A Model for World Wide Web Based Asynchronous Laboratory Learning in Engineering Education

Prashanth Kumar Salur

Masters Thesis
Submitted to

The College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Of West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Computer Science & Electrical Engineering Department West Virginia University

Morgantown, WV 26506 1999
Keywords: Distance Education, ALN, Laboratory Learning, WWW

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Master of Science

Electrical Engineering
Dr. Wils L. Cooley (Chair) Dr. Hany H. Ammar Dr. Larry A. Hornak

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UMI Number: 1399061

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UMI Microform 1399061 Copyright 2000, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

UMI
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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr.Wils L. Cooley, my thesis advisor, for his guidance and invaluable suggestions that he has provided during the entire course of my thesis work. I am also extremely grateful to him for granting me the freedom to explore and learn.

My sincere thanks to Dr. Hany H. Ammar and Dr. Larry A. Hornak, my graduate committee members for their support and guidance.

I also thank Todd Montgomery from whom I have learnt a lot that has indirectly contributed to my work.

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A Model for World Wide Web Based Asynchronous Laboratory Learning in Engineering Education
Prashanth Kumar Salur

Abstract
World Wide Web based Asynchronous Learning, a new concept in distance learning is gaining large scale acceptance among a number of universities and has become a basis for project work in various universities, colleges and even business enterprises. Asynchronous means that participants in a discussion need not engage in that discussion at the same time, a method to achieve high degree of interactivity among geographically separated learners independent of time or place. This project aims to develop such an Asynchronous Learning environment for laboratory learning containing interactive exercises with simulation experiences. Interactive exercises have been developed with multiple-choice questions and several tables that are to be completed by the student by analyzing the given circuit. Circuit simulations for performing the analysis have been developed to aid the students. A multi-threaded server was designed and developed which stores the student details, test scores and grades. Java applets to register for the course, to logon to the course web-site, to assist the instructor to assign grades and to list the details of all the registered students (including test scores and their averages) have been developed. Also, a Grade Tool was developed to let the students view their grades on-line. Further work can be done in this field; for example, developing virtual laboratories where a student can actually assemble circuit components and perform experiments on-line.

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Table Of Contents
List of Figures ..................................................................................................... v List of Class Diagrams ........................................................................................ vi
Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................... 1 1.1 Distance Education ................................................................................ 1 1.2 Asynchronous Learning Networks.......................................................... 3 Chapter 2: State-of-the-art-in Asynchronous Learning Networks ................. 9 2.1 Course Administration.......................................................................... 10 2.2 Lecture Delivery ................................................................................... 11 2.3 Collaborative Learning ......................................................................... 14

2.5 Laboratory Simulation and Experimentation ......................................... 17

3.2 World Wide Web as the medium of Instruction ..................................... 20

3.4 Client-Server Computing...................................................................... 23 3.5 In a Nutshell......................................................................................... 24 Chapter 4: Summary of Features ................................................................... 26 Chapter 5: Project Design and Development ................................................ 29 5.1 The Server Design ............................................................................... 29 5.2 The Client Software.............................................................................. 40 5.3 The Instructor Interface ........................................................................ 79 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Future Work...................................................... 98 References ..................................................................................................... 100 APPENDIX A: Specifications and Requirements............................................. 103 APPENDIX B: Using Microsoft FrontPage 98.................................................. 105 APPENDIX C: Unified Modelling Language Reference ................................... 109 APPENDIX D: The Source Code .................................................................... 116

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3.3 Java as the suitable programming language ........................................ 22

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Chapter 3: Project Objectives and Implementation ...................................... 20 3.1 Objectives ............................................................................................ 20

2.4 Conferencing ....................................................................................... 17

List of Figures

Figure 1: WWW gathering place for on-line learning ............................................5 Figure 2: Client Server Model............................................................................ 38 Figure 3: A Sample Interaction at the Server side. ............................................ 39 Figure 4: The Registration Applet...................................................................... 42 Figure 5: Login Applet....................................................................................... 44 Figure 6: Exercise 1 Applet. .............................................................................. 50 Figure 7: Applet Window, which prompts the student to enter the student ID .... 51 Figure 8 (a): Digital-to-Analog Circuit (Initial state) ............................................ 54

Figure 9: Table for finding Vo for different combination of switches ................... 63

switches........................................................................................... 64 Figure 11: Table for doing error analysis on Vo for an 8-bit DAC....................... 65 Figure 12: Original Circuits and their Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits .. 74 Figure 13: Table for finding I and V of the equivalent circuits shown in Figure 12 by changing the R - Value................................................................ 78 Figure 14: Result of clicking the Grade button in Figure 13 ............................... 78 Figure 15: The Instructors Interface for viewing the students data and for assigning grades ............................................................................. 85 Figure 16 (a): The login window for accessing the grades................................. 88 Figure 16 (b): The frame showing the grade of a particular student................... 89 Figure 17: The Tester Instructors Interface.......................................................94 Figure 18: Sample Server Side Response ........................................................95 Figure 19: The Tester Students Interface (Initial frame)....................................96 Figure 20: The Tester Student Interface............................................................97

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Figure 10: Table for doing error analysis on Vo for different combinations of the

Figure 8 (b): Digital to Analog Circuit (In modified state).................................... 58

List of Class Diagrams

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Class Diagram for the FileServer

33

Class Diagram for the Registration Applet. 40 Class Diagram for Login Applet... 45 Class Diagram for the Exercise Applet.. Class Diagram for the Digital-to-Analog Circuit Applet Class Diagram for the Table Applet 48 56 59

Class Diagram for Thevinins and Nortons Theorem Circuits 67 Class Diagram for the ex3_table Applet. 75

10. Class Diagram for the Grade Checker Tool..

Class Diagram for the Instructor Interface Applet. 80 86 89

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11. Class Diagram for the Tester Tool..

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Distance Education19, 20 Within a context of rapid technological change, the education system is challenged with providing increased educational opportunities. Many educational institutions are answering this challenge by developing distance education programs. At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical distance, and technology (i.e., voice, video, data, and print), often in concert with face-to-face communication, is used

a second chance at a college education, reach those disadvantaged by limited

at their places of employment.

Technology delivery has evolved from print and radio to broadcast television and computer-aided instruction, and now to CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web. These disparate technologies, along with some others, are the enabling tools for what is now called "distance education." They have had a large -- even revolutionary -- influence on education. In the process, they have extended educational opportunities to people in places that would otherwise not have been served.

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time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers

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to bridge the instructional gap. These types of programs can provide adults with

Although technology plays a key role in the delivery of distance education, educators must remain focused on instructional outcomes. The key to effective distance education is focusing on the needs of the learners, the requirements of the content, and the constraints faced by the teacher, before selecting a delivery system. Typically, this systematic approach will result in a mix of media, each serving a specific purpose. Interactive audio or video conferencing can provide real time face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) interaction. Computer conferencing or electronic mail can be used to send messages about assignment feedback, and other targeted communication to one or more class members. It can also be used to increase interaction among students. Pre-recorded videotapes can be used to present class lectures and visually oriented content. Fax can be used to distribute assignments or last minute announcements, to receive student assignments, and to provide timely feedback.

Most of todays distance education techniques can be grouped into two categories:

(1) Self-study techniques, with little or no human interaction (such as books, videotapes and learning software), and (2) Techniques with limited human interaction (such as interactive television). Though these techniques continue to be important, apart from lectures, tutorials and reading materials, which can be supplemented, they do not provide the formal and informal person-to-person exchanges (in other words "interactivity") that our campuses offer -- exchanges that are an important supplement to lecture and textbook instruction.

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Today,

technologies

exist

that

enable

asynchronous

interactivity.

Asynchronous means that participants in a discussion need not engage in that discussion at the same time, as they would in a face-to-face or telephone conversation. Rather, as in an e-mail exchange, there is some elapsed time between message exchanges i.e., a way to achieve high degree of interactivity among geographically separated learners, independent of time or place.

1.2 Asynchronous Learning Networks

In 1993, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation initiated a program on "Learning outside the Classroom" and made grants to early adopters of ALN, including New York University and the University of Illinois. Soon thereafter, many more grants were made; ultimately, some 25 million dollars were invested in the research and practice of ALN. The credit for initiating this field goes to Dr. A. Frank Mayadas of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who has almost single-handedly pushed the field forward to its current state.

1.2.2 Definition of ALN

Asynchronous interactivity has become the basis for a new and large-scale learning model among distance learners and is the third major distance education approach, the other two being traditional distance learning and the CDROM based distance education. The third approach can be used for both off campus and on campus learning. Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) combine self-study techniques with asynchronous interactivity to create 3

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1.2.1 A brief history of ALN24

environments in which learners can access remote learning resources asynchronously, using relatively inexpensive equipment so that they can learn at home, at the work place, or at any place of their choosing. In an ALN every person on the network is both a user and a resource. This idea is what makes ALN not just an electronic network but a network of people interacting with each other, making it an interactive learning community that is not limited by time, place or the constraints of a classroom.

1.2.3 Role of World Wide Web in ALN

A fundamental shift that is occurring in ALN's is the shift to the World Wide Web as the center for interaction between the faculty and the student. The Internet is the worlds largest, most powerful computer network connecting personal computers, sophisticated mainframes, and high-speed supercomputers around the globe. The WWW provides users with a uniform and convenient means of accessing the vast resources of the Internet. Web browsers permit users to connect to the Internet and facilitate accessing information located on another remote computer.

The WWW and Web browsers have made the Internet an user-friendlier environment. It provides new opportunities for students to play a more active role in the acquisition of knowledge. For educators, the WWW provides an exciting new opportunity for distance teaching and learning. On-line teaching is reshaping instruction in higher education. In the new distance learning model, the center of a course is the Web site -- resulting in a "Web-centric" course. Students and 4

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instructors can benefit greatly from its versatility. Animations of biological, chemical and genetic processes and circuit simulations increase student understanding of abstract concepts.

The paradigm of web based interactive learning that is rapidly evolving is based on the new interactive technologies. It promotes learning experiences based upon the following types of interactions: faculty with students; students with other students; and students with resources such as books, journals, excerpts, and other dynamic electronic sources. Through the use of technology, these interactions can occur at any time or in any place. This new interactive distance learning is changing the environment on campus as well as off.18

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Figure 1: WWW gathering place for on-line learning 5

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Some instructional possibilities of Internet include: A home page, which can cover information about the class including the syllabus, exercises, literature references, and instructors biography. The instructor can also provide links to information on the WWW that would be useful to students in the class. Other links can access library catalogs or each student's individual home page. Using e-mail for one-to-one correspondence, instructors can communicate assignments and schedules changes as well as make announcements and send feedback.

Establishing a classroom bulletin board. Distant students often work in isolation without the assistance and support of fellow students. Setting up a

class computer conference, individual students can post their comments or questions to the class, and every other individual is free to respond. The conference can also be used to post all modifications to the class schedule or curriculum, assignments/tests, and answers to assignments/tests. Engaging on-line discussions involving students can contribute to intellectual growth. For instance, timely on-line discussion can maintain the excitement of a special campus lecture. Multiple group projects can be facilitated through on-line discussion.

Hundreds of web pages have already been developed for courses. Some of these pages allow students to complete an entire course from the WWW and others are developed in conjunction with lectures delivered on-campus or by 6

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class bulletin board can encourage student-to-student interaction. With a

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video or audio. A great place to check out what others have done is The World Lecture Hall (http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/). The World Lecture Hall contains links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver instructional materials.

1.2.4 Components of ALN

Based on the survey the following can be put together to form the components of an Asynchronous Learning Network.

video/audio interactions.

Use of Intranet and/or CD-ROM-based multimedia materials. Live audio and/or video interactions among the students and with faculty (e.g. Microsoft NetMeeting)

Use of professional quality software tools for CAD, symbolic math, spreadsheets, word processing, etc.

Small group discussions

Question-and-answer tools to verify content retention Collaborative software for application sharing over the network (e.g. Microsoft NetMeeting)

Access to rich resources on the network Course administration to track student progress and to identify the students during the synchronous interactions.

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A mix of synchronous and asynchronous activity.

Delivery

on

standards-based

multimedia

PCs

equipped

for

live

1.2.5 Advantages of Web-based ALN's

The main advantage of asynchronous learning is that student learning is selfpaced and interactive. Using Web the students can have access to information when they need it. Networked learning combines fun and education for students as they surf the Internet in teams or on their own. Both better student performance and higher evaluations of instructors can result. It enables instructors to utilize modern technology in education. Contacts between the student and instructor will be better with the effective use of e-mail and on-line office hours rather than traditional communication

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Chapter 2 State-of-the-art-in Asynchronous Learning Networks

Asynchronous Learning has become the basis for project work in universities, colleges and even in business enterprises. With the facilities that the World Wide Web provides, it has become very popular among a number of instructors who are showing a lot of interest in it. To date quite a good number of research groups and business enterprises have come up with a number of

universities have already started to offer on-line courses to on-campus as well as

curriculum at many universities.

In an experiment comparing on-line learning with classroom learning at the California State University at Northridge, a professor randomly divided a statistics class in half, teaching one half by lecture and other half by Web assignments, online discussion groups, and e-mail. The students who did not attend lectures scored an average of 20% higher than those who attended classroom lectures1. Use of WWW-based course materials is growing at an incredible rate and these materials have an enormous range in both sophistication and intended use.

In this section I will present a critical review of the state-of-the-art in network delivered courses or ALNs (Asynchronous or Anytime-Anywhere Learning Networks). While there is not yet any universal definition of what are the

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off-campus students. Even on-line degree programs have become part of the

software tools to make asynchronous learning easier. A considerable number of

component elements of ALN, I present here some features, which could possibly form an ALN. There might be slight or significant variations in these features that depend on the group developing it. In ALN most interactions are asynchronous. 2.1 Course Administration Course management, monitoring, planning and course tools all collectively come under Course Administration. The first thing to do is course planning, which will enable at least initial course layout and structuring of the course home page. As these sites become the entry points, to create a visible presence for the class on WWW is important. Many universities provide course page templates for

management enables the instructors to collect the information from or about the students related to their progress in the course structure and also to permit/deny access to some of the course resources. Course monitoring can provide information about the usage of course resources by individual students and groups of students and also provide information about the faculty and teaching assistant, course syllabus, lecture times, links to relevant resources available on the WWW, lecture notes, reading lists, assignments and feedback to students. Course tools are the instructor tasks related to bringing course materials together and managing the student's use/access of those materials.

An example is CyberProf3, an interactive, World Wide Web-based teaching system that has been developed at the University of Illinois to facilitate communication between faculty and students. Using CyberProf, instructors can

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faculty use so as to have a standardized document structure and layout. Course

create on-line lecture notes that include equations, animations, and graphics; write on-line interactive homework problems; communicate with students using CyberProfs Web-based conferencing system; survey students in order to receive feedback on course material; and also record student grades in CyberProfs online grade book. Virtual Classroom Interface2 is another such example, also developed at University of Illinois, which facilitates the instructors to create their own class homepages, post announcements to bulletin board, post assignments, and generate email messages for the entire class. Also the students can use VCI to access information regarding the course syllabus, lecture notes, assignments and announcements. 2.2 Lecture Delivery 21,22

The World Wide Web, emerging as the easiest and most popular way to access the Internet, has become one of a teachers most important tools. The possibilities of web-based instruction are boundless. Though most formal education takes place in a classroom environment, it is important to know how the World Wide Web can be used to support classroom based education. Webbased instruction is defined as instruction delivered either in whole or in part by the Web. In the last few years, the growth of the World Wide Web has changed the accessibility of the Internet. The Web interface and physical characteristics have a major impact on the form and content of Web-based Instruction. Web browsers such as Mosaic5, Netscape6 and Microsoft Internet Explorer7 facilitate the task of communicating and sharing or retrieving material across an electronic network. It is also the attractiveness of graphics and sound that makes the Web a

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useful and popular tool for delivering instruction. The ease of use has encouraged the rapid rise of the Web as a means of delivering instruction.

Robert Parson in his paper on An Investigation into Instruction Available on the World Wide Web8 , has categorized Web based Instruction into three types: Stand-alone Resources. Stand-alone courses These are the types of courses in which most of the materials and resources are accessed and delivered by the Internet. This type of Web Based Instruction could take place on campus where many of the students are Courses, Web-supported Courses and Web Pedagogical

Web-supported courses

Courses in which there are physical meetings of students and teachers, but many resources such as assignments, readings, links to other sites are integrated into the course activities. Web Pedagogical Resources

These are World Wide Web sites which offer material that could be integrated into a larger course or serve as a resource for an educational activity. These resources could be in various formats: text, graphics, communications amongst individuals, animation, etc.

Choosing the type of lecture delivery mode depends on the type in which the course has to be delivered. There are several components of Web based 12

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physically present, but is often delivered as a distance course.

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Instruction which could be considered as a part of the total delivered instruction. They are Computer Based Training (CBT) or Computer Aided Learning (CAL), hypertext or hypermedia, Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Computer Based Training or Computer Aided Learning Generally, these are real-time activities in which the learner interacts with a computer-based learning program. These activities may be in the form of questionnaires, forms, tests, or interactive tutorials. Hypertext or Hypermedia Hypermedia, based on Hypertext, is a system that allows displaying and organizing of text, sound, graphics or animation. In the Web environment, this allows the user to click on a highlighted text or graphic image in order to

linked to a server thousands of miles away. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Computer-Mediated Communication is the means by which messages or data can be sent or received via the computer. The Internet permits several ways to use these capabilities for pedagogical purposes. Through electronic mail and conference systems, participants in an educational setting can communicate Communication one-alone, could one-to-one, be one-to-many, or or many-to-many. In

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access the file that is linked to it. This file may be in the same document or

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synchronous

asynchronous.

synchronous mode, all users are logged on to one site at the same time. They also receive and respond to messages at the same time, as in chat. In asynchronous mode the messages are posted or sent to a central point. The users at their convenience read these messages and respond to messages

using email or hyper-mail. Other learning activities such as responding to a web-site created by a student or sending comments on the results of a simulation or other Web-based CBT activity could be considered as a part of CMC. Some programs also enable the teacher to maintain student activity by accessing a log of what files or sites the learners have visited in the course.

Moving to the web is not an easy process. There are plenty of books, manuals and online sites that will aid an instructor to work out the technical aspects of designing Web Based Instruction. But the pedagogical side can too easily be taken for granted and it is important. Hypermedia, by being just the way it is, changes the way in which students interact with the curriculum. But as new as this technology is, the idea that the learner should interact, should experience an educational event is not new at all. 2.3 Collaborative Learning

There are two types of learning, (1) passive and (2) active or collaborative learning. Passive approaches to learning assume that students learn individually by receiving and assimilating knowledge (e.g. by watching videotape or by reading something from a book or an on-line resource). In active or collaborative learning the learner actively constructs knowledge by formulating ideas into words, and these ideas are built upon through reactions and responses of others Collaboration, whether it augments the standard classroom or is used in anytime/anywhere asynchronous courses, promotes learning through faculty-tostudent, student-to-student, and student-to-resource (books, journals, experts,

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and other dynamic electronic sources) interactions. Student-to-student interaction is one of the most effective ways to encourage students to take an active role in their own educational experience.

The World-Wide-Web plays an important role in collaborative learning in the sense that it has the benefit of being both time and location independent. It has also the ability to promote computer-mediated communication (CMC) which uses the computer networks to allow learners in different geographical locations to interact with one another either in synchronous (real time) or asynchronous (delayed) mode via text-based communication. The advantage of collaborative learning is that learning is more effective as the knowledge is shared and reinforced through group discussion and interaction. Communication, listening skills and participation are the key factors in stimulating a good collaborative learning environment.

Many collaborative tools have been developed by a number of research groups and companies with their main focus on education and to better utilize the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web. The North-East Parallel Architecture Center (NPAC) research group has come up with a collaborative tool known as TANGOTM 10, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) group has developed a tool called Habenero11, Microsoft has developed a product called NetMeeting and Collaborative Systems Research, Inc offers EventWare Classroom13, a software tool for collaborative distance learning. All

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these software tools have many features in common, some of which are listed below. Chat Tool A text based program that enables the participants to send messages to other students. Some chatting tools like in TANGO also have a capability to send audio messages. Shared HTML Browser This is slightly different from a regular Web browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer. This is used for collaborative Web surfing. For example when one participant in the session clicks on an arbitrary link on a Web page, it causes all browsers running on the individual computers of all the participants in that

Whiteboard

This is a simple whiteboard, which allows all the students/instructors in the session to draw dots, lines, circles and rectangles in different colors, paste images and text. When any student or instructor draws on the white board, it causes the same to be displayed on all the white boards in that session. Audio/Video Conferencing These tools have a multi-user audio/video conferencing system which can used over Internet. The participants can talk to one another through the microphone much like a normal telephone call. Also if the computer is equipped with a video camera, the participants can view each other or transmit video clips too. Application sharing 16

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Using these software tools one can share any type of application such as MSWord, MS-Power Point etc., in real time with the other members in the session. 2.4 Conferencing24 To provide asynchronous interaction between people, computer conferencing is widely used. Computer communication ranges from the use of email, listservs, and newsgroups to threaded conferencing systems. The latter type of communication is particularly useful for organizing discussions around topics. A wide variety of computer conferencing systems are available; most have similar

provide the capabilities of editing and moving messages, notifying participants of new message postings and organizing discussions.

2.5 Laboratory Simulation and Experimentation In engineering education, the laboratory experience is widely felt by students and instructors to be very valuable. Generally these are organized around a group of students learning to use instruments, taking measurements, organizing data, and plotting results. By using actual equipment the students get exposed to the real world but there are certain problems in it. Students receive an uneven exposure due to team use of shared instruments and also many universities cannot afford to maintain up-to-date laboratories equipped with the latest instrumentation23. In modern engineering culture, "hands-on" experience has ceased to exist in some disciplines. For example, engineering artifacts (e.g.,

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features, i.e., posting and replying to messages. Often, conferencing systems will