1 Definition and Features

Generally speaking, courseware is educational material intended as kits for teachers or trainers or as tutorials for students, usually packaged for use with a computer.

Our Courseware Server is a customized server and a suite of tools not only for publishing traditional course materials and delivering live educational content in streaming media, but also for providing faculty and other instructors with on-line administration tools. The courseware Server has the following features:

2 Logical Architecture

The Courseware Server is one of the four modules for the Virtual Lab: the other three are Web Access Gateway (WAG), Direct Operations Gateway (DOG) and Infrastructure.

The Courseware Server is composed of five components currently. They are operating systems (including Linux and Windows NT), Web Server (Apache), Web Course Tools, Real Products and Videoconference. Figure 1 describes their relationships. Users communicate with courseware via Apache server and Linux interacts with infrastructure of the virtual lab.

Figure 1. Logical Architecture of Courseware Server

2.1 Operating Systems

Both Linux and Windows NT are used as the operating systems on Courseware Server. Linux interacts with the infrastructure and acts as platform of Apache web server. Windows NT serves the users who need access to applications like Real products, which aren't yet available on Linux.

2.2 Web Server

We are using Apache as our web server.

Apache is a freely available Web server that is distributed under an "open source" license. It is very widely used. According to the Netcraft (www.netcraft.com) web server survey, about 70% of all Internet servers were running Apache and the servers are still gaining in terms of both numbers and percentage.

Apache has greater performance than CGI scripts because CGI needs to relaunch the script every time it's requested. Apache doesn't rely on the launching and relaunching an external program each time a script runs. Also, it won't lock us into a server platform for life, or limits the browsers we can support. We run it on our Linux system due to its poor performance on Windows systems and security problem on Windows NT.

2.3 WebCT

WebCT stands for "Web Course Tools", which is used to create an entire course online, or as a supplement to a classroom-based course. It is used for courseware server and runs on apache.

WebCT can be used to provide course materials that include text, images, video, and audio, and to evaluate students with quizzes and assignments. It facilitates learning using searchable indexes, glossaries, and image databases; It communicates with students via discussions, email, real-time chat sessions, and an interactive whiteboard; It encourages student interaction by using hyperlinks to web sites, student web pages, and a note-taking tool. WebCT also allows instructors to manage grades; to supply student feedback via an online gradebook, self tests, and progress tracking; and to obtain data that allows teachers to analyze the effectiveness of your course.

We have already registered CPSC463 on TAMU's WebCT server. We probably will have a WebCT system of ourselves in the future.

2.4 Real Products

Real Products are used to deliver presentation on web server, in organized images and narration, or in streaming video and audio.

RealSlideShow allows us to: organize images on a timeline; add text and your voice to describe your slides; add clickable hyper-links to your presentation; add background music and customize the look of the images and the presentation.

Using RealProducer, we can create streaming media from a variety of sources. Convert audio or video files, record directly from media devices, or use it to broadcast and stream live content. We can also use this tool to deliver a live course. But for not running on RealServer, RealProducer has some limitations. The problems that would effect on us are: Web server cannot send just one stream encoded for several bandwidths; We don't have the option to prevent RealPlayer users from recording the streamed clips to their computers; A Web server does not consider clip timelines when downloading data, nor does it receive feedback from RealPlayer about the presentation's progress; Live broadcast is not possible because Web servers can download only clips stored on disk.

We have purchased the software and it has been installed on the courseware server.

2.5 H.323 Videoconference

Videoconferencing is the combination of dedicated audio, video, and communications networking technology for real-time interaction. Videoconference allows us achieve dual-way real-time communications, while Real Producer can only provide information delivery in one way: from instructors to students. The H.323 standard is of special interest to us. It provides a single standard to use audio and video communications across the Internet.