Towards a Real Virtual Classroom

Abstract

Distance education is well regarded as a better way to bring education to those who are unable to attend classes at traditional schools and universities. In recent years, new Web technologies and systems such as Ajax, RSS, Wikis, blogs, social networks, online image and video sharing, online whiteboard and mind maps have made distance education more efficient and effective. However, in today distance education practice, distance learners still cannot get some of the benefits that traditional classrooms have offered. In this paper, we present a Web-based course delivery system that can provide a classroom like environment to learners distributed across the Web. Within such a system, learners are more closely connected, and helps can come more timely from their peers or the instructor and tutors. We discuss the design and architecture of the system, as well as the implementation.