Educator's Review: Video Too Hard? Software to the Rescue
In a technology degree program,
chances are that many courses will involve "hands-on" instruction
using computer applications. For most, teaching a course in a computer lab offers
a host of challenges that need to be addressed:
For instance, how will students be able to watch live demonstrations during
class? Trying to gather 24 students around the instructor's workstation will
not work. Projecting the instructor's video onto a screen in front of the class
requires the lowering of lights and may be difficult for students in the back
to see clearly. How will you help students stay focused on the material being
presented? With the computer in front of them connected to a T1 Internet connection,
the temptation to stray from the topic being presented is always there.
At Purdue-Calumet, we have always considered some type of distributed video
system for the computer labs. One that would let the instructor send video directly
from his or her workstation to each student's workstation. In the past, all
of these systems were hardware-based. But the problem of where to run thick
video and control cables and the cost associated with a hardware solution prevented
us from implementing one in our labs.
Recently we learned of the availability of a software-based distributed video
solution. It relies on the existing in-place computer network to distribute
the video. No extra cabling is required and the cost is significantly less than
a hardware solution. We had plenty of concerns about a software solution. Would
it be difficult to install? Would it work with our software applications? What
would the performance over the network be like?
After researching the various products available, NetSupport School seemed
to offer the features we were looking for. NetSupport School is software that
enables instructors to demonstrate, monitor, and interact with an entire classroom
or individual students at their workstations. It also offers the ability to
distribute files, send and collect course work automatically, and launch applications.
NetSupport School is available to download and install in a 25-user classroom
for 30 days at no charge, so we decided to give it a try.
Installing the software was easy and involved no difficult or technical steps.
We simply ran the setup program on each workstation, selected the type of network
(IPX, TCP/IP, etc.), features to be used, and gave each workstation a unique
name.
As each student logs into the network, the NetSupport School software makes
that workstation available to the distributed video system. The "tutor" software
installed on the instructor's workstation graphically shows the layout of the
lab and which student's workstations are available.
At the click of the mouse an instructor can send their workstation's video
to every student workstation regardless of the color depth, screen resolution
or operating system at either end. This allows every student to have a front-row
seat during all live demonstrations in class. To pause a demonstration and make
sure you have the student's attention you can also blank the monitors and lock
their keyboards and mice with another click. Control is easily given back to
the students so they can continue working where they left off.
Student workstations can also be monitored. With a Scan function you can cycle
through the available workstations one at a time or even display up to 16 student
workstations simultaneously. This feature is very handy when monitoring an open
lab session. Our lab workstations are operating at 1024 x 768 x 24 bit resolution.
Even at this setting and displaying to 24 student workstations, the performance
is very quick with very little delay on our 100-megabit network.
An additional feature of the NetSupport School software is the ability to distribute
files from the instructor's workstation to multiple student workstations simultaneously.
Students can then be directed to open the file for "hands-on" practice after
the demonstration. At the end of class completed work assignments can be automatically
collected and transferred back to the instructor's workstation for grading.
The lab can be quickly prepared for a demonstration by starting a common application
on all workstations at once from the instructor's workstation.
Some three-dimensional applications are not supported by the NetSupport School
software. Be sure to take advantage of the free trial period to verify that
it works with your applications. The software-based distributed video solution
d'es a great job of answering the concerns we had about teaching in a computer
classroom.
