A B-LEARNING APPROACH FOR ELECTRICAL
ENGINEERING BASED ON WIRELESS ACCESS TO
PEDAGOGICAL E-CONTENT
Pedro Assunção, Carla Lopes and Rafael F. S. Caldeirinha
Polytechnic Institute of Leiria / ESTG – Institute of Telecommunicatiosn,
Morro do Lena – Alto Vieiro 2401-911 Leiria, Portugal
Keywords: b-Learning, e-Content, Wireless Access, Electrical Engineering.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel pedagogical approach and its application to undergraduate Electrical
Engineering courses. A b-learning model is proposed where students are subject to different types of
interactions and diverse learning experiences characterised by the type learning session and pedagogical
agent in use. These include face-to-face teaching sessions in the classroom, standalone e-learning sessions,
working groups and supervised laboratory work. A wireless LAN infrastructure, as part of the Portuguese
Electronic University Project, is used for the e-learning component of the proposed approach. In practice,
this is an application of the “anywhere, at anytime” concept to learning processes by extending classroom
boundaries in both space and availability domains. From a technical point a view, the paper addresses the
information network infrastructure used and its quality of service in multimedia communications, the e-
content generation, its characteristics, requirements and possible adaptation to heterogeneous environments.
A student survey was conducted to evaluate technical and pedagogical aspects of the learning process using
the proposed model. The results show this is a promising approach towards flexible learning in Higher
Education Institutions and also revealed that students tend to adapt rather slowly to emerging pedagogical
approaches, though they are truly in favour to use IT in their own learning processes.
1 INTRODUCTION evolution of information and communication
technologies, innovative learning-oriented
Nowadays, there is a fast growing use of information applications and pedagogic approaches have been
technology (IT) in education where Higher proposed (Castro et al., 2001).
Education Institutions are, to a certain extent, Wireless communication technology is
responsible for opening new frontiers by accepting undoubtedly a field where fast technology advances
new challenges and foreseeing the future. In the last have been witnessed almost on a daily basis over the
decade, Higher Education in general has experienced last few years. However, only recently, wireless
profound changes mainly driven by IT, which technology has become cost effective and therefore
includes not only the pedagogical processes, but also attractive to be used in education (Nyiri, 2002) (Tzu-
management and administrative processes that Chien et al., 2002) (Lehner et al., 2004).
became totally dependent on computers, software In this paper, a blended learning (b-learning)
applications, databases, and communication model supported by wireless technology, is
networks of all kind (Duderstadt, 2001). The proposed. This work is also a response to the new
integration of IT in today’s undergraduate education challenges and opportunities created by the
has appreciably modified the nature of student Portuguese Electronic University Project (e-U),
interactions within their own learning processes. By which is a pioneering practical attempt to reshape
simple comparison, it is obvious to realise that the the Higher Education institutions in Portugal. The
heart of IT is comprised of similar components as wireless local area network (WLAN), as the core of
the pedagogical process roots: information and the virtual campus is a major component of the
communication. As a consequence of the continuous supporting technology along with content generation
and storage equipment. Recently proposed
Assunção P., Lopes C. and F. S. Caldeirinha R. (2006).
277
A B-LEARNING APPROACH FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING BASED ON WIRELESS ACCESS TO PEDAGOGICAL E-CONTENT.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications, pages 277-286
DOI: 10.5220/0001573402770286
Copyright c SciTePress
, SIGMAP 2006 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SIGNAL PROCESSING AND MULTIMEDIA
APPLICATIONS
approaches for content generation were taken into produced off-line to (i.e. stored in the server) to
account (Schutz et al., 2003) (Chen et al., 2003) and fixed and mobile terminals using a fixed or wireless
a novel content adaptation method to deal with Information and
heterogeneous mobile environments, is proposed. Communication E-Content
Infrastructure
The b-learning approach implemented in the Media Server Content Manager
course of this work is built on top of an efficient Gigabit Ethernet
combination of technology, human resources and Wireless Access
other intangible assets such as knowledge and e-Content
Generation
interaction capabilities. It is demonstrated that such Laptop PC
a learning model is possible to be deployed and it is Audio & Video
MPEG-2 Codec
useful from both the learner and academic institution AP
perspectives. Fast Ethernet (100Mbit/s)
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 Fixed Access
provides a general description of the information
network infrastructure that supports the proposed Desktop PC Desktop PC
AP
Laptop PC
pedagogic model. Section 3 describes the most e-Content Access
important aspects of the multimedia content,
Figure 1: Block diagram of the general communication
specifically produced in the course of this work and
system.
used in e-learning sessions. Both technical and
pedagogical aspects are addressed. In section 4, the network, respectively. It supports several streaming
proposed b-learning model for undergraduate formats such as AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, etc.
engineering courses is presented, while section 5 The CM allows for scheduled services,
deals with the evaluation of the whole process appropriate content management and load balancing
through a student survey that was carried out for the between different on-campus servers. The recorded
purpose of this work. Finally, conclusions are drawn audio and visual streams may be delivered to end
in section 6. users either in a scheduled mode, using IP
Multicasting, or on request, using Video on Demand
(VoD). The CM user interface was developed in
Java to allow remote access from any web browser
2 INFORMATION NETWORK and enhanced security capabilities such as password
INFRASTRUCTURE protection for access to dedicated applications and
encryption of multimedia content. Subsequently, the
FCA module allows fast Ethernet access (up to 100
2.1 General Overview Mbps) to multimedia content from ordinary desktop
PCs distributed among laboratories, classrooms and
The information network is mainly used in the e- offices. Due to the limited number of fixed desktop
learning sessions of the pedagogical process PCs and their unavailability during daytime (e.g.
described in section 4 and consists of four distinct while classes are in progress), the system was
modules, i.e. Content Generation (CG), Content extended to provide additional access using fast
Manager (CM), Fixed Content Access (FCA) and wireless local area networks (WLAN). The WCA
Wireless Content Access (WCA), as shown in module is responsible to provide extended mobile
Figure 1. The CG module is responsible for the coverage to users using handheld or laptop
multimedia data acquisition and encoding processes equipment. The wireless access requires the use of
and is comprised of external acquisition devices (e.g. specific hardware compatible with the 802.11
video camera, microphone, VCR) connected to a standard (Institute of Electrical and Electronic
personal computer by means of an MPEG-2 real Engineering ,1999), allowing transmission data rates
time encoder board. The CM comprises of a specific as high as 54Mbps, as described in the next
media management application and a multimedia subsection.
server. The encoded multimedia content is stored on The application used for viewing the encoded
a multimedia server via a local area network (LAN). multimedia content runs on any machine or mobile
The system is based on a client/server software terminal running on Windows operating system. The
solution controlled by the CM through specific CM provides this user application with detailed
instructions to other modules, which allows one to information about all available e-content in the
deliver multimedia streaming of academic content, multimedia server, listing them in a hierarchical
either real-time encoded from live lectures or order to be viewed. The user may also select e-
278
ENGINEERING BASED ON WIRELESS ACCESS TO
PEDAGOGICAL E-CONTENT
Pedro Assunção, Carla Lopes and Rafael F. S. Caldeirinha
Polytechnic Institute of Leiria / ESTG – Institute of Telecommunicatiosn,
Morro do Lena – Alto Vieiro 2401-911 Leiria, Portugal
Keywords: b-Learning, e-Content, Wireless Access, Electrical Engineering.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel pedagogical approach and its application to undergraduate Electrical
Engineering courses. A b-learning model is proposed where students are subject to different types of
interactions and diverse learning experiences characterised by the type learning session and pedagogical
agent in use. These include face-to-face teaching sessions in the classroom, standalone e-learning sessions,
working groups and supervised laboratory work. A wireless LAN infrastructure, as part of the Portuguese
Electronic University Project, is used for the e-learning component of the proposed approach. In practice,
this is an application of the “anywhere, at anytime” concept to learning processes by extending classroom
boundaries in both space and availability domains. From a technical point a view, the paper addresses the
information network infrastructure used and its quality of service in multimedia communications, the e-
content generation, its characteristics, requirements and possible adaptation to heterogeneous environments.
A student survey was conducted to evaluate technical and pedagogical aspects of the learning process using
the proposed model. The results show this is a promising approach towards flexible learning in Higher
Education Institutions and also revealed that students tend to adapt rather slowly to emerging pedagogical
approaches, though they are truly in favour to use IT in their own learning processes.
1 INTRODUCTION evolution of information and communication
technologies, innovative learning-oriented
Nowadays, there is a fast growing use of information applications and pedagogic approaches have been
technology (IT) in education where Higher proposed (Castro et al., 2001).
Education Institutions are, to a certain extent, Wireless communication technology is
responsible for opening new frontiers by accepting undoubtedly a field where fast technology advances
new challenges and foreseeing the future. In the last have been witnessed almost on a daily basis over the
decade, Higher Education in general has experienced last few years. However, only recently, wireless
profound changes mainly driven by IT, which technology has become cost effective and therefore
includes not only the pedagogical processes, but also attractive to be used in education (Nyiri, 2002) (Tzu-
management and administrative processes that Chien et al., 2002) (Lehner et al., 2004).
became totally dependent on computers, software In this paper, a blended learning (b-learning)
applications, databases, and communication model supported by wireless technology, is
networks of all kind (Duderstadt, 2001). The proposed. This work is also a response to the new
integration of IT in today’s undergraduate education challenges and opportunities created by the
has appreciably modified the nature of student Portuguese Electronic University Project (e-U),
interactions within their own learning processes. By which is a pioneering practical attempt to reshape
simple comparison, it is obvious to realise that the the Higher Education institutions in Portugal. The
heart of IT is comprised of similar components as wireless local area network (WLAN), as the core of
the pedagogical process roots: information and the virtual campus is a major component of the
communication. As a consequence of the continuous supporting technology along with content generation
and storage equipment. Recently proposed
Assunção P., Lopes C. and F. S. Caldeirinha R. (2006).
277
A B-LEARNING APPROACH FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING BASED ON WIRELESS ACCESS TO PEDAGOGICAL E-CONTENT.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Signal Processing and Multimedia Applications, pages 277-286
DOI: 10.5220/0001573402770286
Copyright c SciTePress
, SIGMAP 2006 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SIGNAL PROCESSING AND MULTIMEDIA
APPLICATIONS
approaches for content generation were taken into produced off-line to (i.e. stored in the server) to
account (Schutz et al., 2003) (Chen et al., 2003) and fixed and mobile terminals using a fixed or wireless
a novel content adaptation method to deal with Information and
heterogeneous mobile environments, is proposed. Communication E-Content
Infrastructure
The b-learning approach implemented in the Media Server Content Manager
course of this work is built on top of an efficient Gigabit Ethernet
combination of technology, human resources and Wireless Access
other intangible assets such as knowledge and e-Content
Generation
interaction capabilities. It is demonstrated that such Laptop PC
a learning model is possible to be deployed and it is Audio & Video
MPEG-2 Codec
useful from both the learner and academic institution AP
perspectives. Fast Ethernet (100Mbit/s)
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 Fixed Access
provides a general description of the information
network infrastructure that supports the proposed Desktop PC Desktop PC
AP
Laptop PC
pedagogic model. Section 3 describes the most e-Content Access
important aspects of the multimedia content,
Figure 1: Block diagram of the general communication
specifically produced in the course of this work and
system.
used in e-learning sessions. Both technical and
pedagogical aspects are addressed. In section 4, the network, respectively. It supports several streaming
proposed b-learning model for undergraduate formats such as AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, etc.
engineering courses is presented, while section 5 The CM allows for scheduled services,
deals with the evaluation of the whole process appropriate content management and load balancing
through a student survey that was carried out for the between different on-campus servers. The recorded
purpose of this work. Finally, conclusions are drawn audio and visual streams may be delivered to end
in section 6. users either in a scheduled mode, using IP
Multicasting, or on request, using Video on Demand
(VoD). The CM user interface was developed in
Java to allow remote access from any web browser
2 INFORMATION NETWORK and enhanced security capabilities such as password
INFRASTRUCTURE protection for access to dedicated applications and
encryption of multimedia content. Subsequently, the
FCA module allows fast Ethernet access (up to 100
2.1 General Overview Mbps) to multimedia content from ordinary desktop
PCs distributed among laboratories, classrooms and
The information network is mainly used in the e- offices. Due to the limited number of fixed desktop
learning sessions of the pedagogical process PCs and their unavailability during daytime (e.g.
described in section 4 and consists of four distinct while classes are in progress), the system was
modules, i.e. Content Generation (CG), Content extended to provide additional access using fast
Manager (CM), Fixed Content Access (FCA) and wireless local area networks (WLAN). The WCA
Wireless Content Access (WCA), as shown in module is responsible to provide extended mobile
Figure 1. The CG module is responsible for the coverage to users using handheld or laptop
multimedia data acquisition and encoding processes equipment. The wireless access requires the use of
and is comprised of external acquisition devices (e.g. specific hardware compatible with the 802.11
video camera, microphone, VCR) connected to a standard (Institute of Electrical and Electronic
personal computer by means of an MPEG-2 real Engineering ,1999), allowing transmission data rates
time encoder board. The CM comprises of a specific as high as 54Mbps, as described in the next
media management application and a multimedia subsection.
server. The encoded multimedia content is stored on The application used for viewing the encoded
a multimedia server via a local area network (LAN). multimedia content runs on any machine or mobile
The system is based on a client/server software terminal running on Windows operating system. The
solution controlled by the CM through specific CM provides this user application with detailed
instructions to other modules, which allows one to information about all available e-content in the
deliver multimedia streaming of academic content, multimedia server, listing them in a hierarchical
either real-time encoded from live lectures or order to be viewed. The user may also select e-
278
