WebELS E-LEARNING PLATFORM AND PROPOSAL FOR

AUTOMATIC VIDEO SUPPORT

Mahfuzur Rahman, Sato Hidoyuki, Vuthichai Ampornaramveth and Haruki Ueno

Principle of Informatics Division, National Institute of Informatics, 2-1-2@Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda Ku

Tokyo 101-8430, Japan

Keywords: Video contents, web-based education, e-Learning and post-graduate education.

Abstract: This paper discusses video contents in WebELS e-learning platform for post-graduate education and

proposes ideas for automatic video support. WebELS provides a web-based, multi-platform tool, by which

traditional instructors can archive their learning materials on the web and students can do their personal

learning over the Internet. Uploaded contents can be used either in standalone or group learning in real-time

with discussion. WebELS supports contents with text, images, audio and video. However, VIDEO, because

of its nature and high volume of involved data causes series of problems regarding its capturing, uploading,

transmission, downloading, viewing, code conversion, compression and so on. The vision of this paper is to

discuss the WebELS editor and propose ideas to support PowerPoint presentation material with video

created by standard PowerPoint presentation editor, for example Microsoft PowerPoint with an explanation

of video pre-processing and video handling.

1 INTRODUCTION

THIS paper focuses on the pre-processing and

handling of video contents of the WebELS e-

learning platform and proposes ideas for automatic

support of presentation material with video clip

created by standard PowerPoint editor rather than

created by WebELS editor. Animations, video clips

etc. are widely used in presentation to depict any

scientific discovery, research result and so on. It is

very simple in the case of a stand-alone presentation.

But it could be very complicated if it needs to

support an Internet-based distance learning system

especially in the multi-platform environment. In the

postgraduate education environment, distance

learning through Internet is regarded as one of the

important ways to carry out education activities in a

global situation. In such environment education

activities are group discussions, presentations in the

conference etc. & VIDEO plays an important role of

making such discussion, presentation realistic. Web-

based learning prevails the opportunity for the

students to learn from anywhere, anytime, sitting on

their own place realizing the ultimate goal of

Internet i.e. virtual reality. Web-based learning

brings unprecedented level of accessibility to

courses in remote area, courses prohibited by budget

constraints, courses updated to recently discovered

knowledge, courses prepared by qualified

instructors, instructions given by qualified

instructors at any time etc. (Ueno, 2002).

But these opportunities come with bundle of

technological complexity. Hence, the creation of

quality material for web-based distance learning and

carrying out full-fledged multimedia supported

discussion or presentation through Internet yet

remains in the state-of-the-art of research. The

primary factor that prohibits the development of

web-based course materials is the enormous cost

associated with the tools and the number of person-

hours needed to produce a lesson (Lawhead et. al,

1997). So far a number of open and commercial

systems for web-based learning have been proposed.

WebCT (WebCT) provides integrated e-learning

systems for graduate education. Its contents can be

created by external applications that produce IMS-

compliant learning objects (IMS). It can produce

sophisticated on-line courses and requires

considerable amount of investment in software cost

and training. Macromedia Breeze delivers rich web

experiences for distance learning, professional

development and collaboration (Breeze). It is a rich

system that lets user reach their audience anytime

512

Rahman M., Hidoyuki S., Ampornaramveth V. and Ueno H. (2007).

WebELS E-LEARNING PLATFORM AND PROPOSAL FOR AUTOMATIC VIDEO SUPPORT.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Society, e-Business and e-Government /

e-Learning, pages 512-517

DOI: 10.5220/0001278105120517

 SciTePress

with multimedia content. The Virtuelles Informatik

Praktikum project’s main focus is to provide an

environment for virtual lab classes for computer

science students (VIP). TeleTeaching carried out by

the University of Mannheim (Tele-teaching)

supports three instructional settings i.e. RLR -

Remote Lecture Room, RIS -Remote Interactive

Seminars and IHL -Interactive Home Learning.

Realized by multimedia and telecom technology.

The WebELS system focuses on the on-line material

authoring, presentation, and management for

asynchronous learning (Kurtz et. al, 2002). It should

be noted that the uploaded contents on the WebELS

server are used for on-line Internet meeting

seamlessly as well. The system allows existing

learning materials to be reused again on the web.

These materials are stored on the server in a modern

and flexible XML format which can be delivered to

students in many different ways. Recently, MySQL

based storing system is under development, which is

supposed to enhance the quality and efficiency of

storage and management of the system a step ahead.

Unlike WebCT, WebELS is intended to provide

traditional instructors and easy way to create or store

their learning materials with all the required

authoring tools built-in as Java Applet and

automatically downloaded from the server. The

instructor needs to have only a Java-supported

browser. Java Media Framework based video-

module of WebELS system has been discussed and

with a real example it is shown how video

component are pre-processed and presented using

Internet-Based WebELS editor. Ideas are discussed

for automatic video support.

2 WebELS OVERVIEW

2.1 Background

Difference of characteristics in e-Learning is quite

obvious. Two main category of system is needed i.e.

e-Learning for under-graduate education and e-

Learning for graduate education. Both of the

systems have their own characteristics regarding

design issues, education contents and so on. e-

Learning for undergraduate education mainly deals

with management of course registration and

students, primitive education and automated

evaluation of students knowledge. Education

contents for undergraduate education are

standardized textbooks. Examples are Blackboard,

WebCT, Moodle etc.

On the other hand, e-Learning for post-graduate is

heterogeneous in nature. Issues are fusion of

education and research (lecture, research, meeting,

conference) ubiquitous of education contents

(journals, reports, video materials) meetings/

seminars, symposiums, conferences as well as

internationalization. Contents are not-standardized,

mostly personal contents. Design policy involves

fusion of asynchronous and synchronous features

with powerful authoring tools for self-learning and

Internet meeting Supporting distributed and

internationalized education in multi-language.

WebELS provides contents-shared e-Learning for

post-graduate education.

2.2 Design Concepts and Goal

 e-Learning system designed to meet the

requests of postgraduate education: Ph.D

program is the main target of use

 Supporting seamless service of

asynchronous and synchronous e-Learning:

Asynchronous self-learning and

synchronous Internet meeting using same

contents

 Multi-OS system: Supports both Windows

users and Mac users at same quality

 Powerful authoring features for end-users:

One-click uploading editor for Power Point,

pdf, audio/video contents

 Multi-language interface to support

international use: Automatic selection of

English (standard), Japanese, Chinese, etc

 “Anywhere, anytime & anybody” system:

Java- based system to support a variety of

usage

 Open-source system

IBM

We b Se r ve r

Cont ent Se r ve r

Conversion: XML-to-PDF/HTML

Aut ogen of TOC, Index

Course Creator Students

Br owse i n HTML

Print in PDF

Content Editing via Java Applet

MS-Word Document Import

*Edit anywhere

Pr e vi ew

Figure1: WebELS network diagram.

WebELS E-LEARNING PLATFORM AND PROPOSAL FOR AUTOMATIC VIDEO SUPPORT

513

2.3 Major Objectives

Major objectives of the system are as follows:

 Povide a general purpose e-Learning

environment for distributed and

internationalized post-graduate education:

Distance learning, distance meeting, multi-

language, synchronous/asynchronous

 Provide a variety of distance learning

functions such as Internet interview,

Internet conference, annotation system, on-

line whiteboard.

 Provide a powerful authoring feature to

assist the lack of other e-Learning

platforms i.e Integration to such as

Moodle, Blackboard, NetCOMMONS,

WebCT etc.

2.4 System Configuration

The author client computer contacts the server and

downloads the necessary java tools for editing the

course materials. After the program is launched

locally on the author machine, the material data is

downloaded from the server and the author can edit

it on his local machine. This reduces the impact of

network delay on content editing. After editing is

completed, author uploads the updated data back to

the server. In building up the web server and

interfaces, the ease-of-use and ease-of-access are the

optimal goals. In designing the technical aspects of

the system, more attention is given in portability of

the system, and reusability of the learning materials.

In order to achieve minimal platform dependency,

many tools in WebELS have been developed from

ground up using Java programming language. This

allows to realize a portable foundation with rooms

for future expansion. The system attracts

international attention and in use at several sites

rather than NII such as NIG, Tsinhua University,

China, Dhaka University, Bangladesh and so on. As

the software is copyright free, every organization

download the core version and the related source

codes and develop depending on their own

requirement. Recently NII provides three versions of

the system i.e. WebELS Full version. The

conceptual network diagram of the system is shown

in Figure 1. The learning materials are kept and

managed by the server. Authors and students can

access via the Java-enhanced web-based interfaces.

2.5 Functions

WebELS system has three versions, i.e., WebELS

(full version), WebELSx (beginners version) and

WebELS Meeting (Internet meeting system). Full

version was developed first to provide a powerful e-

Learning platform for postgraduate education which

comprises of different modes of operation.

WebELSx is for beginners for further development

according to a real user’s request in a graduate

education at Sokendai, the Graduate University for

Advanced Studies (Vuthichai, 2006 & Gong, 2006).

WebELS Meeting is a software platform for

Internet-based distance meeting and interview, etc.

WebELS consists of two main modes, i.e., Learning

mode and Editing mode. These functions provide

following features. Note that WebELSx is designed

for novice users by means of simplified user

interface, where both functions are combined in a

unified manner.

Asynchronous mode in WebELS is for doing self –

learning by students. The users of learning mode are

classified into two types: guest and specific user.

Guest users can access public contents without

registration in the learning mode. Specific users can

access non-public contents after logging into

learning mode. In the learning mode, contents are

consisted of various types of courses. Each course is

indicated by the title, author, update time, category,

media type, etc. Each course can be displayed on the

computer screen or printed out. The courses in

WebELS can be one (or combination) of the

following primitive types: (1) Formatted text with

different typefaces, colors, languages; (2) Still image

in the following formats: JPG, GIF, and PNG; (3)

Animation such as GIF Animation; (4) Embedded

and On-Demand Streaming sound; (5) Embedded

and On-Demand Streaming Video Clips. There is a

searching function to locate the course quickly.

Usually on WebELS, contents can be presented to

the students using one or combination of the

following delivery modes: (1) A single HTML page;

(2) Multi-page HTML for slideshow presentation.

Each slide may correspond to a SECTION in the

content; (3) Video presentation; (4) Multi-Modal-

Synchronize video presentation with slides, side-by-

side; (5) PDF hardcopy; (6) On-line Internet

meeting. Multi-page HTML is used to divide a

lengthy content into smaller studying units, each can

be finished in a reasonable period of time. A

navigation bar is provided for the users to navigate

through the slides. For efficient content management

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MySQL based database system is under

development. Figure 2 shows the example of a

course downloaded for Asynchronous self-learning.

It shows slide no. 40 of 61 slides and the bar on the

top shows the progress in sound by 16% that is

synchronized with cursor. If Auto playback mode is

checked, the slides will change automatically one

after another.

Using WebELS Meeting multi-sites on-line meeting

is available over the Internet by sharing Microsoft®

PowerPoint® content. It is shown in Figure 3.

Internet-based interview is available by using

WebELS Meeting as well. Microsoft® PowerPoint®

contents can be prepared using a usual Microsoft®

PowerPoint® system, and then can be uploaded to

the system by means of "Create a New Content for

Presentation" located under the Contents List.

Password could be attached to the contents if

needed. Changing of slides can be controlled by the

speaker by clicking "Speaker On" and control

bar.Speaker can be switched by clicking Speaker

icon at the next speaker's site. Voice line can be

chosen from usual telephone line, Skype™ and

VoiceLine of the system. Current VoiceLine is

available in a limited condition. Shared Whiteboard

system is available, to discuss and work on the

Internet. Finally, an advanced presentation mode is

provided in WebELS, called on-line Internet

meeting. It uses the function of client

synchronization. That is, it allows teacher to make

real-time presentation with group of students over

the Internet. As long as teacher and students open

the same course saved in WebELS, the teacher can

control slide which can be changed synchronized in

the student’s computer.

Teacher can also use a pointer to indicate the

contents in the slide. This pointer can be

synchronized appeared and moved in the student’s

slide. It is shown in Figure 4.

3 WEBELS VIDEO MODULE

3.1 Video Pre-Processing

To date, JMF (Java Media Framework) supports

limited video formats as described in (JMF). Also it

supports some specific Codecs. So, some pre-

processing may need to make it applicable to

WebELS video module. Currently, WebELS support

.avi video format in Windows/Linux or .mov video

format in Macintosh OS with cinepak codec by

radius. Once the video is pre-processed using any

OS, it becomes versatile i.e. it can be uploaded and

viewed in any Operating System. Here, an example

is given to pre-process video so that it could work

fine with WebELS video module. If the .avi file

doesn’t have cinepak codec by radius suitable for

WebELS editor, it can be done by VirtualDub what

is a freeware. It is available at:

http://www.virtualdub.org/ (VirtualDub)

 Step1: Download and install VirtualDub

on your PC.

Figure 2: Self learning in asynchronous mode.

Figure 3: Meeting version.

Figure 4: Simultaneous cursor movement.

WebELS E-LEARNING PLATFORM AND PROPOSAL FOR AUTOMATIC VIDEO SUPPORT

515

 Step 2: Start VirtualDub, double clicking

on VirtualDub.exe file.

 Step 3: Open video file and from pull

down menu of video select compression

(ctrl + P)

 Step 4: There are many options of video

compression. Out of them select Cinepak

Codec by Radius and press OK as

shown in Figure 5.

 Step 5: Save the file using save as avi

(F7) of the pull down menu of file with a

new name or it can be rewritten on the

same video file. Here original codec of

the file will be replaced with new one.

3.2 Video Handling

As WebELS is completely based on java platform,

JMF based media player plays an important role to

handle video contents. Media player is embedded in

the Applet and starts on a single click. For

experimental purpose we used the WebELSx version

of the system. To produce a presentation material

with video contents we have to follow the following

steps.

 Step 1: Create new course: After log in

as a user in WebELSx version the

interface will come out. Different options

are here regarding a course. One can

view, edit, export, copy a course in the

list. To create a new course one has to

click on “create new course” button.

 Step 2: Select a type of slide to add:

There are several options of adding a

slide such as PDF, IMAGE, PPT and

VIDEO. To create a video slide we

have to check VIDEO button.

 Step 3: Template selection: There are

several built in templates for creating a

slide with video. As the user often needs

to add annotation or image to describe a

video, the template has a variety of

selections to add image and texts.

 Step 4: Background selection: To choose

a suitable background, one can use

customised background colour from pop

up colour selection pad

 Step 5: Adding video, annotation and

image: In the selected template upper left

corner is for image, upper right corner is

for image annotation, lower left corner is

for video and lower right corner

rectangle is for video annotation.

A complete video slide edited with WebELSx editor is

shown in Figure 6. It contains Video with sound, image

and text annotation. Video content uploading,

downloading, viewing etc. are tested in WinXP, Fedora

Core Linux and Macintosh OS. Format of the video file is

in .avi format with cinepak codec by radius. The size of

the file is 690KB. It uploads very fast on a single click and

playback on the Java Applet as shown in Figure 6. It is

tested with different web browsers such as Internet

Explorer in WinXP, Mozilla in Linux and Safari in

Macintosh.

3.3 Proposal for Auto Video Support

Video module of WebELS doesn’t support video

directly if the presentation file is created by standard

PPT editor, for example, Microsoft PowerPoint. The

limitation is due to the fact that the slides are opened

as PNG image file and the video portion appears as a

still image as shown in Figure 7. However, if the

presentation file is edited with WebELS editor in

that case it supports video with power point as

shown in Figure 6. WebELS users obviously want to

Figure 5: Codec selection.

Figure 6: WebELSx edited slide.

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open and present PPT file that may contain video. In

this section ideas are discussed so that WEBELS

could supports PPT automation for video.

The proposed ideas can be summarized as follows:

 Step 1: Open the specified PPT file and

insert video using the present module of

inserting video as shown in Figure 6.

 Step2: Save as HTML so that the

elements of slide will have hyper link.

 Step3: Check the slides whether any of

them is having link to video. HTML

format should also contain the size and

location of video.

 Step 4: If there is a link to video, then

just put video on top of slide image.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This papers contribution is in detecting the limitation

and proposing probable solutions of video contents

with a discussion of video pre-processing and video

handling. The existing video model supports some

of the well know video formats but it has limitation

to directly support ASF i.e. Advanced Streaming

Format Media. With some format and coding

conversion, however, it is possible to apply the

existing module to a wide variety of video contents.

Further extension of the module is possible making

it applicable to ASF. Standard PPT edited embedded

video support system is under investigation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, special thanks goes to Open Source

developers who developed useful tools and authors

found useful for implementing this system. Authors

are highly delighted to acknowledge that the

research is supported by ROIS research fund,

SOKENDAI Taylor made education system project,

Science Research Foundation of JSPS and so on.

Finally, authors would like to thank Yiyuan Gong,

Prof. Nobuo Shimamoto and so on for their

contribution with many important comments.

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XSLT: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt

UTF-8 and Unicode standards: http://www.utf-8.com/

Extensible Style-sheet Language - XSL:

http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/

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Figure 7: Slide containing video.

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