Network educationware demonstration

Abstract

Network EducationWare (NEW) is a powerful and robust open-source multimedia system for synchronous Internet distance education. It supports blended presentations in a form we call simulteaching , where some students are in a traditional classroom and others participate in real time over the Internet. It also records the class as presented, so that students can attend class delayed in time. NEW has been designed to be highly modular and to make effective use of both network bandwidth and human time. Reference [1] describes how George Mason University has used NEW to offer a popular and innovative MS degree in Computer Science, at low cost. NEW consists of multi-platform, open source software that runs on inexpensive Windows and Linux computers. It implements both synchronous and asynchronous paradigms for distance education in a way that requires little additional effort on the part of the instructor and little additional cost for the institution, yet provides greatly increased accessibility to students and therefore promotes wider access to graduate computer science education. NEW is freely available to the Computer Science education community. Some important features which make it attractive are: • Works over dialup modem and most commercial Internet services, allowing live participation, record, and playback at any site. • Provides access to students at home or office, even through firewalls and network address translation (NAT) systems. • Features Web-based access with LDAP authentication and an open source course management database. • Audio and whiteboard interfaces with floor control and text chat panel allow full interaction with students over the Internet and require minimal learning time for faculty (video also is available with broadband Internet). • Supports authoring of graphic materials from any application. • Web-based Course Management system simplifies teaching, learning, and administration. . This demonstration will feature the NEW clients for both Windows and Linux, in operation with the NEW Live and Playback servers over a local wireless network (see figure below for operational configuration). The NEW software will be available during the demonstration for installation and operation on attendees' laptop computers.