Focused Effort Title:  New Directions in Distance Education and Training

Thematic Area(s): HPC Training and DoD User Productivity,

PI Name: David Bernholdt

PI EMail Address: bernhold@npac.syr.edu

PI Telephone: 315 443 3857       PI Fax: 315 443 1973

Project Description: 

Over the last two years, Syracuse and Jackson State Universities have
collaborated, with significant financial and technical support from
CEWES MSRC and the PET program, to make distance education a reality.
As "spin-offs" from this, JSU faculty are now delivering to other
institutions the first course that Syracuse delivered to JSU, and
instructors from the Ohio Supercomputer Center have delivered two PET
training classes using Tango.  Collectively, the experience gained in
these efforts has lead to significant improvements in the capability
and robustness of the Tango Interactive system itself, and the broader
acceptance of distance training with commitments from PET partners for
seven trainings to be delivered via Tango in Year 4.  

In this proposal, we build upon the successes of the last several
years to expand both the scope of distance education, and the quality
and sophistication of courseware which can be delivered to remote
classrooms or training sites.  The project includes
training/education-specific enhancements for Tango, the development of
two new high-quality training modules, and the delivery of a number of
courses (both academic and condensed trainings) to JSU, CEWES MSRC,
and other sites.

There are a spectrum of approaches to authoring Web based training
which offer different tradeoffs between ease of development and
richness of the learning environment. At the easy to use end we have
pure HTML and Powerpoint with Internet export. As an intermediate
solution, there are systems like WebCT which various enhancements such
as glossaries. Another successful model is to take HTML and use Java,
Dynamic HTML and JavaScript (with possibly a database backbend) to
provide a very interactive learning environment. Examples here include
the Cornell Virtual Workshop and the many successful Physics and
Engineering applets developed at Syracuse. The latter are notable as
several have already been ported as examples to TANGO
Interactive. Finally, there are the authoring solutions used in the
familiar sophisticated CD-ROM's and here Macromedia
Director/Authorware is a typical authoring tool.

There will never be a single authoring tool as there are properly
different trade-offs and further different people certainly prefer
different systems which are optimized for their needs and
capabilities.

Much of DoD training for the MSRC and University education uses
"low-end" approaches such as Powerpoint as this is very suitable for
rapidly changing topics. However we believe that is useful to develop
in some areas sophisticated training material where the topics are
changing less rapidly. Here we have tentatively identified "basic
parallel programming" as an example of core technology worth focusing
on.

We suggest that it makes sense to develop all new material so that it
can both be viewed asynchronously over the web and delivered
synchronously using TANGO Interactive. This requires that establish
procedures (best practices) for key authoring techniques and package
them for easy use. This needs to be addressed from different points of
view including:
a) Basic TANGO Interactive Delivery
b) Multimedia delivery and integration of lecture recording
c) Database support for "distributed object" educational model

We have in hand (but not yet fully packaged) good support for basic
HTML and Powerpoint In near future we will deliver general shared
cursor, better Internet assistant with good HTML versions. This will
be finished during year 3. This support of type (a) can be linked with
ASC supported work in areas (b) and (c) for these authoring models. With
ARL support, we supply some support for WebCT.

For CEWES in year 4, we propose focusing on support of advanced
authoring methods and their test and demonstration in two
sophisticated training/educational modules for parallel processing
The following TANGO Interactive capabilities will be developed:
a) Support for glossaries and interactive quizzes using the best XML
   and dynamic HTML approach. This will enable many of the key
   capabilities of the current Cornell Virtual Workshop to be supported
   building on either HTML or exported Powerpoint.
b) Support for Javabeans and Java applets embedded in web pages. We
   have a prototype of this which will be extended. Currently TANGO
   Interactive can share Java applets but each applet must be separately
   identified as a TANGO Interactive application.
All this work will come with complete documentation.

Combining the support for enhanced authoring and presentation methods
with the courseware development in basic parallel programming, we will
provide a condensed PET training the Fall'99 time frame to test and
obtain feedback on both the tools and the materials.  The course
materials will be revised appropriately and will then be made
available in the Spring'00 term as a academic class for JSU and other
interested participants.

In addition to these activities, we plan to promote distance training
to others by providing a focused workshop for the faculty of Jackson
State University and, upon request, other institutions.

Benefits:

Develops new/enhanced courseware for core HPC.  Delivers these
materials in the form of training classes to MSRC users, and as an
academic credit class to students at JSU and other interested
institutions. Expands the pool of providers of distance training and
education through a workshop for JSU faculty.  Continues and expands
the relationship between Syracuse and Jackson State Universities that
has been developed through our collaboration on distance education
activities.

Required Resources: 

Deliverables: 

o TANGO Interactive support for glossaries and interactive quizzes (Jan'00)
o TANGO Interactive support for embedded applets and Javabeans (Nov'99)
o Distance Training in basic parallel computing (beta version of
  courseware) (Dec'99)
o Academic credit class using basic parallel computing courseware
  delivered to to JSU and other interested sites (Jan-Mar'00)
o Production release of parallel computing courseware, ready for
  delivery as training or academic class (Feb'00)
o CD-ROM of parallel computing courseware (usable in asynchronous
  self-study fashion) ready for duplication and distribution at DoD
  HPC User Group Conference or other appropriate venues (Mar'00)

o CPS616 - Web Technologies and Software delivered as academic credit
  class to JSU and other interested sites (Aug-Dec'99)

o Distance Education Development and Delivery Workshop for JSU faculty
  (Aug'99)

Customer Commitment/Involvement:  
o Jackson State University