Educational Innovations in Multimedia Systems

1. Educational Innovations in Multimedia Systems Wayne Burleson, Associate Professor ECE Dept., UMASS Amherst burleson@ecs.umass.edu Presentation Materials Design Projects Collaboration Tools “using multimedia to learn and teach multimedia”

2. What do we mean by multimedia? • Text, image, audio, graphics, video content • Real-time interactivity • Computer-based • Perceptual • Content creation, communication, storage

3. Motivations: Why use multimedia technology for teaching/learning? • Quality of teaching/learning • Flexibility for students • Visualization and demonstration • Productivity of faculty • Reaching new audiences • Non-traditional students • Non-traditional engineers

4. Computers are fun, right? Educational media has to be carefully designed to avoid frustration and enable learning

5. Wired Internet Real-time Creativity Rapid prototyping User-interfaces Perception Probability Signal Processing and Communications Tired Text Low-level hardware Low-level languages Optimization Traditional business and scientific computing Manufacturing Why Multimedia in Computer Engineering? Why now?

6. Multimedia throughout computer engineering: 7 modules • Natural content (image, video, audio) • Synthetic content (2D/3D graphics, audio) • Multimedia Networking • Multimedia Operating Systems • Multimedia Architectures and Hardware • Multimedia Testing • Multimedia Applications

7. Flexible modular curriculum Video coding module V1 V2 V3 V4 Architecture module M1 M2 M3 M4 Networks module N1 N2 N3 N4 Student chooses own path through module units, personalizing curriculum while ensuring pre-requisites

8. Architecture emphasis Video coding module V1 V2 V3 V4 Architecture module M1 M2 M3 M4 Networks module N1 N2 N3 N4 Student chooses own path through module units, personalizing curriculum while ensuring pre-requisites

9. Video coding emphasis Video coding module V1 V2 V3 V4 Architecture module M1 M2 M3 M4 Networks module N1 N2 N3 N4 Student chooses own path through module units, personalizing curriculum while ensuring pre-requisites

10. What about Content? • Rely on our core strengths: research and experience • Example: VLSI chip design research and consulting with Compaq/Alpha microprocessors

11. Java applets on Ad-hoc Networking

12. The UMASS WebDVD project • 7 CSE faculty (burleson, ciesielski, ganz harris, tessier, krishna, koren), 12 grad students, 4 undergrad students, 1 ECS/VIP staff • Funded by the National Science Foundation Educational Innovation Grant CISE/EIA 98-12589 and the University of Massachusetts • www.ecs.umass.edu/ece/dvd/

13. Our solution: WebDVD • Don’t rely on Internet for primary content delivery (heresy!) • Familiar browser interface with Web links for timely content • Full screen video • Minimize bells and whistles (what you get is what you expect, WYGIWYE)

14. Why should we at UMASS/ECEdevelop our own approach? • New topics in multimedia are needed in the ECE curriculum • We do research in multimedia systems and in web-based learning. • We are trying to serve a more diverse student population • We have a 25 year history of video-based distance education

15. WebDVD: Presentation styles • Video lecture plus web pages (UMASS MANIC)

16. WebDVD: Multi-camera video • Supports more traditional teaching styles • Encourages more interaction than just navigation

17. Large format video (640x480)overlaid on Powerpoint slide

18. Others: Stanford on-line • Based on Microsoft Netshow/Powerpoint (developed w/ Sloan Foundation ALN grant)

19. What About Interaction? • More than navigation! • Demonstrations and virtual labs • Automated assessment and evaluation • Collaboration between students and faculty • Design projects: planning, problem solving, searching for solutions, optimizing, communicating

20. Interactive Demos (MPEG coding) • Web-based or DVD-based

21. Java applets on Networking protocols

22. Design Problems • Multimedia system prototyping and test • UMASS students develop microprocessor, DSP and microcontroller-based systems • Combining HW, SW and system design and test issues • Low-power • Real-time • Low-cost

23. Collaboration Tools • Multimedia technology overcomes time and distance to enable cooperative work. • UMASS MOCA project uses Java-based framework for various distributed applications such as whiteboards, chats, video office hours, design reviews, schedulers, etc. • Students are currently extending MOCA in ECE597M and will use these tools to design later versions of the tools. “using collaborative tools to design collaborative tools”

24. MOCA multimedia whiteboard Example: Group discussion on PowerPC chip design Video annotation Annotation toolbar Channel listing Collaborator listing Text-based chat

25. MOCA-based Design Course • Students use Web-links for Reference Materials • Java Programming • Java Programming Language Basics • Java Tutorial • Object Oriented Programming Techniques • Design Techniques Column from JavaWorld.com • Java Products and API's • Java Development Kit (JDK 1.1.8) • Java Foundation Classes (JFC 1.1.1) • Java Shared Data Toolkit (JSDT 1.5) • JavaBeans Activation Framework (JAF) • SQL Resources • Teach yourself SQL in 21 days • Pointbase embedded database

26. Class projects in distributed multimedia collaboration • Flexible curriculum scheduler • allows UMASS to press DVDs to order • Survey/HW/Quiz interface • allows customized surveys and hw sets • Video conferencing/collaboration system • video annotation of video, co-authoring, etc. • Media browsing, searching, indexing • as if media were simple text files

27. How to develop your own modules • Content expertise • Development time for presentations • prepare • shoot • post-produce • Development resources (hw, sw) • Development of supplementary learning materials (demos, applets, projects, tools) • Testing/Evaluation

28. Development time for one hour module (15 4-minute units) • Lecture prep: slides 3 hours • Video/audio shoot, capture, synch. 4 hours • Written summary, keywords 1 hour • Review questions and solutions 2 hours Total 10 hours (much can be done by students with educational value)

29. Development resources • Slide tool (e.g. Powerpoint) • Video/audio • shoot: (from high-end studio to consumer camcorder) • capture/edit/synch (capture board, compression program, video editing program) • Written summary, keywords (html editor or Word) • Review questions/solutions (on-line quiz system)

30. Development time for supplementary learning materials Highly variable! • Demos: cgi, applets 1-10’s of hours (use cgi to access programs on server) (re-use applets from other schools) • Design projects 1-10’s of hours (develop in on-campus courses) (re-use material from other schools) • Collaboration tools 10’s of hours (develop in on-campus course)

31. Evaluation (no results yet…) • Objective: What worked? For whom? • Instruments: • Formative: Surveys of: • students • faculty • alumni, employers, grad schools • Summative: Pre- and post-testing of students • Where to go from here? Fix it, start over, ?

32. Partners (content development and testing) • Testing/Evaluation • Springfield Technical Community College • UMASS/Video Instructional Program • National Tech Univ. (NTU) • ENST/ Paris • Kwangyoon University, South Korea • Smith College • Content Development • Kluwer Academic Publishers • Drexel University (video/image coding) • Worcester Polytechnic (cryptography)

33. Conclusions: • Introduce Multimedia topics into computer engineering curriculum • Try to combine the best of traditional educational styles with new technology • Encourage diverse learning/teaching styles • Technology is just a tool. Teaching and learning are about people. • Careful of the hype!