Abstract:

Video lectures from classrooms, conferences, talks and so on, are very useful in order to share knowledge, ideas, etc. Nowadays, there are a lot of websites and tools for sharing this kind of information. For example, http://www.videolectures.net is one of the most popular. It allows to share a video together with a presentation (PDF or PowerPoint format) and synchronize both in order to show a given slide in a given instant. It also allows to include additional information, like author information, date of presentation, link to other similar presentations, etc. Other important site is http://parleys.com/ which presents a better interface but is still a video plus presentation site, although it includes additional resources, like files (for example, manuals). Http://www.infoq.com is another example of site with these features. In this paper, we present a tool to build, share and visualize a more complex structure, not just a video plus presentation item. We want to use additional useful items. For example, a chat (and social) area, material dropping, additional cameras (student cameras), meta-information (subject, author and talk information, related talks, etc.). The idea is not only use video lectures like standalone class, but also use them like a collaborative tool. In this way, we could use video lectures to teach a virtual class. We divide our tool in two parts. First, an edition tool which allows to synchronize all the elements. This tool will use an open standard format, defined in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and allows us to create the video lecture. Using a friendly environment, users could define when a slide will appear or a file will be shown, creating finally a “virtual class item”. The other tool is a visualization one, viewing that virtual class and allowing interaction among teacher and students. Additionally, we present the server estructure to give support to the whole system.

Keywords:

Video lectures, framework, edition tool.