Each quarter, selected PMP classes are enhanced with a set of "distance education" features. The features include:
In a departure from our normal arrangement, this quarter CSE 593 lectures will be given live at Microsoft. The remote classrooms will be at Intel Dupont, and at UW. All sites are equipped with video teleconference equipment, a conference phone, an internet-connected computer capable of sending and receiving images with Microsoft NetMeeting, and a projector/display for the computer as appropriate for the class size.
We use ISDN-based Video Teleconference (VTC) equipment at each of the sites to carry the video images of the lecturer and of the remote students. The VTC bridge will normally be configured to determine which of the video images a given site should receive based on which is sending the greater and more constant audio signal. The remote sites would normally see the lecturer most of the time, while the originating site would see the remote site at which greater audio is generated. The bridge will change the routing of signals as the audio levels change, but the switch is not immediate.
We don't use the audio portion of the VTC signal (other than to allow the bridge to make the routing decisions). Instead we carry audio between the sites over standard telephone lines. The reason for this is that the VTC bridge introduces about a half second of latency between the parties. This latency makes interaction very awkward. The use of conferencing phones with the appropriate microphones and speakers make for a much better interactive experience for both instructors and students.
We use Microsoft NetMeeting to transmit in real-time, PowerPoint slides and other images from the lecturer's computer to computers at the remote sites. This allows the lecturer to effectively drive the remote displays.
The UW site has an electronic whiteboard, the image from which can also be transmitted with NetMeeting.
The best way for those of us who implement and manage these technologies to know whether or not they really work is to receive feedback. If you have a comment of any kind, don't hesitate to email: fred@cs.washington.edu
Lectures from selected PMP "distance education" courses are viewable on the internet as Microsoft Netshow programs, both live and on-demand. For CSE 593, audio and video from the VTC will be encoded at UW. We will endeavor to produce an on-demand stream with embedded URLs, such that the lecture slides will be synchronized with the talk. Note that the live streams will not include the embedded URLs.
There is selection of past PMP courses and CSE Colloquia available for on-demand viewing.
To view a Netshow program, install the free Windows Media Player , and then at class time, you can view the lecture using:
Links to the on-demand lectures will normally be posted in in the course web on the day following the lecture.
Support: If you're having trouble receiving a live or on-demand
lecture, feel free to contact me (Fred Videon):
Email: fred@cs.washington.edu
Office phone: 206-543-4725
Cell phone (during lectures): 206-617-4706.
One misleading error commonly reported by the Netshow client is Bad or missing channel URL. One way to get this error is to leave your Media Player client configured to use a non-existent proxy. In the Media Player, go to View menu->Options->Advanced tab->Windows Media, and click "change" then select "no proxy" and reload.
The Netshow server is capable of delivering a stream with HTTP. If you have trouble receiving a Netshow program through a firewall, verify that your player is configured to use the HTTP stream. The Windows media player settings are under View menu->Options->Advanced tab->Windows Media. HTTP enabled is the default setting.
Netshow may optionally use multicast delivery. To receive multicast, you must have multicast-enabled routing on your network. If you're not sure whether this is available to you, ask your network administrator. Netshow will normally try multicast first if you have enabled it in your client. If it is not available, it will roll over to unicast. If you can use the multicast, we prefer that you do so.
It has been observed that Media Player clients receiving multicast may occasionally lose track of the stream, and get stuck once in awhile. If this happens to you, try using unicast. To force the client to use unicast, go to View menu->Options->Advanced tab->Windows Media, click 'change' and disable multicast. Quit the Media Player, and restart it.