DRAFT.    Appeared in: The Electronic Library, v. 20, no. 5: 401-412.

Grete Pasch, MLIS
Director, New Media Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala
gpasch@ufm. edu. gt Tel. (502) 338-7875

Quinn Stewart, MLIS
Information Analyst, Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) The University of Texas at Austin
quinn@gslis. utexas. edu Tel. (512) 232-6257

Abstract: A conversation between Grete Pasch and Quinn Stewart, co-developers of the Web-based version of "Information in Cyberspace" (LIS312g) at the University of Texas Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The developers recount their experience from the initial idea, to experimentation with technologies and selection of tools, to course development, converting the class to a Web-based format, using streaming media for content delivery, email and discussion boards for student-faculty interaction, and PERL-based tools for course management. Using a team approach, testing the materials, getting student feedback, and counting on effective technical support are emphasized as critical success factors. Making the most of existing as well as unexpected opportunities (such as the re-use of tutorials for other courses) is emphasized.   Above all, the authors see the creation of Web-based courses as an opportunity for instructors to research and experience various technologies for content presentation, to stay in touch with student needs, and to look toward the future of digital materials.

Keywords: Web-based instruction, streaming video, teaching Internet basics, SMIL

Introduction

Second, stay in touch with your students’ needs. They are, after all, your end users. We asked for their feedback to improve course materials. We encouraged them to participate in the creation of course materials, and we helped them produce meaningful and useful class projects. Furthermore, as the Web evolves, so do the tools available for online instruction, and your students constitute a most valuable source of information about what’s new, what’s cool, and what’s not. Third, be aware of possibilities for re-using your materials. Our tutorials were intended to be used as part of the course, but other instructors quickly found that individual tutorials could be used to complement Internet-related topics in their own classes. This realization led us to consider preservation and re-use issues, such as: where should the tutorials reside in the long run, who will update them if needed, and where and how will the materials be cataloged for access?

We started working on this project in mid-1998. In retrospect, we see that we have been “opportunistic,” in the good sense of the word, because we always tried to make the most of all opportunities present, specifically the high demand for the course, the high-bandwidth campus network, our computer labs, our installed video equipment, our knowledge of Internet-based technologies, and our previous teaching experience. We also were seeking out new opportunities, such as researching recent technologies, testing and creating new tools, involving our students, and re-using our course materials.

1. Initial Ideas for the Course

Grete- LIS312, also known as "Information in Cyberspace," is an undergraduate course usually taught by GSLIS doctoral students like myself. As instructors, we enjoy much freedom in designing and delivering the course contents. I like to encourage my students to work online as much as possible. For example, they learn HTML early in the semester and deliver most of their assignments in the form of Webpages. Starting with my first Internet course back in 1996 [1], I combined classroom discussions and lectures with frequent hands-on sessions in the GSLIS Information Technology Lab, our "IT Lab. "

Quinn- As a teaching assistant in the IT Lab, I had considerable opportunities to work with the LIS312 students and instructors. While handouts and instructions can often guide users through various tasks, my experience in the lab showed me that people would often not use these resources; they just wanted someone to show them what to do. Screen video sessions to me seemed like the next best thing, or even better, considering the computer never gets tired or annoyed of having to repeat the same instructions over and over again. For example, every semester we have students sign up for accounts on our servers. I used captured screen video to create a tutorial that outlines the process and takes the user through it step-by-step. Since users have control over the video, they can repeat any step as necessary. I felt that this same technique could be used to deliver many of the elements of the LIS312 class. In mid-1998, I spoke with Dr. Mary Lynn Rice-Lively, the GSLIS Assistant Dean and suggested that LIS312 was a good candidate for a Web-based course. Mary Lynn was very enthusiastic, and arranged a meeting to discuss this idea with Grete.

Grete - I was intrigued by Quinn's suggestion. I already had most of my materials online, including the syllabus, instruction sheets, assignments, grades, and some reading materials. I delivered all my lectures using a live Internet connection and a projector so that students could easily follow along, be it in a lecture setting or in the IT Lab. Because I'm not a PowerPoint believer, I posted my lecture notes in the form of Webpages to the class Website. I also consulted with my students via email frequently. It just seemed natural to use the Internet to teach this Internet class. At the time, we had a 12-seat computer lab, and were cramming up to 24 students in there for lab sessions. Alternatively, we would offer the same hands-on session several times in order to serve all students. I reasoned that with a Web-based course, students would be able to come to our lab or work from home at their own pace. Still, in mid-1998, using streaming video seemed a bit too avant garde-- but Quinn had the right arguments to convince me.

Quinn – I never doubted that teaching via streaming media was feasible, especially on campus. First, many of our LIS312 students live on campus and have their own computers. Most importantly, we have a very robust broadband network at UT Austin, with over 6,500 connections on the campus residential Ethernet network. My thought was that we could create a Web-based course with streaming media tutorials that would work successfully over the campus network. I had been following the World Wide Web Consortium's development of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, or SMIL, and felt that it had potential as an easy to use multimedia tool. I had spent some time testing development tools for creating interactive content for CDs, and found them to be both expensive and difficult to master. SMIL is a text-based markup language similar to HTML, and was quite easy to learn [2].

Grete - In addition to creating tutorials, I knew we would need a tool to integrate the course materials into a cohesive whole. After experimenting with WebCT, UOL, Blackboard, and other course development packages, I decided to write my own PERL [3] scripts to format the site into framed lessons and modules, starting from simple HTML pages that I could easily update at anytime. I also improved the scripts I had already developed for grading, student grade sheet access, class rosters, and feedback messages. This does require some familiarity with computer programming, as well asfull access to server and class accounts, but it had one important advantage: the purpose of the course is teaching students how to create Internet resources, so I used some of my scripts as sample applications for class discussion.

Quinn - We also needed to decide on a tool for student interaction. To allow for total asynchronicity, we decided against chat and in favor of Discus, a discussion board that is far superior to that found in many of the commercial courseware products out there today. (See figure 1. ) The chemistry department at Hope College developed Discus, and its basic version is freely available. We used the Discus Pro discussion board software ($99), which offers password protection, group restrictions, Web-based administration, usage logs, and email notification.
 

Figure 1. DISCUS discussion board, used by students to both post their questions and to propose and discuss possible solutions to other students’ problems. Students took advantage of this asynchronous mode of communication to work whenever it was convenient for them. Note that when this screenshot was taken, almost half of these messages had been posted between 8PM and 8 AM.

2. Developing the Course

Quinn- In the fall of 1998, I had begun evaluating possible software and hardware tools for video-screen capture. I started with a platform independent idea, using a digital video camera to videotape an LCD projected image of a PC desktop. This worked but tied up lots of equipment and did not produce a quality image. I was looking for something that would produce readable text on a 320X240 RealPlayer window. I then experimented with a two-computer setup. One computer acted as the “demonstration” computer, where we actually went through the tutorial, and the other computer acted as a “recording” device. The first computer had an ATI TV-out PCI card, which sent an analog S-video signal to the S-video input on an Osprey 100 PCI video capture card in the second computer running RealProducer. The audio was also recorded directly on this second computer, using an inexpensive microphone. This digital to analog and back again process did not produce the greatest quality screen video, but it was usable. In the process of setting up a video capture card on a Linux computer, I stumbled upon capturing screen video on the Linux platform, with the X-window video driver sending data digitally to the RealProducer Plus we had purchased [5]. The combination produced perfect screen video, but the frame rate was too low to use. However, it did give me hope that digital capture of screen video on a single computer was possible. We also evaluated Lotus Screen Cam, but the proprietary format and cost made it unsuitable for us. I had been discussing my efforts with other people on campus, and one of them recommended a program called SnagIt for the Windows platform. I downloaded an evaluation copy, and found it to be pretty effective in capturing screen video that I could convert to a streaming format. We developed the initial tutorials using SnagIt, RealProducer, and the two-computer network [6].

Grete- Using this setup, I was able to produce a series of 23 basic HTML tutorials that were very well received. Students can play a tutorial and follow along, creating and testing their Web page at the same time and as Quinn pointed out, they can pause the tutorial or replay it as needed. I tried to keep the tutorial window as small as possible, so that students would have plenty of screen space left to simultaneously play the tutorial and open their browser and editing windows. The screen capture looks so realistic, that there was potential for confusion with users trying to click on the tutorial image of a browser button, for example. To avoid this problem, I used unusual color schemes and font sizes in the screen capture. Another concern was that, once recorded, it was really difficult to edit the tutorial in any way. So my challenge was to do it right in one pass, which of course did not always work. I ended up recording a "no pressure" first test pass, reviewing it, and transcribing the text before recording the final version of each tutorial. Following Quinn's suggestion, I tested Dragon Naturally Speaking, a voice recognition software, to see if this would facilitate the creation of transcripts. It worked, but I still had to correct many errors in the resulting text. I decided not to use it, but I do think that this or a similar speech-to-text utility would be a good tool to use if you are narrating a large number of tutorials that require transcriptions.

Quinn - The SnagIt setup also required the use of two networked computers. I really needed something usable as a production tool, preferably requiring only one computer. I had started working with XML-based components in the RealNetworks G2 System for use in SMIL presentations, and was re-evaluating the possibility of using a narrated series of screen captures rather than actual screen video. Writing the XML code and timing the presentation was very laborious, but RealNetworks soon introduced a tool called Real SlideShow which automates the process. Basically a simple SMIL editor, Real SlideShow allows us to take jpeg or bitmap screen captures and combine them with narration to produce a slideshow tutorial.

Grete - It was very easy to download and install the free SlideShow on my laptop. For the images, I used either screen captures or created the necessary graphics using Corel PhotoPaint. The number of images varied according to the material presented. For example, my TCP/IP tutorial is 10 minutes long and contains 50 images. The two-part UNIX tutorial uses only 40 screenshots and runs for about 20 minutes. I used an inexpensive microphone directly attached to my laptop to record the voiceover. Since I did not need any other special equipment, I was able to work at home - except on Sunday afternoons, when some neighbors were noisily mowing their lawns! On the forms and CGI tutorials I tried a "silent movie" approach: I used screen shots and title screens, and instead of a narration, I added a sound track with music. Most students reacted favorably and commented that the music was a welcome change of pace. We created a total of 15 Real SlideShow tutorials.
 

Figure 2. One of the “slides” in our TCP/IP tutorial. The images were created with Corel’s PhotoPaint and organized with Real Network’s free and easy to use “SlideShow” software. This particular tutorial is delivered at the relatively low bandwidth of 76. 8 Kbps and runs for about 10 minutes.

Quinn - My favorite SlideShow tutorial is the Introduction to TCP/IP, because of Grete’s creative drawings. (See Figure 2, above. ). Since Grete created the basic Unix tutorial using Real SlideShow, I was able to create an index to her tutorial using SMIL that provides interactive navigation to the tutorial. (See Figure 3. )

Figure 3. The “Introduction to UNIX Commands” was composed from screenshots and a voiceover narrated using Real Network’s “SlideShow” software. Students can watch the tutorial from beginning to end, or they can review a particular command (e. g. , “chmod o+r”) by selecting it from the index on the lower portion of the window.

Grete - We also added nine brief talking-head type videos to introduce some of the lessons. In all, we produced 55 streaming tutorials for a total running time of 5 hours and 33 minutes. We spent the Spring semester of 1999 working on this initial phase—that is, approximately four months structuring the course and preparing the materials and two months creating tutorial samples. After we loaded everything on the streaming server and tested it, we integrated the tutorials into the course webpages. We were finally ready to test the course.
 

3. Testing the Course

Grete - Yes, in a way this first group of students functioned as guinea pigs, butwe took really good care of them. We encouraged them to learn about digital video editing, streaming technology, and SMIL. There are a lot of similarities between writing basic HTML and SMIL, and for their final projects, some of them chose to help us produce video interviews and SMIL markup that we are added to the course (see Figure 4. ) A word on course evaluation. Students completed over 50 assignments during the course. The problems were posted at the end of the related lesson and students turned in some answers via email, but mostly in the form of Webpages that they created. Samples of students' work can be seen in the class Website. Regarding quizzes, I had a very open discussion about this topic with the test group. We proposed some ideas for Web-based evaluation, but they thought of some pretty creative ways to - yes - cheat, no matter what. So we dropped that idea!
 

Figure 4. “Privacy on the Internet”. The tutorial consists of three parts: a streaming video window, a SMIL index that takes students to a particular point in the video, and a title area with general information and links to webpages containing additional information.

4. Teaching the Course: Results

Figure 5. The LIS312g Homepage. Updates and deadlines were always posted here, sometimes on a daily basis. At the top of the window, handy points of entry to the 7 course modules. On the left-hand side, a list of course-related information areas: syllabus, class roster, a week by week schedule, course grade information, and so on.

Quinn- In addition to the materials being easy to navigate and use, students liked the idea that they could work on the tutorials at any time. There were fixed due dates for all assignments, but this still left students the flexibility to choose when they wanted to do their work. In fact, we can look at the server logs and see when the students were working, and many of them were active between 11 pm and 2 am.

Grete – This is because they were working from home: 64% of the students said that they completed all or most of the work using their home computer, and we know that most of them were in their dorm rooms within the UT campus network, because about 46% of all requests to our streaming server came from within the UT domain.

Quinn - A really small number of technical problems were reported. As streaming technology matured, problems playing tutorials disappeared. In fact, 87% of the students had no problems at all accessing the class materials. The rest mostly complained about not being able to work from home due to a slow modem connection. In addition, 37% said they were able to complete all assignments without asking anyone for help.

Grete – Again, the issue of convenience is very important to students. In one of the assignments, I asked them to give me their top three reasons for taking this Web-based course. "I don't have to go to class!" was a typical response. In fact, about 30% said that they liked the class being "Web-based/self-paced. " One student wanted "to say I got to take a Web-based course in 1999. "This is interesting, because despite the popularity of distance education, during the Fall 2000 term LIS312g was the only Web-based course offered to undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin. About 25% of the students saw this as an opportunity to take a "fun", "cool", and, some hoped, an "easy" class. Half of them were really interested in learning HTML or creating a very concrete end-product, such as a Website for their parents' business or a program to keep track of their high school's alumni. And some simply wished to become more computer literate: "I would like to impress my computer genius grandmother!" The drop out rate was extremely low: only three students dropped from five sessions of the Web-based course. Course instructor surveys returned consistently good evaluations, including comments such as "Five thumbs up!" and "I learned more from this class than any other class I have taken at UT!"Besides a suggestion to be more oriented towardMS Internet Explorer, there were no comments or complaints about using the Web to deliver the materials. This, I believe, tells us much about the transparency of the medium and its effectiveness.
 

5. What we learned

Grete - I agree that it would be quite difficult for an individual instructor to produce a course like this. As the instructor, you need to concentrate on your course contents. It is crucial to come up with a manageable number of modules and lessons, and to structure the materials very clearly. So you really need to rely on a technical person who has some experience in online courses, and a sympathetic systems administrator at the very least. I find it encouraging that Quinn was always eager to keep up with the technology. He would sit there for hours, patiently testing a new program or figuring out what was going on with our server. This willingness to keep up is extremely important in your technical support person, especially given the rate at which the technology is changing. I taught the course in its Web-based form for five semesters, and it constantly needed revisions and updating. For example, AltaVista seemed to always go through a complete interface redesign just before students started working on the search engine module—forcing me to quickly rewrite the corresponding exercises and tutorials.

Quinn- Yes, we created tutorials that were literally obsolete or inaccurate within a week of their production. This can be quite discouraging. But the positive side to this is that the tools you have to work with are also improving. The ability to capture digital screen video on a single computer, edit the video, and convert to a streaming format became possible in the fall of 1999 when TechSmith, the makers of SnagIt, released a new application called Camtasia [8]. This tool is remarkably well-designed and very easy to use. Today, if someone wanted to build a course like LIS312g, from a technical standpoint it is much easier than when we began. With a copy of Camtasia and a RealServer or Windows Media server, it is not too difficult to create streaming content for online courses. We can even keep materials up-to-date by revising them if the subject matter changes, or re-encoding the original files as technology improves.

Grete- The issue of revisions has made us aware of intellectual property issues in general. If a new instructor revises one of my tutorials, how does that change my rights to the material? We created this course for use at UT, but would we be free to teach it independently? These questions could form the basis for another full paper, so let us just say that the topic has been discussed at the GSLIS, and the discussion continues [9]. The important point is that the materials don’t die when the course ends. Most of the video tutorials created for LIS312g stand on their own or serve as good references for particular topics; many are linked from the GSLIS "Tutorials Junction" page. The LIS312g website is no longer being updated, but it remains online, open for public access. And Quinn has used the original materials as a starting point for creating a brand new version of the course.

Quinn – With Grete's input into course revisions, I have continued to teach the course here at UT-Austin to on-campus students [10]. I am continually developing the courseto make it available to a broader range of students, regardless of the speed of their Internet connection. Due to ongoing improvements in streaming technologies, we are now able to deliver the course over modem connections as well as broadband connections, and are also exploring the use of the Windows Media format and QuickTime formats as well. Windows Media currently has the best video quality for modem users, and QuickTime shows promise as a low-cost streaming solution. I have taught the updated version to over 70 students now, with over 70% of the students describing the class as “more convenient than a regular class” and “I would recommend the course to a friend”.

Grete - We have also confirmed what seemed obvious: that students are eager for courses that allow them to work at home, on their own schedule. Many LIS312g alumni were eager to take similar courses, perhaps related to information design, Web programming, or more in-depth Internet searching. Unfortunately, the GSLIS does not currently offer such courses. We could also fill several sections of LIS312g every semester. The demand is there, but not the manpower needed to create, update, and teach Web-basedcourses. It is of course a myth that teaching online is easier than teaching in the classroom. First, you need time to reply to discussion board topics. You need to check your email everyday. Grading and providing feedback via email or via a Web page has to be done carefully, so that students feel we’re paying attention to their work. My students were able to login at anytime and check if their assignments had been graded. I also tried to provide clear comments on their work, as quickly as possible, so that they could continue working on the next lesson.
 

6. Future Plans

Grete –We now have the tools to easily record a lecture, index it, save it, and re-use it many times, not only as part of a course, but also as general reference material that needs to be preserved and made accessible to users. In fact, my current work [11] includes recording guest lecturers, indexing the resulting video or audio, and making it available as quickly as possible via our streaming server. We also support faculty members who wish to record their lectures on a continuing basis or who wish to explore posting digital versions of their books and other text-type materials, online interaction with students, and so on. I am currently working with our OPAC providers [12] in order to provide direct access to all of our digital materials from our library catalog, so that when a student searches for “Milton Friedman”, the search results will include both a list of print materials available in the library as well as direct links to Friedman’s videos available on our streaming server. In my opinion, providing integrated access to digital materials is an area where librarians have a chance to shine. I would like to end with a comment about our students. We found that most of them were eager to to work on projects that would have a practical, lasting value. A good example is the “Virtual T-Shirt” website, built as a final project by our students [13] for the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas, Austin.
 

Conclusion

References

1. http://www. nortropic. com/lis341: Introduction to Internet Resources (1996)

2. Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) at the World Wide Web Consortium: http://www. w3. org/AudioVideo

3. PERL- Practical Extraction and Reporting Language: http://www. perl. com

4. All tutorials mentioned in this paper can be accessed from the LIS312g class homepage: http://www. gslis. utexas. edu/~lis312g

5. Streaming products by Real Networks include: RealPlayer, RealProducer, RealServer, and Real SlideShow. For more information, visit: http://www. realnetworks. com

6. http://www. gslis. utexas. edu/~maxchi/itdec/handout/pout_handout. html: detailed list of hardware and software used, including pricing information.

7. The GSLIS uses Red Hat Linux: http://www. redhat. com

8. Camtasia and SnagIt make screen video capture and encoding possible, and are available from: http://www. techsmith. com

9. http://www. gslis. utexas. edu/~lis312g/pres/principles. html

10. http://www. gslis. utexas. edu/~lis312qs: new “Information in Cyberspace” Website

11. http://www. newmedia. ufm. edu. gt/: website for the New Media department at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala

12. http://www. glifos. com/: providers of a low-cost, XML-based system for digital and traditional library collections

13. http://www. gslis. utexas. edu/~vtshirt/: the virtual presentation of the Tarlton Law Library t-shirt collection

We wish to thank Dr. Mary Lynn Rice-Lively for her encouragement and for providing the support necessary to develop and teach this course. And a special thank you to all LIS312g students: we learned much from you all!

Grete Pasch, MLIS, is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The University of Texas at Austin. She directs the New Media Department at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, which produces and manages digital materials, including streaming media contents. Grete will be happy to receive your comments via email at gpasch@ufm. edu. gt or gpasch@gslis. utexas. edu

Quinn Stewart, MLIS, is an Information Analyst with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The University of Texas at Austin. He is currently teaching an updated version of LIS312, planning an upper-division version of “Information in Cyberspace”, and supporting current faculty in Web-based and distance education efforts. Quinn can be reached at 512-232-6257, or by email at quinn@gslis. utexas. edu