Joint class experiments based on realtime Web-browser synchronization

Abstract

Real time distributed education has been the focus of much research and experimentation. Recently, Internet technologies, especially those related to Web browsers, have been used to share course materials among remote sites. Real time Web page sharing provides various benefits such as low cost preparation of course materials, but it imposes various limitations on the user in an actual classroom environment. The paper describes our experience in building a distributed classroom system, based on our real time Web browser sharing technology, combined with a commercial video conferencing system, and explains how the unique features of our system could facilitate the effective use of shared Web pages in a classroom environment.