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Lessons learned in building a sustained distance learning program

Richard Anderson and Fred Videon, UWCSE

ODL, October 18, 2011

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Masters in Computer Science Distance Learning Program

• UW Professional Masters Program – Masters in Computer Science– Taught by faculty from UW Computer Science and

Engineering– Coursework masters program (8 graduate courses

to complete degree)– Targeted students working in industry– Combination of distance and face to face courses– Regional program

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Distance learning technology

• Synchronous distance learning• Instructor lecturing to students in multiple

classrooms• Goal: link together classrooms to form a single

class• Multiple transmission technologies used– Started with Polycom/ISDN system– Developed internet video conferencing system to

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ConferenceXP• Open Source Platform for real-time collaboration• Delivered in collaboration with Microsoft Research• Main deployment in Masters Program– University of Washington– Microsoft

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Beyond two-way classes

• Lectures available at the desktop• Two courses offered between University of

Washington, Microsoft, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego

• Course offered with Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan– 12 hour time difference, 6:30 pm course in the

Seattle, a 6:30 am course in Lahore!

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Building a successful distance learning program

• Component of a strong degree program• Entire program designed to meet the needs of

students working full time in industry• No distinction between distance and non-

distance students• Students had choice of sites they could attend

classes

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Technology

• Support verbal interaction in the class with microphones

• Lighting of instructors, high quality microphones for the instructor.

• Writing on slides with electronic ink• Lecture archiving to allow review of lectures

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Challenges

• Currently, the technology is very robust– Last lecture with degraded quality: Autumn 2008– Last lecture with sustained outage: Spring 2002

• While the technology was being developed, there were many “glitches”– Made strong efforts to address problems– Told students about the challenges, and what we were

doing to address them– Students understood they were part of a program that

was innovating in technology and education

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Gaining instructor buy in

• Faculty were initially skeptical about program and distance education

• Faculty discovered that students were enthusiastic and hard working

• Selective in choice of instructors for distance courses

• Ensured that faculty had in-class, as well as distance students

• Supported traditional slide and whiteboard pedagogy

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Distance Learning Goals• Small number of live classrooms with very good

interactivity• High reliability• Support for presentation with whiteboard or digital

ink• Record all classroom artifacts• Content to desktop: multiple platforms;

Stream/download; live/archive; freely available to public

• System flexibility when new requirements arise

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Classroom Setup

• Audio is important and difficult to do well– Microphones permanently installed– Echo cancellation hardware

• Video: fixed camera positions; multiple video streams

• Projectors: use as many as practical– Display of remote students gives sense of presence. – Instructor should also be able to see remote students

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Basic PMP setup (2 sites)

PMP VENUE

Archiver

Video cameras

Audio

Video Displays

Speakers

Video cameras

Audio

Video Displays

Speakers

UW Microsoft

CXP

CP3Instructor

CP3Display

CP3Display

Student Tablets Student Tablets

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3-way setup for UW, MS, LUMS

PMP Venue 1

PMP Venue 2

Archiver

Microsoft LUMS

UW

CP3

CP3ServerCP3

CP3

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Network

• Reliability of the network is key• Distributed administration can be a problem• Test often and be proactive• Have well tested backup plans– Alternate network paths– Telephone

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ConferenceXP• Open Source Platform for real-time collaboration– High quality, low latency multipoint conferencing – Targeted for standard PC and high quality network– Works with commodity cameras and audio equipment– Built-in collaboration tools including presentation,

whiteboard, screen sharing, video playback, chat

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Classroom Presenter• TabletPC-Based Distributed Presentation System• Instructor navigation and annotation on local and

remote displays• Open Source License• Students can contribute to class using digital ink– Students run the software on their laptops/tablets– Instructor can review, display and annotate student work– Promotes active learning

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Lecture Capture and Playback• ConferenceXP Archive Service– Stores all artifacts in SQL Server database

• Tools used to post-process archive into multiple formats– WMV, MP4, OGG– Video showing presentation instead of the speaker– Custom viewer (WebViewer) concurrent video and

presentation with table of contents– HTML 5 viewer

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A Selection of Recent Courses

• Compiler Construction, Autumn 2011www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep501/11au/

• Concurrency, Spring 2011www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep506/11sp/Home.html

• Cryptography, Winter 2011www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590a/11wi/

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Links & Contacts

• ConferenceXPhttp://cct.cs.washington.edu

• Classroom Presenterhttp://cp3.cs.washington.edu

• Email{anderson, fred}@cs.washington.edu

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