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard offer
Student registration, Quizzes, Grading, Security
Database or better XML Storage
IMS and ADL standards allow reusability
Important implications for “business model for education”
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

3. 3-Tier Architecture for Education Portal
Everything is an Object: Curriculum, Users, grades, computers – all are defined in XML
XML very important in online education as objects quite small, are naturally decentralized and have rich important metadata
There are several important Object Models: COM, CORBA, Java, Excel Web, flat file, Oracle Database ……
But model doesn’t matter!!
Object Repository
XML File System (Web Site)
Request Or
Export/Import
Information
Database
Middle Tier “Business Logic” dissociates User and Back End
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

4. Portals in Education and Training
We are discussing Web-based education or portals to a virtual university or virtual corporate training center
Merrill Lynch predicts that Enterprise Information portal market will be $15B by 2002
So assume that we are building education portals in terms of “Distributed Educational Objects” -- this is not really an assumption but a statement as to “language used”
Portals are built as a Collaborative customizable set of XML components ( e.g. Display a thumbnail of the next web-page in lecture, give in-class quiz or run a Particular Multi-media clip )
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

5. What is Web-based Collaboration?
Collaboration means sharing objects (Web Page very important object)
Web-based Collaboration implies use of Web to share distributed objects accessible through the Web
Shared Web Pages; Resources accessed through Web Servers or Brokers; Client-side applications with programmatic interfaces such as Java Physics Simulations
Web Page
Specify Page
Receive Identical Page
Web Site
Shared Page
Shared Pointer
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

6. Why use Distance Education and Training?
New and rapidly changing Academic Curriculum such as Computational Physics or Complex Systems suggest the use of distance education as it will allow a few experts to deliver instruction to more students and this addresses both
The shortage of trained faculty
Offering classes with small enrollments at one university
cost of developing new curriculum QUICKLY requires many students (say around 5-10 times traditional class) to amortize cost
Distance Education is technically sound based on web curricula-- both synchronously and asynchronously -- today with very robust clear implementations available over next few years
Both delivery mechanism and identification of knowledge nuggets (such as computational physics) that are smaller than or different in content from a traditional degree suggests different approaches to certification
Courses are given, graded etc. by multiple organizations -- University integrate degrees?
Similar arguments for distance training with relative importance of synchronous and asynchronous learning differing by customer group
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

7. The Virtual University
Motivated either by decreased cost or increased quality of learning environment
Will succeed due to market pressures (it will offer the best product)
Assume that as with text books, only a few pedagogically excellent teachers will produce lectures; only a few charismatic souls deliver them
“Centers of Excellence” (“Hermits Cave Virtual University”) are natural entities to produce and deliver classes supported by good technology and wonderful graphics
University acts as an integrator putting together a set of classes where it may only teach some 20% but acts as a mentor to all
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

8. Courses at Jackson State
Taught using Tango since fall 97 over Internet and defense high performance network DREN twice a week from Syracuse
Course material based on Syracuse Senior Undergraduate class CPS406(Web Technologies) and graduate classes CPS615/616/640(Base Computational science/Internetics)
Curricula, Homework, Grading, Facilities done by Syracuse
Students get JSU NOT Syracuse Credit
Jackson State major HBC University with many computer science graduates
Do not compete with base courses but offer addon courses with “leading edge” material (Web Technology, modern scientific computing) which give JSU (under)graduates skills that are important in their career
Fall 99 Semester CPS640 offered to 40 students in 5 distant places and separately 40 at Syracuse
Fall 2001 restart with “latest technology” (Access Grid, HearMe, Garnet)
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

9. Architecture of Tango Distance Education
Share URL’s
Audio Video
Conferencing Chat Rooms
White Boards etc.
JSU Web (Proxy)Server
NPAC Web Server
Student’s View of Curriculum Page
Teacher’s View of Curriculum Page
HTTP
Java Tango Server
Address at JSU of Curriculum Page
…….
Java Sockets
…….
Java Control Clients
Participants at JSU
Teacher/Lecturer at NPAC
All Curricula placed on the Web
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

10. > Two Shared Physics Simulations – SHO and Vector cross product > Chat Room > Audio video conferencing
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1/18/2019

11. What did this lead to?
Jackson State students got access to curricula that was not otherwise available to them
Developed quite good Information Technology and computational science curricula
Jackson State faculty acted as mentors in course and now teach some of material in their own courses and to other HBCU colleges
Make rapidly changing and important curricula available to an HBCU network -- could dramatically improve curricula opportunities for HBCU students
JSU has institutional commitment to area
Used in High School Java, DoD wide training and Winter 00 semester as part of ERDC Graduate Institute
Supports migrant teachers -- I have delivered course spring 00 semester from Syracuse, FSU and ERDC, Vicksburg
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1/18/2019

12. Saturday Java Academy
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1/18/2019

13. Current Status and Futures
Commercial Systems such as Centra, WebEx, Anabas and Placeware offer similar functionality to our old system Tango for synchronous collaboration
Shared applications, chatroom, whiteboard, A/V conferencing
Blackboard, WebCT, Lotus offer learning management systems – need to switch to IMS, ADL standards; high-end authoring and XML based technology (not databases or files)
Access Grid (community e.g. classroom) and HearMe (desktop) are new internet audio-video systems which are be used with shared object systems
I develop research systems Gateway and Garnet for education and computational science portals
Feature hand-held and desktop clients, integrated collaboration and some “technical advances” – major use of XML, shared SVG
Peer to Peer Grids suggest decentralized architecture (
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

14. Commercial Collaboration Systems
Centra PlaceWare WebEx
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

15. SVG Sharing PC to PDA Batik Viewer on PC
PowerPoint can be converted to SVG via Illustrator or Web export
SVG Sharing PC to PDA
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019

16. Access Grid (Argonne, NCSA) and HearMe
Access Grid: Community HearMe: desktop integrates phones and Internet Audio
Ambient mic
(tabletop)
Presenter
camera
Audience camera
mic
physicsvirtuniv mitjune01
1/18/2019