1.3 Reasons for studying Tele-education

The current Tele-education systems that have been applied in some countries are generally of multipoint

transmission technique. It is found that, this kind of transmission technique having several problems or defects. Mostly,

problems raised during the application of the system. One of the significant problems raised is that, for the multipoint

transmission, the signals or information transmitted by the sender do not completely received by the receiver. This

problem is might be due to error that occurs during the transmission of the signals or information. Another problem is

lag of transmission. For this case, the signals or information transmitted do not arrive at all the receiver at the same

time, for example, the question raised by the lecturer might not received by the students at the same time and this is

not a good environment for Tele-education system. Some receiver receives the signals earlier than the others and

some later or even not receives at all. Therefore, it is important to study the Tele-education technology from time to

time to overcome these problems so that the Tele-education system could provide a more effective way of learning

environment.

In order to have a lecture from, for example, a very famous professor from other country would require him to

come at our place. But the amount of money spent for paying him to give lecture would be very expensive and this

also would cause troublesome for him. However, this problem can be solved with Tele-education system in which the

professor does not need to go anywhere else to give his lecture. This would save a lot of expenses and time.

Another reason is that, in normal classes the learning process would not be very effective if the number of

students in a class is very big. This is because the lecturer alone can not coordinate such a large class. With Tele-

education system, one lecturer could deliver his lecture to as many students as possible effectively in a way that a

large number of students from different sites having the same lecture at once.

1.4 Purpose of Research

The purpose of this research is to study the current Tele-education system that has been applied in some

countries. This study covers the background of Tele-education; that is its definition, the publications of Tele-education;

that is any papers that discuss about Tele-education as a whole, the performance of applied Tele-education, and also

the technology of Tele-education; that is its network architecture. But the main purpose of this study is to understand

the Tele-education system that have been applied in another country and try to implement it in our country.

1.5 Acronyms

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode

CCITT Committee Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique

CPE Customer Premises Equipment

IP Internet Protocol

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISO International Standard Organization

JAMES Joint ATM Experiment on European Services

LAN Local Area Network

MAC Medium Access Control

Mbone Multicast Backbone

PC Personal Computer

POP Point-of-Presence

PVC Permanent Virtual Channel

QoS Quality of Service

RAT Robust Audio Tool

SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol

TCP-IP Transmission Control Protocol - Internet Protocol

TES Tele-Educational Service

UI User Interface

VIC Video Conferencing Tool

VP Virtual Path

VPN Virtual Private Network

VSD Virtual Student Desktop

WAN Wide Area Network

WWW World Wide Web

XC Cross Connect

2.0 METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

Since Tele-education is a very new technology that is popularly discussed today, it is quite difficult for me to

find any books that discuss about Tele-education from the library. Therefore, the easiest and the fastest way to gather

information relating this project is via the Internet. I have surfed and found many interesting sites that discuss about

Tele-education. Besides surfing, I also have contacted several people who are involved in this area, Tele-education, by

e-mail . But unluckily, this does not really help because most of them did not reply. Besides using the Internet, I also

get the information for this project from the IEEE Database at the library of Universiti Telekom.

3.0 BACKGROUND STUDY

3.1 Definition of Tele-education

What is Tele-education? Before discussing about what Tele-education means, lets look at what distance

learning is. This is because Tele-education and distance learning are very related to each other. Distance learning is

the acquisition of skills and knowledge through electronic communications that allow student and instructor to be

separate in either in time or space. The to distance learning is ¡¥asynchronous learning¡¦ which can be defined loosely

as learning at different time. It is a highly flexible method of training because the sender and receiver do not need to

be synchronized in space or time. But Tele-education is more than that of distance learning. In Tele-education, not only

asynchronous but synchronous learning is also made possible. In other words, Tele-education is the evolution of

distance learning.

As stated before, asynchronous learning environment is not real-time environment. It is a self-study-based

application and is accessed via the Internet to a server. The requirement to the student is only an ordinary PC with

standard software and Internet access. This application is applicable for a large amount of users who can access the

course independent of each other. The combination of the lecture-part, group-work-part, and self-study-part is another

type of Tele-education learning environment, which is synchronous learning. It is a real-time environment. In this

environment, students and lecturers can interact with each other simultaneously.

Tele-education use the technology of video teleconferencing that allows two or more parties at different

geographical area to interact with each other or to have learning process together. But people usually get confused

whether video teleconferencing can be considered as Tele-education as well. Tele-education is actually different with

video teleconferencing in a way that Tele-education usually involve a large number of people as compared to video

teleconferencing, that is, it is in video teleconferencing many people use a single monitor to see other people at other

area but in Tele-education, students have their own monitor that can be used not only to see their lecturer and

colleagues but also to send and receive educational materials.

3.2 Publications of Tele-education

There are many papers discussing about Tele-education. Most of these papers cover only the general or overall

scope of Tele-education. The area of discussion on Tele-education can be summarized as the following:

„h Tele-education service

„h Content of Tele-education

„h Network architecture

„h performance of Tele-education

„h operation and management of Tele-education

For Tele-education service, it describes about what multimedia tele-service and hyper media service is, and

how it can be integrated into Tele-education service. It also describes about what Tele-education service facilitate.

Content of Tele-education describes about the style or mode of Tele-education system, that is, what kind of education

style used, and how the lecture notes or any materials delivered to all the students. For network architecture, it

describes about the protocol used for the Tele-education system and its network infrastructure. Performance of Tele-

education covers the performance of service of Tele-education and also the network performance. The description of

these performances is from the customer point of view. For the operation and management of Tele-education, it

describes about what should be taken into consideration in order to provide a well managed Tele-education service.

3.3 Examples of Systems

From the study of materials gathered, there are generally three examples of Tele-education system that have

been applied in the Europe and Canada. Those examples are:

„h Tele-education NB

„h Delta 's Virtual College

„h ACTS Project AC052 (RACE Project Report)

The purpose of looking into these examples is to try to understand what kind of Tele-education system is

implemented, how Tele-education can be implemented, to know what are the requirements to implement it, and what

considerations should be taken into consideration for implementing it.

3.3.1 Tele-education NB

Tele-education NB is implemented at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. The present physical network

consists of three independent networks that operate on telephone lines;

„h Voice

„h SMART 2000 computer teleconferencing

„h Computer Mediated Communications using NBNet

The SMART 2000 bridge for computer software sharing and audiographic teleconferencing is owned and

operated by the Tele-education NB. This is accessed by simple dial connections using ordinary telephone lines. This

allows for the computer monitor at each site to show images created by users at the other sites. The software can be

used like an elaborate electronic blackboard, overhead projector, or slide projector. In addition, it is being used for

software sharing at multiple locations.

Data communications are transmitted over NBNet using a SLIP server which resides in a user friendly simple

menu front-end created by Tel-education NB to permit easy access to NBNet and to facilities available. Students and

teachers can access NBNet for uploading and downloading assignments and other course materials. A CD-ROM server

is being set up at the central site and at the University of New Brunswick library for permitting access to different

databases.

Tele-education NB also supports an on-line learning center with a file server located at Mount Allison

University. Information of relevance distance education and the network in particular can be accessed there. In Tele-

education NB, a special listserv is created for internal communications among different sites. As an integral part of the

province's electronic information highway, Tele-education NB is supporting the development of an open, distributed

network, taking advantage of media available. The most widely used delivery modes are audio teleconferencing with

SMART 2000, as well as videoconferencing. However, it is not limiting the network to any one technology, or suite of

technologies. It is actively promoting experimentation and cooperation in the reception and delivery of courses using

other software and media.

Tele-education NB placed routers in the Community College Campus in each region, and other sites in regions

that do not have a college. Initially it operates using 56K connections and will move T1. SMART 2000 runs not only on

regular telephone lines but also on LANs and WANs using Novell, TCP-IP and other telecommunication protocols. Tele-

education NB are now experimenting with synchronous transmissions using the TCP-IP protocol on NBNet. The

Picturetel videoconferencing units existing in province all are CCITT compatible.

Tele-education NB has provided the guidelines for selecting appropriate technology for its network as follows:

„h The network shall experiment with different technologies and endeavor not to rely on any one technology or

any supplier.

„h Existing equipment and distance education sites in the province shall be integrated into the network

wherever possible.

„h The network shall establish computer teleconferencing and computer conferencing links among the sites,

including access to electronic information highway and the Internet.

„h Satellite delivery and reception capabilities and upgrading of sites to PC-based videoconferencing will be

investigated for implementation in future.

„h Other optional equipment may be placed in sites at the request of users and institutions such as MACs and

CD-ROMs.

„h The network should be compatible as much as possible with other provinces and regions.

3.3.2 DELTA's Virtual College

Delta's Virtual College is implemented in Denmark (Europe). It offers the opportunity for students to participate

in desktop Tele-education from their homes or offices. This concept means that individual students participate in Tele-

educational courses using a desktop computer online connected to a course provider.

The user interface is a common Web browser, that is, Netscape Web-browser, extended with loosely integrated

audio and video tools. The educational environment applies the metaphor of a virtual college. The idea is that students

access DELTA's virtual college server when participating in a course. The user interface looks like the plan of a college.

From the college hallway, the student can enter different rooms with different functions. Those rooms are:

„h classrooms where on-line lectures and presentation take place,

„h group rooms where on-line cooperative work takes place,

„h studies where off-line study such as self-study material, exercises, slides from previous lectures,

supplementary material and links to other sites on the Web take place,

„h teacher offices where it is furnished with course administration tools,

„h tea room where it is used for informal chat and social contact with fellow students during break.

The following figure, the "floor plan", illustrates those rooms:

Figure 1 : The floor plan

The goal of this virtual college is to integrate different modes of teaching and learning. This includes

synchronous mode like on-line lectures and group exercises as well as asynchronous mode like interactive self study,

participation and threaded bill board conferences and sharing of documents.

The virtual college is run primarily in a local network environment in order easily to monitor and control the

students and technology. Then, when there are several countries participate, each sites are connected by the JAMES

(Joint ATM Experiment on European Services) broadband network.

3.3.3 ACTS Project AC052 (RACE Project Report)

This is a big project on Tele-education. It covers the whole aspects that should be taken into consideration for

implementing Tele-education in Europe such as service aspects, management aspects, network architecture, etc. In

this project, there are several trials have been done in order to obtain an effective Tele-education system. The details

of this will be discussed later throughout this report.

4.0 CONSIDERATIONS

It is not easy to find materials or any papers reporting the architecture of Tele-education. Most of the materials

found are basically discussing about the general idea on what Tele-education system is, for example some papers

discuss about the general system of a Tele-education service offered, its advantages over current educational

environment, etc. However, I managed to find a very interesting material discussing about Tele-education as a whole,

that is the ACTS Project AC052 (RACE Report Project). Therefore, I choose this report as my main reference in doing my

study on Tele-education overall system description covering the architecture.

There are basically five main topics that are going to be discussed in quite detail regarding the Tele-education

as a whole in this report. These main topics are:

„h Tele-education service

„h Tele-education content

„h Network architecture of Tele-education system

„h Performance of Tele-education service

„h Operation and management of Tele-education service

4.1 Tele-education Service

The multimedia tele-service provides both core and management services. The multimedia tele-services are

briefly described as Video/audio conferencing service, which based on the MBONE (Multicast Backbone) tools VIC

(video conferencing) and RAT (audio conferencing). Hypermedia service allows access to be provided to hypermedia

information stored on a WWW server. The WebStore service is a managed WWW based multimedia document store,

which allows users to store and retrieve arbitrary documents (text, video, audio, etc.), using the well-known interface

of the WWW. The management of the WebStore includes subscription, accounting and access control.

A mapping between the learning forms and the multimedia teleservices has resulted in a list of four basic

paradigms:

a) Self-study

„h Individual work with web based course material including exercises and discovery/reference search.

„h This paradigm is supported by the hypermedia and WebStore services.

b) Lecture

„h Teacher to class presentation.

„h Supported by the conferencing and hypermedia services.

c) Group work

„h Discussions, exercises or project work performed by the students in groups. This paradigm can also include

shared discovery/reference search.

„h It is supported by conferencing, hypermedia, and WebStore services.

d) Consultation

„h Student to tutor consultation

„h Supported by video/audio conferencing and hypermedia services.

In order to support these four paradigms the multimedia services are integrated into a Tele-educational

Services (TES) which provides both the core service and the management service functionality. The core Tele-

educational service provides two user interfaces, one for the teacher and one for the students.

In Tele-educational service, each course, presented as part of Tele-educational service, would involve the

rendering and seamless integration of audio, text, graphics/bitmaps and appropriate video segments, to suit the

presentation of the course material. An educational service would also facilitate the interaction of course participants

with one another in class discussions, as well as with the course tutor. In this way, a course tutor can guide debates on

issues arising from course material and allow participants to exchange views and share experience. This interaction is

very important, as participants need to be encouraged to learn both from the tutored course as well as from each

other's practical experience. This forum of discussion also supports the tutor in assessing feedback from the

participants concerning the comprehension, benefit and effectiveness of a course for participants.

The educational service could also facilitate access to simulation environments and 'live systems', which are

parts of the participant's course material. For example, it could provide access to specific commercial database

information, which would be part of a Database Modeling course. In this way, access may be gained to systems and

information, which would otherwise not be available on the participant's site. Course could be taken when the

participant's work schedules permitted. Similarly, participant/participant interaction could be scheduled flexibly. An

educational service can be seen as incorporating several interaction (tele-services) and course presentation

mechanism, for example, multimedia presentation tools conferencing, e-mail or notice board systems.

The following is an example of service layer used in the ACTS Project AC052:

Figure 2 : Service Layer

In the ACTS Project AC052, there are two Tele-educational courses offered as a trial of the management

service. These courses are " An Introduction to ATM " and " An Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL ".

4.1.1 An Introduction to ATM

The course includes both synchronous and asynchronous delivery methods. The duration of the course is three

to four days with approximately three hours of teaching and studying each day. The course consists of five lectures,

three self study modules and three group exercises with a follow-up discussion of the results. The different modules

and modes of the course are conducted in a Tele-educational environment which includes course outline information, a

database of participants with pictures and CVs, a WWW billboard supporting off-line discussions, access to a WebStore

and a tea-room which participants can visit for informal chats.

The lectures are performed by using video/audio conference tools. A system was used to show slides on the

participants web-browsers. The self study modules contained web pages with information to read and small built-in

exercises. The group exercises consist of a number of questions to be answered by the group and returned to the

teacher for correction afterwards. When the teacher has corrected the answers they are discussed in a conference with

all the participants.

In the first trial a shared editor was introduced for use in group exercises. The shared editor is a tool for

synchronous collaboration on smaller texts, and is meant to complement the chat and whiteboard tools used in earlier

trials. An illustration of the new shared editor can be found below.

In the second trial, a new floorcontrol-system for use during lectures as well as a complete new graphical

design of the virtual learning environment was tested. The floorcontrol system was used by the teacher during

lectures, to determine which students wanted to ask a question, and to mute or unmute the microphones and video

cameras accordingly.

A new graphical design of the User Interface (UI) was introduced, in an attempt to create an even more

homogenous UI. The floorplan metaphore was kept, but new images and controls where implemented throughout the

environment.

4.1.2 An Introduction to Relational Databases and SQL

This course covered the theoretical principles of relational database technology as well as supporting the

hands-on skills of using relational database language (SQL). Students took the course over a three day period, for two

hours each day. At the beginning of the course a one hour lecture outlined the objectives of the course and provided

an introduction to the topics. The educational content comprised of text, graphics, and animation and was divided into

four sections, consisting of a total of twenty one modules (a module typically being 1-5 pages). The course was made

available via the Prospect Tele-educational environment.

On accessing the course, a separate courseware browser window was opened, called the Virtual Student

Desktop (VSD). All student interactions with the courseware are facilitated via this VSD. The Tele-educational

environment is also accessible by the student for conferencing and synchronous interaction. The VSD is rendered as a

set of WWW windows, frames, tool bar and icons. All native WWW browser buttons are suppressed (hidden) so as not

to distract the user from the main goal of education. A tool bar specially designed for educational use is provided by

the VSD at the bottom of the screen. From this tool bar the student is able to contact tutors or fellow students

(asynchronously), access external systems, as well as navigate and interact with the educational course material.

Figure 3 illustrates a page from a module in the course, and shows the educational toolbar at the bottom of the screen

and an index of the topics dealt with by this particular module in the course on the left hand side of the screen.

Figure 3 : page from module in the course

Overall the course comprised several different types of information: Administrative (i.e. how to use the course

etc.); A database of (self contained) modules; Indexes or Roadmaps of specific courses through various modules;

Evaluation Forms and a Case Study.

The roadmaps were important as the modules can be combined in several ways to satisfy the different

requirements for different student objectives. Each roadmap corresponds to different learning objectives of the RDBMS

course. Thus the roadmaps provide a means of re-using existing modules with as little redundancy as possible of

educational material and administrative overhead.

A significant feature of the system was to provide direct access to a real ¡¥commercial¡¦ RDBMS via the same

interface as the educational course. The relational DBMS is seamlessly integrated into the student educational desktop.

Thus the tool bar offered by the VSD contains an icon which allows students to issue SQL queries on a live database.

The idea of this is to deliberately blur the distinction between the educational environment and the ¡¥target¡¦ systems.

This encourages students to ¡¥try out¡¦ various parts of the course before attempting a larger project.

Another feature was the ability of the student to store references to distinct locations in the course material

(bookmarks). Traditionally these are stored locally on the student¡¦s machine. However this has disadvantages as

students rarely use the same machine all the time. The VSD allows such bookmarks to be stored within the educational

service and are thus (privately) accessible to an individual student at any time. Also if the student has logged off the

course and logs back on, the VSD allows him/her the ability to resume at his/her most recent position or restart at the

beginning.

Various forms of on-line tutorials are embedded into the course. ¡¥True or False¡¦ and ¡¥Multiple Choice

Questions¡¦ are supported, with automatic correction and notification of marks to the student. Form based (short

unstructured text style) answers are also facilitated in some tutorials. In these cases the student answers are

automatically delivered to course tutors for subsequent correction. Also integrated into the course are evaluation forms

which, when completed, are automatically submitted and stored for later analysis by course tutors. The VSD provides

buttons to contact other class members or to seek tutor assistance. Again, this is offered via WWW forms and

integrated transparently with an email delivery system.

4.2 Tele-education Content

There are several modes of educational interaction, which could be supported by a virtual theatre/study room.

These would include lecture presentation, course material presentation and browsing, self-study, group work (shared

application/work, class discussions, group presentations), consultation (tutor/participant, participant/participant),

tutorial sessions, virtual coffee room/virtual lounge, and continuous assessment. There are also some other form of

learning that have been identified. These forms of learning are:

„h Self learning

„h delivery of formatted courses material for students own study

„h Lecture presentation

„h a one-to-many presentation by the tutor of course or organizational material.

„h Exercises

„h the facility to perform exercises either in groups or individually

„h Project work

„h the development of sizeable projects using software outside the teaching environment.

„h Discovery/Reference research

„h ability to locate and access background or supplemental learning material

„h Seminar/Class discussion groups

„h many-to-many communication between participants.

„h Consultation

„h private one-to-one communication between participants.

There is some overtap between these learning forms. For example, exercises, project work,

discovery/reference search can be part of the self-learning form, but all of learning forms are listed here for

completeness.

It has been pointed out that not only should the different modes of teaching be supported in the Tele-

educational environment but also the different styles of learning adopted by the students need to be supported. So for

instance students who like to annotate their work or their course material should be facilitated in doing so. This is very

much in the spirit of hypertext origins of the WWW. Another point raised is that multimedia activity in the virtual

classroom should be captured and associated with relevant course material. For instance, the teachers comments on a

particular slide could be captured with the slide in question. Also the conversation of students working on group could

also be recorded and stored with the exercise.

Course material could be presented as a hyper-document with the participant capable of navigating through

the document or choosing the prescribed ordering of the presentation. In addition, the participant could also be given

access to the more traditional learning material, for example, notes, books, etc. Course assignments could also be

electronically submitted to promote fast feedback on performance. An important element of assignments and project

work is the need to allow participants to co-operate in groups.

4.3 Network Architecture of Tele-education System

From the application's point of view, network operates as IP (Internet Protocol) network routing both multicast

and unicast IP packets. Connection from network level to the Q-adapters managing the switches communicate via ISO

stack over X.25 links, but apart from this instances all network infrastructure is in support of IP traffic. This network

structure connects seven sites.

The aim of the logical network infrastructure is to provide stable network interconnections as well as to be

managed to some extent by the network management, and to provide a working, broadband network infrastructure

while also supporting an enterprise model suitable for multi-domain environment. For the separate customer networks,

each sites posses of LANs of Ethernet, or mixed ATM/Ethernet LAN technologies. For maximum efficiency of scarce

international, broadband resources, only one site in each countries (that taking part in Tele-education system) are

connected. The connection, internationally connected customer sites access the public network ATM service via an

ATM cross-connect (ATM XC) providing ATM public network provider's Point-of-Presence (POP) in each of relevant

countries. Each customer sites posses ATM Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) which is used to interconnect ATM

public network with local routers. For the connection within the same country, it is performed via leased lines between

routers at internationally connected customer sites and sites not connected to ATM public network provider. The ATM

CPEs at internationally connected sites and routers at all customer sites managed by VPN (Virtual Private Network)

provider. It is performed in concert with management of ATM public service by VPN provider to provide Intranet style

connectivity between hosts on customer site LANs. This network is quite complicated because it connects seven sites

in four countries and consisting of the following core components:

„h Four ATM LANs

„h Seven Ethernet based LANs

„h Four ATM Cross Connects

„h Eight static IP routes

„h Seven multicast routers

„h Two 2 Mbps leased lines

„h Ten International ATM links (virtual path)

„h One basic rate ISDN link

The following is the figure of logical network infrastructure:

Figure 4 : Logical Network Infrastructure.

The ATM infrastructure that represents ATM public network provider consists of a single ATM XC at each

internationally connected sites. These XCs are interconnected by permanent VPs (Virtual Paths). The ATM CPE at each

site based on one or more Fore System ASX-200 switches. It is employed as logically separate ATM LANs besides as

providing ATM access between public network and routers at each site. The following is the figure of ATM

configuration.

Figure 5 : ATM Configuration.

The IP configuration consists of routers at each connected sites being connected by Permanent Virtual Channel

(PVC) running over VPs. The routing function at each site performed either by dedicated hardware router or by

workstations running routing daemon software. Routing of multicast IP packets (used for multimedia conferencing

applications) is not fully supported by most current IP routers, therefore, routing performed by multicast routing

daemon (mrouteds) running on workstations. The mrouteds are interconnected by unicast IP tunnels, which can be

used to be routed via routers together with all other unicast traffic. The IP tunnels between mrouted at internationally

connected sites used the second sets of VPs. This supports partition of multicast traffic from other unicast traffic and

thus enables provision of more deterministic Quality of Service (QoS) for multimedia conferencing application.

For external infrastructure, the aim is to provide international ATM links between IP routers at the customer

sites. Parallel VPs are used between each pair of sites; one for multicast routing and another one for unicast routing.

Figure 6 : The network configuration

Reflecting the contemporary trends in multimedia and information services, all software communication is over

IP, including management system traffic. For the network infrastructures that are conducted at a single site, the

requirement its network is fairly simple, requiring simply Ethernet connection to support IP communication between

PCs and workstations. If the system includes the management of connections over IP switches, then the network

infrastructure would include both a representative public network ATM cross connect and customer premises network

ATM work-group switch (a FORE systems ASX200). These are connected and configured with multiple VPs to emulate a

network with a larger number of nodes. IP routing functions in this network are provided by the SPARC workstations

with ATM interface cards performing IP forwarding.

The following is the network configuration of this kind of network:

Figure 7 : Network configuration

For this network configuration, the TES Customer is able to request the set-up of a new connection to the TES

provider. The TES provider then requested the VPN provider to do likewise. The VPN provider made a request to the

Public Network Provider and Customer Premises Network Provider to ensure that the end-to-end IP/ATM connection was

in place for the TES Customer. This is the goal for the configuration scenario.

One of the most important on an ATM network level management system is to provide end-to-end connectivity

across constituent ATM network element, and so support the connectivity provisioning with fault management and

quality of service features. Challenged by these requirements, a system that is able to set up ATM Virtual Paths and to

correlate faulty conditions, determining how these fault effect the connectivity for each end user has been built. The

following is the Network infrastructure of this system:

Figure 8 : Network infrastructure

The figure shows that all the network equipment is connected to one Ethernet hub, that is, the hub that acts as

a backbone for one Public Network domain and two Customer Premises Networks. In reality, this hub could be

partitioned into a number of internets that are inter-connected by routers, also known as the Internet.

For the network that is required to operate over six sites in four different countries, would require a much more

comprehensive network infrastructure. This infrastructure consisted of an ATM VP service, leased lines, and the

internal ATM and IP network infrastructure. The following is the example of this network infrastructure :

Figure 9 : Network infrastructure

4.4 Performance of Tele-educational Service

4.4.1 Courses

There were two courses, both aimed at students with above average prior knowledge of computing and/or

computer networks. The first, an introduction to SQL, was a self-study course, consisting mainly of modules of written

text with assessments based on these. The second course, an introduction to ATM, was led by a tutor and involved

varied methods of delivery, including lecture/seminar, individual study and group work. Students were therefore

expected to interact both with one another and with the tutor. This course, too, included assessment modules.

Both of the courses were offered over a three-day period and students were expected to participate for three

half days. Within this time, those taking the SQL course was able to pace their own study. On the ATM course, the

students¡¦ use of the different resources was timetabled and directed by the tutor. Time was divided between events,

such as lectures, at which all students were expected to be present, and study time, during which they would work

through a series of modules, with assessment associated with each one.

4.4.2 Students

There were 16 students on the more interactive of the two courses, the Introduction to ATM, and a similar

number on the self-paced study course, An Introduction to SQL. All the students appeared to be experienced computer

users. This has to be accepted as necessary in a trial such as this , which takes place in the context of a research

project which uses leading edge technology, some of it is still being tested. The prototypical nature of parts of the

system may make unusual demands on the students, such as imposing unexpected delays. Having students who

appreciate the difficulties may well be important. Having said this, it appeared that although they were knowledgeable

about computers, these students were not experts in networked multimedia technology, and did need some initial

training in the use of the software. This was given prior to the start of the course.

The courses were clearly directed at this target group, as their titles suggest. The students also stated that

they had a genuine wish to learn the subjects being offered and that this was a major motivating factor. They were

also paid for their participation, which may have helped improve their persistence when there were technical hitches.

4.4.3 System

The system used for the ATM course is described here. Those taking the SQL course used only those parts

suited to self study. There are three main elements: audio, and video communications channels support a Tele-

education system built on a web-browser base, but with considerable functionality added.

The audio tool, rat, allows participants to receive and transmit audio, to identify who is speaking, control the

volume of incoming and outgoing audio streams. Since this tool was developed as a research platform, there are many

extra features which the average end-user is not likely to use in an application such as this one, for example, the

facility to change the audio encoding scheme. The tool¡¦s basic functionality is easy to learn and use.

The video tool, vic, also offers functionality suitable for its use as a platform for research into networked video.

For the non-expert, however, the most important features are that multiple users can send and receive video

simultaneously and that they can control some features of both display and capture/transmission (image size and

frame rate are two examples). Video images can be displayed at various sizes from thumbnail image to CIF. Enlarging

images does, however, involve creating a new window for each one.

Students access the Tele-education system via a web browser and navigate within it using hypertext links,

buttons and active areas of images. Initial access is password protected and the system supports the notion of groups

and hence, presumably of multiple classes and tutorial groups.

The interface is based on the metaphor of an educational institution, a building divided into rooms whose

function most students will be able to predict from their real-life experience of education: classroom, tea room, hall,

office, library and seminar room. Users are presented with an aerial view of the layout, in which the rooms are labeled.

They gain access to a room by clicking on the appropriate part of this image. The resulting window sometimes

maintains the metaphor but is more often mainly textual - a list of hypertext links, for example. Once "in" a room,

students have access to the resources they need for the part of the course they are taking.

As might be assumed from the description, the system is intended to support a mixed mode of course delivery,

including lectures, group discussions and assignments, individual study, assessment with feedback. The existence of

the office implies that students can also access relevant course administrative information. The Hall and tea rooms

suggest that the intention is also to support less formal, social interactions.

4.4.4 Positive Findings

The courses both seemed to be appropriate for the target group. Students reported that they believed they

had learned a considerable amount and felt they would retain the important points. The pacing of the study also

seemed successful.

The tutor clearly had a sense that this was a real class in a real institution and made considerable efforts to

generate a relaxed and positive atmosphere. Use of students¡¦ names, and greeting them as soon as they logged in,

contributed to this. This is no mean achievement, given the constraints. The tutor tended to refer to the environment

as if it were a real place, arranging with students, for example, to "meet in the tea room" or telling them to "go to the

library". Whether the students shared this perception is less clear. This may be due to the short time available to

become familiar with it. It would be interesting to see whether the environment would become more "real" to the

students over a longer course.

The room-based structure therefore seems to have been successful. The metaphor seems to have been well

chosen, since students seemed to have appropriate expectations of each "room". None of them appeared to have

difficulty navigating between different rooms. Observation did show that some students had to scroll up and down

repeatedly, however, when they were working on individual study texts. This seemed particularly to be the case where

they found the material more difficult. Again, there was no sign that they were unsure of where to go or had difficulty

in navigation.

In terms of course delivery, the trial showed that students experienced considerable variety in the ATM course

(inevitably less so in the SQL course). Not only this, but the tutor seemed able to exploit the flexibility of the system

and to direct the student to alternative areas of study from what had been planned originally, if necessary. One of the

problems with distance education is that such flexibility can be harder to achieve than in a face-to-face situation, so

this is promising and an interesting result of having different applications integrated in this way. It also has a

pragmatic use: given technical problems in one area, it was possible to shift students to another activity quite easily.

Interactivity, both structured and casual was potentially considerable. The shared whiteboard used for group

work was perceived by students as a good feature. It seemed, however, that they did not all realize at first that they

could write and draw on it. Perhaps this should be pointed out in the introductory sessions, or the whiteboard should be

accompanied by a short explanatory note. It would also be fair to say that this was not a long enough trial to assess

usability of this part of the system.

In the limited time it was also not easy for students to establish relationships. The system and the way the

tutor used it did encourage students to get to know one another since, for example, one of the first activities for

students was to upload their CVs and pictures and to browse through those of other students.

The level of concentration appeared to be high. Naturally, as in a classroom, there were moments when

students¡¦ attention moved away from the subject of study but these were not frequent. Interestingly, they usually

stayed at the workstation but moved to another activity such as reading e-mail. The students observed "live" appeared

to maintain concentration despite considerable background noise and other potential distractions. This is not a

surprise, since other computer-based teaching and learning trials have drawn similar conclusions - but it is another

promising feature.

At best, the material with which the students were engaged appeared well designed for delivery on a computer

screen. The information was "packaged" into manageable chunks and was visually stimulating. Diagrams, colour and

animation were used effectively, and the layout was clear and appealing. As the next section suggests, however, not

all of the written material was so suitable for this method of presentation.

Feedback was given to students both by the tutor, during discussions (for the ATM course), and as a result of

assessments done at the end of each module. Students appeared to take these assessments seriously and were

observed to return to the relevant part of the notes when unsure or when they had given an incorrect answer. The

scope of this evaluation did not extend to assessing the course design or the assessment methods, but it is worth

mentioning that the regular assessment seems to have been a successful feature of the course.

Awareness of other students is something that is hard to achieve in distance education. Interestingly, with the

audio channel left open during private study periods, it appeared that students experienced something similar to

working in a library with other students around them. They were able to hear conversations and could have asked

questions if they needed to. The potential disadvantage is that the additional background noise might interfere with

concentration. It would probably be worth investigating whether the availability or otherwise of the audio channel

makes a difference to students.

4.5 Operation and Management of Tele-education Service

A vital element of any service is the reliability, configurability and administration of that service. In order to

ensure success of an educational service from both the participants¡¦ and tutor¡¦s perspectives, the delivered service

must be well managed and monitored. It is crucially important to realize the software and procedures necessary to

manage and deliver Tele-educational services over broadband networks.

Four basic principles for successful teaching in a virtual classroom environment have been identified as

„h media richness,

„h interaction,

„h timely responsiveness and

„h organization of materials.

Media richness and interaction mechanisms can be satisfied by the educational services described earlier. The

organization of course materials and the insurance of timely response by systems, participants and tutors are goals of

the management service. During the delivery of a course, there is a significant mass of material presented to

participants as well as a high degree of interactive responses amongst participants. Unless this mass of materials is

organized and interaction controlled, participants can become confused and disillusioned. Proper maintenance and

management of the dissemination of material must be put in place to provide an effective learning environment.

Segregation of material, both between and within course modules should also be supported. The strategy of

¡¦participant-paced¡¦ learning is important so as to ensure that the class moves through the modules of a course

together in order for the interactions to be meaningful.

Timely responsiveness has also been identified as a key requirement for Tele-education. Thus access to course

material, as well as other participants and tutors, should be reliable and timely. To achieve successful operation of the

tele-educational service, participant (on-site) software should be configurable for a wide range of computing

environments. Also participation of the class members should be manageable e.g. course registration, controlling

access to class discussions, automatic collection/distribution of assignments and projects etc. The on-line management

system should provide the range of services as required by each course leader.

5.0 CONCLUSION

Tele-education system is a very new emerging technology. It has been applied in Europe and Canada, and is

still under study in order to improve it from time to time.

From this project, it is known that Tele-education is a revolution of distance learning in which distance learning

basically only provides asynchronous learning environment. But Tele-education has improved it by providing both

asynchronous and synchronous learning environment.

After studying all the materials found for this material, it was found that Tele- education is not easy to

implement. This is because there are a lot of things need to be considered before implementing such as what kind of

network structures available, what kind of service can be provided by network service provider, what is the most

suitable network for interconnection among the involved sites, etc. Another reason is that, after implementing it, there

need to have several trials on the service to look at its efficiency which would take a long time.

In general, it can be concluded that Tele-education is becoming popular as the emerging of multimedia

technology. Its advantages that could overcome the problem in current learning environment also has made it a

preferable way of learning process.

What is Tele-education?

Recent advances in video conferencing have brought about numerous new options for tele-education. Tele-

education, or distance learning, delivers the course content remotely via several means. Usually the classes are

taught on a self-paced basis, meaning that the students are responsible for learning the course on their own.

For that reason, pupils who are unable to organize their time well are not good candidates for distance learning.

Educational and instructional television were the first forms of tele-education. Modern technology has expanded

the parameters to include web conferencing and video conferencing. That paved the way for universities to

offer classes to special needs students and the general public. Some accredited universities offer their entire

course catalog online. Other virtual universities don’t even have a campus. Their courses are only offered via

standard mail and video conferencing.

Some distance learning classes are synchronized. Classes are presented at a regular time and day every week,

and all students are expected to participate together. Both synchronous and asynchronous tele-education

might require you to purchase printed materials; watch pre-recorded video lessons; participate on message

boards and forums; listen to audio recordings and communicate with the instructor by e-mail or instant

messaging. Some hybrid courses permit tele-education but require their students to take the final exam in

person.

Three Benefits of Tele-education

Here are three excellent benefits to studying via video conferencing or telepresence:

1. More Flexible Schedule

Distance learners study at their convenience. Classes can be taken whenever the time is right for you. If you

have a day job, you can study in the evening. If you work the graveyard shift, you can study in the morning. If

you’re a night owl, you have the option to study when the rest of the class is sleeping. Tele-education is great

for full-time workers who can’t attend regular classes. Single mothers can take classes after their kids are in

bed. If you have an upcoming vacation, you can double-up on your studies to pick up the slack. Should you

become ill, you can always catch up when you’re feeling better.

2. Lower Costs

Because they don’t have to maintain classrooms or keep the grounds tidy, tuition at virtual universities is

usually cheaper than brick and mortar schools. In some cases, you can use online texts and e-books to save

money on course materials. Plus, you’ll save time and money by taking the courses in the privacy of your

home. You won’t have to spend 30 minutes in traffic, you’ll avoid wasting gas on the trip and you can use that

extra time to study harder or take care of chores and appointments.

3. More Options for the Student

Unless you live in a town that is home to a great university, you’ll probably find more course options offered on-

line. If you live in Kentucky, you can take classes from a university that specializes in film production in Los

Angeles. By taking classes from across the country, you’ll avoid having to relocate to another city. Moving and

settling in can steal your income and eat away at your energy. By staying at home to study, you get extra time

daily to devote to your classwork. You’ll also have more money to spend.

Some students in countries like India and Africa live so far from a university that tele-education is their only

chance to get a degree. For those students, video conferencing is a major aid in their quest for an education.

With a high-speed Internet connection, you can study with the best of them. Nearly every major university

offers online versions of their courses. The student experience is changing with every click of the mouse and

every advance in video conferencing. Tele-education is an idea whose promise has been fulfilled with the

arrival of the Internet

AbstractTele-education has been used for many years to deliver continuing education programmes to rural health-care professionals. The main modes are audio, video and computer. Audio technologies involve the transmission of the spoken word (voice) between learners and instructors, either synchronously or asynchronously. Examples of the former include audioconferencing and short-wave radio; examples of the latter include audiotape or audiocassette. Video for distance learning, like audio, can be used in either synchronous or

asynchronous fashion. Videoconferencing, or interactive television, are considered synchronous because there is the opportunity for live visual and verbal interaction between instructors and learners. Asynchronous instructional video tools include slow-scan video, interactive videodiscs and videotapes. Computer-assisted learning or instruction can be defined as any learning that is mediated by a computer and which requires no direct interaction between the user and a human instructor in order to run. It is becoming increasingly common. Examples include: the Internet and World Wide Web, email, synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated communication applications and interactive multimedia applications on CD-ROM. Tele-education technologies have an important role to play in addressing the professional isolation which is experienced by rural and remote health-care professionals.

Objectives

Three objectives for introducing new technologies into education can be cited:

Integrate the Tools of our Time into the Current Educational Process

It takes time to introduce new methods of education. Phases for the exploration, evaluation and adaptation of new ideas, in which the imagination plays a major role, are necessary. These phases will be undertaken in the educational institutions themselves.

The people who will derive benefits from these technologies are very numerous but, among them, two categories are worthy of our attention, namely:

Those who receive education – pupils, students, professionals in continuing education – must take into account the new means of access to, and of communication with, their teachers

Those who deliver knowledge must learn to communicate amongst themselves to exchange, and also to share, their ideas and their experiences, so that their teaching skills evolve.

The immediate aim of this integration is the small for all – teachers, pupils and professionals. It is to familiarize themselves with the use of modern day means of communications and expression, which will, beyond all doubt, be indispensable to all citizens of the developed countries in the first decade of the new millennium.

Enrich and Modernise the content of the Subjects Taught

The facility and speed offered by global networks create new fields of international exchange between partners not only of the same trade, but also of different cultures, and this is unquestionably a chance for enrichment and for other opportunities in conditions which were unimaginable just a few years ago. In addition they provide the French-speaking world with an extra opportunity to radiate out and to open up, enabling it to strengthen its cultural links, which already unite the world of French expression. They also fit into, and remain deeply entrenched in, the cultural and international context by means of a better diffusion of our knowledge and an easy, direct access to that of others, notably that of the English-speaking world.

Offer Everyone the Access to Knowledge in an Egalitarian Way

The use of these new technologies in the world of education has the aim of rendering more equitable the diffusion of knowledge. Thus it promotes each individual’s equality of opportunity in the field of education and, by this means, aims to reduce academic failures. It should reduce disparities between the urban and rural zones, and the inequalities of opportunities arising from cultural or social differences.

What is Tele-education?Recent advances in video conferencing have brought about numerous new options for tele-

education. Tele-education, or distance learning, delivers the course content remotely via

several means. Usually the classes are taught on a self-paced basis, meaning that the

students are responsible for learning the course on their own. For that reason, pupils who

are unable to organize their time well are not good candidates for distance learning.

Educational and instructional television were the first forms of tele-education. Modern

technology has expanded the parameters to include web conferencing and video

conferencing. That paved the way for universities to offer classes to special needs students

and the general public. Some accredited universities offer their entire course catalog online.

Other virtual universities don’t even have a campus. Their courses are only offered via

standard mail and video conferencing.

Some distance learning classes are synchronized. Classes are presented at a regular time

and day every week, and all students are expected to participate together. Both synchronous

and asynchronous tele-education might require you to purchase printed materials; watch

pre-recorded video lessons; participate on message boards and forums; listen to audio

recordings and communicate with the instructor by e-mail or instant messaging. Some hybrid

courses permit tele-education but require their students to take the final exam in person.

Three Benefits of Tele-educationHere are three excellent benefits to studying via video conferencing or telepresence:1. More Flexible ScheduleDistance learners study at their convenience. Classes can be taken whenever the time is

right for you. If you have a day job, you can study in the evening. If you work the graveyard

shift, you can study in the morning. If you’re a night owl, you have the option to study when

the rest of the class is sleeping. Tele-education is great for full-time workers who can’t attend

regular classes. Single mothers can take classes after their kids are in bed. If you have an

upcoming vacation, you can double-up on your studies to pick up the slack. Should you

become ill, you can always catch up when you’re feeling better.

2. Lower CostsBecause they don’t have to maintain classrooms or keep the grounds tidy, tuition at virtual

universities is usually cheaper than brick and mortar schools. In some cases, you can use

online texts and e-books to save money on course materials. Plus, you’ll save time and

money by taking the courses in the privacy of your home. You won’t have to spend 30

minutes in traffic, you’ll avoid wasting gas on the trip and you can use that extra time to

study harder or take care of chores and appointments.

3. More Options for the StudentUnless you live in a town that is home to a great university, you’ll probably find more course

options offered on-line. If you live in Kentucky, you can take classes from a university that

specializes in film production in Los Angeles. By taking classes from across the country,

you’ll avoid having to relocate to another city. Moving and settling in can steal your income

and eat away at your energy. By staying at home to study, you get extra time daily to devote

to your classwork. You’ll also have more money to spend.

Some students in countries like India and Africa live so far from a university that tele-

education is their only chance to get a degree. For those students, video conferencing is a

major aid in their quest for an education.

With a high-speed Internet connection, you can study with the best of them. Nearly every

major university offers online versions of their courses. The student experience is changing

with every click of the mouse and every advance in video conferencing. Tele-education is an

idea whose promise has been fulfilled with the arrival of the Internet.

Tele-education to be launched in government schools soon, The government and IIMB to jointly implement the project.

Bangalore: The Department of Primary and Secondary Education and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) will jointly launch tele-education in government schools. The collaboration announced in the State Budget will be an extension of the pilot project implemented in 2010-12.

The Satellite and Advanced Multimedia Education (SAME) project, introduced in 14 government high schools in Gubbitaluk, aimed at addressing the obstacles in the present system by providing satellite-based training for students of Classes 8 to 10 in mathematics, science and English. Animation and other innovative multimedia platforms have been integrated with the school curriculum to help students.

G. Kumar Naik, Principal Secretary, Primary and Secondary Education, said the government was planning to implement the project in the present academic year. “While the finer details and logistics are yet to be worked out, the scale of implementation could be bigger; it will definitely not be just a pilot project,” he added. GopalNaik, Professor of Economics and Social Sciences, and chairperson, Centre of Excellence for Urban Development, IIM-B, told The Hindu : “We have not decided on the number of schools/ districts as yet because the criteria can either be the performance of government high schools or the district average in pass percentage. We hope to finalise it within a few weeks.” He said the research team of the Centre for Public Policy, IIM-B, created a design for an effective and sustainable Common Service Centre in rural India based on the findings of a study on Nemmadi Centres. They invited public and private sector organisations to form a consortium to implement the project. This was supported by the e-governance and the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.

“We found improvements in pass percentages in 14 schools with the introduction of tele-education. I will attribute the success to quality inputs – good teachers in the studio who could explain concepts very well; animation, which played a big role in making concepts clear; and the interactive nature of classes which had question and answer sessions,”

Prof.Naik said. Asked if there would be a difference in the implementation of the project in its second innings, he said, “We do not see the need to do anything differently at this stage but if need be, we can spread the classes over one whole academic year. Last time, we did it for a shorter period. Now there is enough time to plan. We have fine-tuned the technology. These classes will be very useful and relevant now because the State Board syllabus has been upgraded.”

Tele-education in Post Graduate, Under Graduate, Diploma and Certificate Programmes from the world class Indian Universities over Pan-African e-Network.

Pan-African e-Network Project is a joint initiative of the Government of India and African Union and is funded by the Government of India at a cost of US$116 Million. It aims at imparting tele-education to 10000 students of African countries participating in the project, using modern information communication technologies, from some of the top notch universities of India.  The eligible students enrolled in various programmes will be required to attend the classes in the learning centre set up in each member country as part of the project.

Post Graduate (PG), Under Graduate (UG), Diploma and Certificate programmes in the field of management business and finance, engineering, & technology, computer science  & information technology,  international languages English, French, Germany and Arabic are available from the Indian universities namely Indira Gandhi National Open University, Amity University, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, University of Delhi and University of Madras.  Course content, structure, eligibility criteria, duration of each of the programmes offered are made available at the website www.panafricanenetwork.com.

Learning centres connect to the Indian universities as per pre-defined lecture schedule available at the Tele-Education portal. Highly experienced faculty shall deliver the live, interactive lectures from the Tele-education studio set up of the respective Indian universities. A unique feature of the tele-education system in the project is the offline access to the lecture contents stored in the database at the Datacentre , through internet for review learning.

Hughes Communications India Provides Managed Tele-Education Network for

Medical Students

Delhi Academy of Medical Sciences is first to offer satellite-based, online

coaching service

New Delhi, India, September 9, 2013—Hughes Communications India Limited (HCIL), a

subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband

satellite networks and services, today announced that it will provide a managed tele-

education network to the Delhi Academy of Medical Sciences for post-graduation medical

coaching. The satellite-based, online service will assist medical students in attaining success

in NEET/AIIMS/PGI and other post-graduate medical exams.

With a network of over one million schools and 18,000 higher educational institutions, India

has one of the largest educational systems in the world, and the online education market is

forecasted to grow to $40 billion by 2017. As the leading satellite communications provider in

the country, HCIL is helping such institutions expand their reach and accessibility across

India, and plans to offer its tele-education solutions to other renowned medical institutes.

Dr. Sumer Sethi, director, Delhi Academy of Medical Sciences, said, “This technology is

bound to help medical students, particularly those based in tier II-III cities. We have the

largest face-to-face classroom network in India with 30 classrooms. We are looking to

leverage the advantages of satellite technology from Hughes, pioneers in tele-education and

e-learning software to reach out to more students. So far, medical students who have

participated have really loved the concept.”

Shivaji Chatterjee, vice president, HCIL commented, “India has the highest number of

medical institutes in the world, yet many students around the country are not able to access

quality education because of geographical limitations. This initiative represents a paradigm

shift in medical education, as it will dramatically increase the accessibility of knowledge to

every corner of the country—employing our latest, most cost-effective and user-friendly

technology platforms.”

Hughes advanced tele-education networks provide a virtual face-to-face experience with

high-quality, high-clarity and direct eye contact, including two-way voice interaction and chat-

based queries. Now students from the most remote areas of the country will have access to

the same faculty as students in Delhi and other metro cities.

About Hughes Communications India

HCIL is a majority owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes), the world's

largest provider of broadband satellite networks and services. HCIL is the largest satellite

service operator in India providing a comprehensive range of broadband networking

technologies, solutions, and services for businesses and governments, including Managed

Services to meet every communications challenge. More information is available at

www.hughes.in.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the world’s leading provider of satellite

broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed

services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet® is the #1

high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget.

To date, Hughes has shipped more than 3.3 million systems to customers in over 100

countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards

approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and

GMR-1.

Tele-Education Service Delivery - A Pilot Project in North East States

Description

“IT Driven Citizen Centric Services in the NE States”, a project funded by Department of Electronic and Information Technology (Deity), was undertaken by NIC. The tele-education as one of the proposed services was selected which was intended to give fair opportunity to the students of North East States to compete in all India entrance examinations by bringing better quality education at the door step of their remotely located schools. The delivery of this service was started in selected schools as a pilot project during 2009-10 & 2010-11 academic sessions. Over 2100 students in each academic session were registered through online registration process and they were given printed books/course materials on physics, chemistry, biology & mathematics. This tele-education service delivery coupled with SMS service was widely appreciated by respective North East state governments, schools, students and their parent. Major Activities: 1. Workshop of Commissioner (Education) / Director (Education) of North East states 2. Workshop of Principals and coordinators of schools. Over 150 participants attended the workshop 3. Schools have been provided NICNET connectivity through VPN over Broadband or Wi-Max 4. Schools have been equipped with two PC, LCD Projector, UPS, Sound system, Wireless microphone 5. Online Service Delivery on NICNET 6. Subject & Topic-wise recorded sessions available over web site for offline reference.

Time Lab and EducationInnovative concepts for distributed education

Tele-education promises to expand access to learning opportunities and support life-long continuing education. General experience has demonstrated that information is better understood and retained if it directly addresses the student. To this end, successful tele-education hinges on the use of media technologies that support synchronous learning – the real-time, interactive transmission of educational content. The end result is a “virtual classroom” capable of addressing all major types of learning: 

School and university education Continuing education User training (for example, instructions for new products and product features)

A key advantage of this kind of tele-education lies in the opportunity to provide synchronous learning opportunities independent of geographic location. This option may be called on for organizational reasons (avoiding travel and accommodation costs) or to support specific educational policies (expanding educational opportunities to rural areas that would not normally have access to them).Similar technologies can be used to support teleconferencing for businesses and organizations interested in reducing meeting and administrative costs. One key problem with existing teleconferencing tools is that they do not allow users to pick up and parse non-verbal cues. With immersive media technologies, participants can see the full context of communications and truly feel like they are part of the same meeting even if they are separated by thousands of miles – a feeling that increases the effectiveness of the meeting as a whole.

S.A.T.E.P. : Synchronous-Asynchronous Tele-education Platform

S.A.T.E.P. means Synchronous Asynchronous Tele education Platform is a software application for educational purposes, with a lot of parametrizing features written entirely from scratch. It aims at the training and examination of computer skills, a platform that can be adjusted to the needs of each lesson. In the application the trainer and the administrator can

define the number of the lectures and upload files for each one of them. Furthermore, he can insert, modify and delete questions which are used for evaluation tests but also for the trainees examinations. The trainee can read and download the files of each lesson and also test his knowledge on what he has studied through a series of questions. A chat module where registered users as well as system administrator can discuss and solve questions is also developed.

India launches GSAT-14 for tele-education and tele-medicine

GSLV-D5, the eighth flight of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) has launched GSAT-14 today at 16:18 hours from second launch pad at SatishDhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota to provide tele-education and tele-medicine services.

GSAT-14, a 1982 communication satellite will launch into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). After reaching GTO, GSAT-14 will use its own propulsion system to reach its geostationary orbital home and will be stationed at 74º East longitude.

GSAT-14 is the twenty third geostationary communication satellite of India built by ISRO. Four of GSAT-14’s predecessors were launched by GSLV during 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2007 respectively. After its commissioning, GSAT-14 will join the group of India’s nine operational geostationary satellites.

It is also the fourth developmental flight of GSLV. During this flight, the indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) will be flight tested for the second time.

GSLV-D5 is a three-stage launch vehicle with solid, liquid and cryogenic stages. It is designed to inject 2 Ton class of communication satellites to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The four liquid L40 strap-ons as well as the second stage of GSLV use storable liquid propellants.

A Cryogenic rocket stage is more efficient and provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant it burns compared to solid and earth-storable liquid propellant ocket stages. Specific impulse (a measure of the efficiency) achievable with cryogenic propellants (liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen) is much higher compared to earth storable liquid and solid propellants, giving it a substantial payload advantage.

GSLV-D5 vehicle is configured with its first and second stages similar to the ones flown during earlier GSLV missions. The third stage is the indigenous cryogenic stage. The metallic payload fairing with a diameter of 3.4 metre is adopted for GSLV-D5.

GSAT-14 has 6 Extended C-Band transponders, 6 Ku-band transponders and 2 Ka-band beacons. Six extended C-band transponders for Indian mainland and island coverage with 36 dBW. Six Ku-band transponders covering the mainland India with 51.5 dBW and Two Ka-band Beacons operating at 20.2 GHz and 30.5 GHz to carry out attenuation studies.

Teleeducationnetwork is an initiative to share academic as well as non academic resources between institutions and Resource people worldwide using Video conferencing technologies. 

Educational Institutions can share their LIVE fully INTERACTIVE and RECORDED lectures and classes either for Free or on chargeable basis with other institutions Worldwide. They can also have access to resource persons Worldwide who can deliver specialized fully interactive lectures and innovative programs sitting at their home. 

Similarly Lecturers, Teachers and any kind of resource persons interested in delivering lectures or classes - not just academic but whoever is interested in the betterment of today’s generation - can offer their services for free or on paid basis. 

Teleeducationnetwork.com is also a provider of innovative live interactive programs using the Video Conferencing Technology. Few of the programs it does are: 

Live interaction with NASA scientists.

A one hour Live program with a undersea diver showing the marine life and

interacting with school children live on their questions.

A short 45 minute training program on puppetry and needle stitching.

You can check what all equipments, software, etc. are needed to be part of this

network.

Virtual Tele-Ed

Virtual Tele-ED - a Tele-education Delivery System is a Digital Gateway to the

students, researchers, faculty and experts to address the complete life cycle of education

in school, college and university from entry to the final certification.

A unique universal solution in the education domain, that multicasts the

synchronized multimedia, including video, audio, data to remote virtual class

rooms. Its collaboration tools seamlessly  interact with the students; interface

with the digital library and  internet to provide information on demand;  interfaces

with a Virtual  Library, Virtual Content Management system and is a two-way

interactive system with a one-to-many and remote-to-any concept,  that makes

a remote teacher become a teacher to all the students  with the click of a button.

Virtual Tele-Ed (Live) and Complete IT Education solution via LMS, KMS, CMS,

Online Examination systems and Digital Library are ready HDTV, Web, VSAT,

MPLS Network, Fiber optics and Wireless based solutions for Tele-education &

Corporate training using end-to-end synchronous and asynchronous education

platform - from low to high bandwidth.

Virtual Tele-Ed LMS:

Virtual University / College / School - a smart ERP for all levels of

Education and e-Governance

Comprehensive, asynchronous learning management solution, using

fully robust, web based components, built on top of J2EE platform using

MVC architecture.

Entry to Exit is fully digital

Student Application and Admission.

Entrance Examination and Interview.

Student virtual classroom.

Student collaboration with faculty and other students.

Student performance monitoring.

Secured semester examination with digital certification / PKI based

question paper delivery.

Digital answer paper validation and Online result announcement.

Administration & management of the institute through smart, secure e-

Governance.

Virtual REMOTE CLASSROOM

The Remote Virtual Classroom is a client side software that lets you

receive live lecture and incorporates extensive collaboration tools for

sharing subject knowledge with the experts from the university studio

through the VSAT network. It also has a recording agent.

Virtual TELE-ED Web

This web application system administers the studio

operations for the timetable schedule by fixing the course,

lecture topic, and time slot to the respective subject expert.

It manages the multiple studios in a complex environment.

Virtual LMS

This e-Learning Management System helps to automate

the learning environment, provide access for students,

teachers and parents to online registration, syllabus, fees,

courses and subjects, question and answers, quiz,

projects, thesis, seminars, conferences, news, tasks,

space, email and home page. It also provides status

tracking, reporting, and progress monitoring in the

university environment, college environment and school

environment. This tool is based on SCORM standards for

interoperable learning object management.

Virtual CMS

This versatile Content Management Solution (CMS)

facilitates the deployment of a syllabus and the online

course content over the web, through dynamic workflow for

verification, validation, approval and content deployment. It

supports SCORM.

Virtual EXAM

Facility of Question Bank Creation and Question Paper

Generation with various difficulty factors and unique

randomness. Provides Question Paper Delivery through

the secured workflow using Digital signature, 1024 bit DSA

based encryption and decryption. Live question paper

access in remote locations with security.

Virtual OMRV

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) based objective Question

- Answer paper validation and marking system that works

with Virtual EXAM.

Virtual Conference

One-to-one, and one-to-many users can be connected in a

seamless networked environment starting from H.263

standards, JPEG and MPEG formats.

The Start of Satellite Tele-education

The launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, occurred in October 1957. This was quickly followed by the launch of a series of telecommunications satellites such as Score, Courier IB, Echo, Relay, Telstar, and Syncom. These and other experimental satellites demonstrated that voice, data and television could be sent reliably between ground antenna systems. These experiments led to the deployment of three operational systems in 1965 namely the Russian Molniya domestic satellite system, the U.S. Initial Defense Satellite Communications System, and the INTELSAT global satellite system's Early Bird. From the very start of satellite communications services television transmissions were featured. These included exchanges between heads of state, the Lemans automobile race, and important social services such as surgeons in Geneva, Switzerland observing open heart surgery in Houston, Texas by Dr.Debekey.

In the ensuing years through the late 1960s and the 1970s efforts to devise satellite technology that could bring cost effective satellite tele-education services to rural and remote areas at cost-effective rates continued. These efforts included the Applications Technology Satellite series 1 through 6 that showed many different new satellite applications including satellite tele-education. The ATS-6 with a very large unfurlable antenna demonstrated rural satellite video education services in the Appalachia region of the U.S. as well as in Brazil and India. The Communications Technology Satellite (with the Hermes satellite designed and built in Canada and with NASA providing the launch) also showed how very high powered satellites could broadcast educational video to rural areas using only very small aperture terminals.

In the 1980s satellite based tele-education began to evolve on a global scale. The Indian INSAT system, building on the positive SITE experiments conducted with the ATS-6 was deployed starting with the INSAT 1B in 1983. Now with the INSAT 2 series, built the Indian Space Organization, deployed there are four satellites providing television based education to tens of thousands of villages. In Indonesia the Palapa satellite system also began offering television education in the 1980s as well.

International programming as well as local programming developed by Television Radio Indonesia (TVRI) provided service to sites on Indonesia most heavily populated islands.

In areas such as the Caribbean and the South Pacific operating networks based on satellite operations have been in operation for over 20 years through such networks as UDIWITE (University of the West Indies) Peacesat (University of the South Pacific).

Project SHARE

One of the key stimulants to the spread of satellite communications came from the INTELSAT sponsored Satellites for Health and Rural Education (SHARE) project that took place from 1985 to 1987. Free satellite capacity was made available to test rural and remote educational and tele-health projects all over the world. Most dramatically, China, under the auspices of INTELSAT's Project Share began its national education television program in this manner. It began with only a few dozen stations and a few thousand students. Today this network has over 90,000 antennas in operation in all parts of China and reaches over 3 million students.

In East Africa and in the Caribbean tele-medicine tests were carried out using only a single satellite voice circuit to connect the Memorial Hospital of Newfoundland to remote hospital and clinics. The same circuit was used for a seven hour shift to link Canada with Kenya and Uganda and then for another seven hour shift to link Canada with Caribbean nations.

Current and Future Trends

In Canada and the United States over 100 different satellite tele-education systems are now in operation. These include state and province owned and operated networks, commercial networks that range from primary schooling to graduate level programming. Some projects such as the Mind-Extension University of the Jones Intercable reaches into over 20 million homes via cable television. Others such as the National Technological University (NTU) combines college course produced by over 40 different universities and also provides short courses and corporate training. European use of satellite tele-education has been less extensive than in North America simply because extensive terrestrial

telecommunications networks are widely available and cover population centers and educational institutions quite well.

Project LEARN

One of the latest initiatives to seek to stimulate new directions and experiments in satellite tele-education is called Project LEARN. This stands for Local Education and Resource Network and its objective is to stimulate a wide range of tele-education projects in diverse subjects, in a number of countries and with alternative technical and operations approaches. It is anticipated that after the various trials, tests and demonstrations, and projects are completed that an assessment team will evaluate the successes, shortcoming, and key lessons learned and prepare a international report of these findings. To date projects in India, China, Russia, Korea, and the U.S. have been initially identified for detailed planning. It is intended that the final report and evaluation will be published and circulated by the International Telecommunication Union as well as presented in electronic form as an international web site. Specific objectives are to test and evaluate:

1. broad band versus narrow band tele-education systems

2. effectiveness of tele-education at various age levels3. ability to combine rural communications systems

with tele-education systems4. effectiveness of combined tele-education and tele-

medicine projects5. effectiveness of satellite, terrestrial and hybrid

systems in meeting tele-education objectives.6. identify typical gaps or problems in tele-education

projects such as in the areas of training of educators and technicians, program development, terminal equipment, high cost of establishing or maintaining ground systems, technical standards, etc.

7. impact of tele-education systems on quality of life and general improvements to society (these areas are admittedly extremely difficult to measure).

These projects are planned for 1998 and 1999 and the final report for Project LEARN is anticipated in the year 2000.

There are today a growing number of test, demonstrations, and even commercial projects in tele-education. It is hoped

that Project LEARN and perhaps other parallel global test and evaluation programs can share more broadly and effectively the results of these tele-education tests.