Education as a Web (Grid) Service

1. Education as a Web (Grid) Service National GEC Network Meeting Bethseda Maryland August 22 2001 Geoffrey Fox PTLIU Laboratory for Community Grids Computer Science, Informatics, Physics Indiana University Bloomington IN 47404 gcf@indiana.edu gecdistedaug01

2. Personal Background 1994 Demonstrating Web-based Telemedicine • http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/collabtools • “From Computational Science to Internetics: Integration of Science with Computer Science”http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/internetics2 • I wandered through various twists and turns • Caltech -- Professor and Executive Officer Physics, Dean Educational Computing • Syracuse – Physics/Computer Science; Developed web-based tools for Telemedicine and Distance Education • Indiana – Physics, Computer Science, Informatics; Director of Grid Laboratory • Co-founder of companies WebWisdomand Anabas in areas of education technology • A mix of technology and its use – today I will focus on technology as that is my expertise (although you are probably more interested in using it) gecdistedaug01

3. Some Technology Trends • Increasing performance of Internet backbone and last mile (access) • Hand-held devices and wireless Pervasive Access • Peer to peer technologies enable new ways of collaborating and blurs distinction between clients and servers • Client-Server  Multi-tier Architectures • XML Schema and tools  All data defined as objects • Separation of client, system and persistent storage models for information • Development of (application) service model to capture common (maybe centralized) capabilities • Semantic Web, Grid or … “Next Generation Web” New Technologies implyNew Opportunities requiringtypically New Business models For Education and Training gecdistedaug01

4. What is a Grid Service? Resource • The Grid is distributed system allowing communities to access seamlessly heterogeneous resources from heterogeneous clients • Resources are web-pages, instruments, Object repositories, Simulation codes running on supercomputers …. • A Service is a generic application or capability respecting standards (general web and application specific) allowing multiple providers to compete on a given service Middle TierBroker Portal is customizable User interface Back endCapabability The Grid is essentially is the future Web IBM just announced they were investing around$1 Billion in Grid gecdistedaug01

5. Some General Grid Services PaymentCredit Card Security Catalog Warehouse shipping • Business is developing “web service” concept to support areas like e-commerce where one composes atomic services like • Security • Payment • Catalog • Goods supply Each of these services could allow Multiple choices of provider In a given session WSDL is new standard for web services gecdistedaug01

6. Architecture of Grid: CommodityScience Next Generation Consumer Web Twenty-First Century University and laboratory P e r f o r m a n c e Conv e n i e n c e Science Portals & Workbenches Community Portals Commerce Grid Education Grid Research Grid Computational Grid Education Services Computational Services Research Services & Technology Business Services Grid Services (resource independent) Grid Fabric (resource dependent) Networking, Devices and Systems • Commerce, Entertainment, Healthcare, Science, Computing, Education …. will be Grid Services gecdistedaug01

7. Features to be Supported • Curriculum or “Learning Objects” • Web Pages becoming more sophisticated (Flash) • Audio-Video Conferencing, Chat rooms, white boards to support student, teacher, mentor interactions • Shared Documents for synchronous collaboration • Learning Management Systems • Student registration, Quizzes, Grading, Security • Database Storage (persistent Learning Objects) • IMS and ADL standards for interoperability • Asynchronous self paced access gecdistedaug01

8. Some Education Grid Services • Registration • Performance (grading) • Authoring of Curriculum • Online laboratories for real and virtual instruments • Homework submission • Quizzesof various types (multiple choice, random parameters) • Assessment data access and analysis • Synchronous Delivery of Curricula • Scheduling of courses and mentoring sessions • Asynchronous access, data-mining and knowledge discovery gecdistedaug01

9. ADL Learning Management Model LearningServer Content Server(s) External systems: “Learning HR, E-Commerce, ERP... Management Course Interchange: System” Course LMS Structure Format (CSF), Metadata Migration Adapter Common GridServices & Objects Services or Adapter Learning Server Server Adapter Server Side Runtime Client Side Environment: Client Launch, API, Browser Data Model API Adapter Application HTML+ www.adlnet.org Good but … Client-Server not Multi-tier Not built in terms of services ADL is Advanced Distributed Learning – DoD Initiative gecdistedaug01

10. 3-Tier Architecture for Education Portal ObjectRepository Database • 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, ExcelWeb, flat file, Oracle Database …… • But model doesn’t matter!! XML Request File System(Web Site) Or Export/Import Information Middle Tier“Business Logic”dissociates User and Back End gecdistedaug01

11. 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 ) gecdistedaug01

12. Why use Distance Education and Training? • New and rapidly changing Curriculum 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 curriculumQUICKLY 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 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 gecdistedaug01

13. 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 gecdistedaug01

14. 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) gecdistedaug01

15. Architecture of Tango Distance Education Share URL’s Audio Video ConferencingChat Rooms White Boards etc. JSU Web (Proxy)Server NPAC WebServer Student’s View ofCurriculum Page Teacher’s View ofCurriculum Page Java TangoServer HTTP Address at JSU ofCurriculum Page ……. Java Sockets ……. Java Control Clients Teacher/Lecturer at NPAC Participants at JSU All Curricula placed on the Web gecdistedaug01

16. What is Web-based Collaboration? Web Site Specify Page Receive Identical Page WebPage WebPage WebPage • 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 Shared Page Shared Pointer gecdistedaug01

17. > Two Shared Physics Simulations – SHO and Vector cross product> Chat Room> Audio video conferencing gecdistedaug01

18. 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 gecdistedaug01

19. Saturday Java Academy http://old-npac.csit.fsu.edu/projects/k12javaspring99/ gecdistedaug01

20. Hierarchical Delivery Model • One could teach to 1000 different students – each at a separate workstation but … • No real opportunity for questions so better to use broadcast technology – not conferencing • Further could better deliver to 40 classrooms – each with an average of 25 students • Each classroom has central high quality A/V conferencing, displays and • A Mentor monitoring and helping students • Each student could have wireless laptop or PDA • So synchronous systems must support simultaneously disparate clients – high end display to PC to PDA gecdistedaug01

21. Authoring of Curriculum • Market pressures push to high end authoring • Authoring approaches for the Web can include • Basic HTML • Macromedia/Adobe/etc. packages like Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Illustrator • PowerPoint and Word exported • Also can include RealNetworks or Microsoft or .. Format Multimedia • Note Streaming multimedia formats have larger buffers than A/V conferencing formats • Certainly use XML to specify content and render this into attractive portal • SVG and SMIL are important 2D vector graphics and multimedia standards • HTMLdoes not give reproducible pages • Flashcan be thought of as “proprietary SVG” gecdistedaug01

22. 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 – Can they switch to IMS, ADL standards; high-end authoring and XML based object 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 system Garnet for education portals • Features hand-held and desktop clients, integrated collaboration and some “technical advances” – major use of XML, shared SVG • Peer to Peer Grids suggest decentralized architecture (http://www.jxta.org) gecdistedaug01

23. Commercial CollaborationSystems Groove Networks has interestingPeer-to-peer collaboration system Anabas is integrating synchronouscollaboration with learningmanagement Centra PlaceWareWebEx gecdistedaug01

24. SVG Sharing PC to PDA Batik Viewer on PC PowerPoint can be converted to SVGvia Illustrator or Web export gecdistedaug01

25. Access Grid (Argonne, NCSA) and HearMe Presenter camera Presenter mic Ambient mic (tabletop) Audience camera Access Grid: CommunityHearMe: desktop integrates phonesand Internet Audio gecdistedaug01