Educational Technologies Research at MET

Emerging Technologies and Pilot Programs

Leo Burstein and Tanya Zlateva

MET Faculty Colloquium

Agenda

• MET Mission• Educational Research & Technology @ MET • Educational Response to the Changing

Working Place• Our Pilots

– Virtualization– Video collaboration

• Open Discussion

Acknowledgements• College of Engineering:

– Professor Merrill Ebner for championing distance education at BU and for introducing us to the marvels of teaching on the web

– Andy Abrahamson for generously sharing his experience with video conferencing

• Networked Services, Office of Information Technology– Richard Mendez, Roland Jaeckel, Michael Sullivan,

George Gaudette and the entire IT team for their professionalism and collaboration every step of the way

• MET IT—Julia, Tong, Vincent, Jay

MET Educational MissionAcademic

RigorLatest Industry Technologies & Best Practices

Flexible Delivery Formats+ +

Innovation—MET’s Distinctive Strength:Capture & Teach trends in enduring

intellectual context

BU Brand Responsiveness to Student and Industry Needs= +

Ensure student’s long-term success by linking academic knowledge with practical skills and competencies critical in the modern

workplace.

Mission of the Office of Educational Research and Technology @MET

• Research, evaluate, test emerging educational technologies

• Recommend technologies for pilot courses• Work with faculty for developing appropriate

delivery formats and educational scenarios• Support and manage the introduction of

emerging technologies

The Changing Workplace• Knowledge based economy• Emerging Technologies – the more the merrier?• Relentless Innovation• Globally Distributed Work Patterns – out of site ≠ out of

mind (telecommuting, outsourceing, offshoring and putting it back together)

• Teamwork in a culturally diverse and geographically distributed environment

• Flat Organizational Structures – more flexibility, more responsibility

• Time Fragmentation• “Coopetition” = Competition + Cooperation

Business Education

Technology

The Theory—Skills Chasm

TechnologyCryptography

Security ModelsNetwork Protocols

Setting Up a Secure Web Server and

Browser

ManagementContingency theories

System theoryOrganizational Behavior

Communication SkillsGetting the project

done on time

Educational Philosophies

Classical—Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Liberal Arts

Modern LanguagesProfessional

Virtualization

Video-Collaboration

Business Reality and Education

There is a real gap between higher education and today’s business realities

Harvard Business Review: "Business schools are on the wrong track. Some of the research produced is excellent, but because so little of it is grounded in actual business practice, the focus of graduate business education has become increasingly circumscribed -- and less and less relevant to practitioners".[2]

And Boston University is accepting the challenge:

“We [BU] should aim to be the premier

University in the United States where specialization is not an end

in itself, but always part of a program that aims explicitly at higher goals and broader horizons.”

Report of the Task Force on Changing Landscape http://www.bu.edu/accreditation/

• Asynchronous delivery blended with face-to face sessions over traditional 14-week semester

• Synchronous Communication: two-way audio video (desktop videoconferencing), one-way video two-way audio; both with application sharing in off-campus week

• Online course content with virtual lectures, correspondence, projects, assignments, etc.

• Programs and Formats: – Graduate Certificate in Digital Forensics—launched

Fall 2007: Saturday meetings every fourth week– MS in Innovation Management—launched Spring

2008: face to face meetings every other week

Blended Delivery—e-Live

Blended CoursesFall 2007 --2 courses 28

Business Data Communication (TC 625 HB ) Lou Chitkushev

Digital Forensics (CS 693 HB) Vijay Kanabar

Spring 2008 -- 10 courses 214

Accounting (AC630 HB ) Ed Simches

Business Continuity (AD 610 HB ) Mark Carroll

Program and Project Management (AD742 HB) Roger Warburton

Financial Analysis (FI 631 HB ) Bill Chambers

Introduction to ecommerce (TM 648 HB ) Kip Becker

Biometrics (CS599 HB ) Min Chen

IT Project Management (CS632 HB ) Vijay Kanabar

Business Data Communications (TC625 HB ) Lou Chitkushev

Data Mining (CS699 HB ) Suresh Kalathur

Network Forensics (CS703 HB ) Jim Burrell/Vijay Kanabar

Educational Technologies LandscapeTechnology landscape is crowded, how to find the perfect technology (and do they exist?)

LearningManagementSystems

• Blackboard• Vista• Course Info• Angel• Moodle• Sakai• Mobile Academy• Learning Gateway• …

Multimedia

• Video• Flash• Silverlight• Animations• Voiceovers• Podcasting• iTunesU• iPOD, Zune, …

Collaboration• Discussions• Blogs, Wikis• SharePoint, Groove• Webinars• Video conferences• Citrix/app sharing• Social Networking• …

Authoring

• MS Office• Dreamweaver• Expression Studio• Google Tools• Respondus• Camtasia• DRM• PHP, Ajax … How do w

e know when st

udents should

“constr

uct a w

iki entry

rather th

an

to have a virtu

al disc

ussion

or a

face-to

-face

d

ialog?” [1]

Virtualization• One of the disruptive technologies. One of the

most successful IPOs in 2007. • Virtualization is an abstraction layer that allows

multiple virtual machines, with heterogeneous operating systems to run in isolation, side-by-side on the same physical machine.

• We are using three variations at MET:– client-side virtualization: (a) pre-configured

installations (e.g. Oracle), (b) lab support– server-side virtualization: group projects, ease of

provisioning, simulating distributed environments

Virtualization Scenarios @MET

Complete pre-configured instal-lations provided to MET students on a DVD, savings setup and troubleshooting efforts not related to course objectives

Multiple images on MET Lab computers for different courses can be quickly rolled out and switched between classes with no extra effort

CS579 CS601 CS693

Virtualization Scenarios @MET (cont.)

Easily replicated separate server-based environments for small student groups, and/or multi-server environments to emulate distributed systems

Hardware Platform

Virtualization Layer

Application Server

Certification Authority

Network Protocol Analyzer

Client Workstation

vii

viii

ix

iii iv v

x

ii

vi

i

Example: “online banking” scenario (simulation of a distributed computing environment in a Cryptography/PKI Lab, linking to crypto algorithms, network protocols and security models)

MET Virtual Data Center

MET-VH1

Photo courtesy of MET IT

Download Assignment

Student

Obtain License, Download Software

Install/configure software

Complete Assignment

Upload Assignment

Download Checked

Assignment

Download Assignment

Instructor

Obtain License, Download Software

Test Assignment, Grade and Make

Comments

Upload assignment

Review Instructor’s Comments

no

All?

yes

End

End

Review Assignment

Complete Assignment

Instructor

Test Assignment, Grade and Make

Comments

Review Instructor’s Comments

no

All?

yes

End

End

Review Assignment

Student

Benefits of Using Project Collaboration Server

Typical Student/Instructor Project Assignment Process:

Without PCS With PCS

Learning Activity

Overhead Activity

Virtual project colla-boration environment might help to stream-line assignments handling, eliminate potential discrepancies in between students’ and instructor’s setups, and creates opportu-nities for group activities (e.g. Project Server in AD742HB); all this without incurring additional hardware and installation costs.

Structure and Dialog – Maximizing Impact

StructureCourse materials, well defined activities, schedules, etc.

Dialogf2f sessions, online discussions, video collaboration

Independent Learning Ability

Impact

Video Collaboration DemoVideo collabo-ration is a term we use to describe a combination of videoconferen-cing and online meetings tools (e.g. screen & application sharing).

IOCOM Demo Scenario• Start with Vista, meet with Dao in MET Test Room; Dao

introduces herself.• Dao showing a few slides (positive psychology).• Bring in recorded interview with David W.

– why and when video collaboration is important– what learning activities are most suited for video

collaboration• Harvard interview• Music recording• Show Suresh, • Show example with multiple participants• Desktop sharing

Students survey based on Fall 2007 experience

Students survey based on Fall 2007 experience (Cont.)

Comparative analysis of video collaboration technologies

Technology Evolution Vendors Meeting Type1. Videoconferencing + Online Meeting IOCOM,

Radvision, …

Primary meeting objective is to exchange opinions, develop positions, plan actions, etc., in relationship to certain information that is mostly known by meeting participants.

2. Online Meeting + Videoconferencing Webex, GoToMeeting,Wimba, …

Primary meeting objective is to exchange information and develop common knowledge domains between meeting participants.

Video Collaboration = Video Conferencing + Online Meeting

Leo

Market Sample

Using IG Meeting for MET video collaboration pilot (low entry cost, support – incl. weekends, technology similar to Internet2 Access Grid (BU is one of the 80+ Access Grid nodes).

Product/Technology Provider V/Conf. Features

O/Meet . Features

Reliability Support Quality and Availability

1 IG Meeting/IOCOM 4 2 3 52 vRoom/Elluminate 2 4 4 23 Scopia/Radvision 4 4 3 24 Live Classroom/Wimba 2 3 35 GoToMeeting/Citrix 1 4 46 WebEX/Cisco 2 5 57 Live Meeting/Microsoft 3 4 * limited to Windows clients

8 DimDim (Open Source) 2 3 2 1

9 Acrobat Connect/Adobe 110 Session/Wave3 4 1 3 3

* Based on limited testing

MET Strategy ImplicationsTechnology providers are making attempts to bridge these differences and come up with a “one fits all” technology, but (as of early 2008) with limited success. Desktop video technologies can still be characterized as emerging, and, with major vendors like Cisco and Microsoft now demonstrating more interest, the market will undergo a certain level of consolidation in the next few years. Until this happens, we should minimize our risks and costs and continue to build our video collaboration strategy around limited pilots, focusing on understanding how to link video technologies to pedagogical objectives. We might need to continue using a combination of video/audio technologies that best fit our pilot objectives.

A very important consideration in planning emerging technology pilots is availability and quality of support. Close collaboration with technology providers and technology support teams, as well as a high level of commitment from pilot participants, are critical to overcome the “infant mortality” failures and ensure a meaningful learning experience.

More Student Feedback

How to make new technology introductions easy for students and faculty?

Math Demo

Echo360

• Easy to use “appliance” records your lectures and provides automated end-to-end processing of audio/video content, including posting to a streaming server and sending you an email with a link to the recorded lecture.

• System operationally supported by MET IT, with NIS available for second level support.

*********Demo **********

• To schedule a recording, just email itmet@bu.edu .

Technology Excitement

Mobility Social Networking

Use, Amuse, or Abuse?How to Introduce New Technologies

Open Discussion

Second Life Video? Zune? - Importance of support services (If something can go wrong – it will, be prepared; this is another reason why blended programs with more “forgiving” environment are great for new technology pilots).- Manage costs through iterative piloting – no “waterfalls”, proper timing is key, using the razor blade terminology, we want “cutting edge without cuts”.- Drive adoption through learning objectives, fascination with technology is worthless without a commitment to perform often less appreciated but necessary ground work.- Standardize through abstraction .- Maintain strong relationships with technology providers.- Ensure processes are defined end-to-end (e.g no video recordings that never make it to students). - Flexibility, e.g. distributing learning content through a variety of delivery channels to accommodate different students’ preferences without introducing extra work for faculty. (e.g PowerPoint presentation to iPOD podcasting). -Define measurements – cannot manage what you cannot measure.- AND WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Use, Amuse, or Abuse?How to Introduce New Technologies

Open Discussion

• What works best for you?

• What does not work?

• What would you like to see?

• What does it take?

References1. Chris Dale, Harvard Graduate School of Education.2. Warren G. Bennis and James O’Toole, How Business Schools Lost Their Way3. Moore, M. “Theory of Transactional Distance”.4. Blanchard, K. “Enterprise Management and Situational Leadership”.5. Moore, M. “Investigation of the Interaction Between the Cognitive Style of Field Independence and…”.6. Force, D. “Relationships among transactional distance variables in asynchronous computer conferences”. 7. Keller, J.M. 1983. “Use of ARCS model of motivation in teacher training”.