We received a grant from the UW College
of Engineering to deliver distance education courses on handheld
computers PDAs). The pilot course for this project is a course I teach
on computing as part of an online Masters program for engineers.
For now we are using Dell Axim x51v PocketPCs. We obtained 10 of these devices and sent them to our students, along with 1 GB SD cards containing all the resources for the course. We use several technologies to deliver our distance courses, including Xerox Docushare for document sharing, LiveMeeting for webconferences, WebCT for course management, the PocketPC version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for publishing, and Techsmith Camtasia for recording presentations. The key to delivering my course on handhelds is providing my recorded lectures and course notes on the handheld. This allows students to have all the course materials with them at all times, so that when they have some free time - perhaps on buses, planes, or trains - they can view the weekly content.
Course Notes
Each of our courses uses a set of course notes which we refer to as a Study Guide. Our study guides are all written in MS Word and converted to pdf for distribution. Porting this to the PDA was trivial, due to the quality of the VGA screen on the Axims and the quality of the Acrobat Reader on this platform. We simply copied the pdf files to the SD card using a USB card reader on our PC and then viewed them on the Axim using Acrobat. Here is a screenshot of the Axim reading one of our Study Guides.
(click to see full size)
[By the way, these screen captures are made using Pocket Controller, which lets us show our PDA screen on our PC, and then use SnagIT on the PC to capture the screen.]
Recorded Lectures
We also provide weekly recorded lectures with our courses. In my course, these are typically either narrated powerpoint presentations or software demonstrations. We use Camtasia to record these and then save them, for the Axim, to wmv format for viewing with Windows Media Player. It is important to avoid using the TSCC Codec available from Techsmith, the author of Camtasia, because this codec is not available on the PocketPC. For the powerpoint presentations, I produce the videos at 640x480 resolution using the Powerpoint with Medium Audio and Video profile in Camtasia, because this offers a balance between the resolution needed for viewing and file size. For the software demonstrations, the screens are more detailed and the presentations feature much more motion than the powerpoint, so these are produced using the Full Motion Video High Audioand Video profile in Camtasia, since the Medium Video does not produce adequate quality. File sizes are typically on the order of 1 MB per 10 minutes of powerpoint video. The students typically watch these videos using the full screen mode of Windows player, in Landscape mode. [Screen captures will be added here in the future.]
File Distribution
We are beginning to use RSS for file distribution. There are a variety of RSS readers for PocketPCs, but we have been using bloglines, which has a fine mobile version. Files of all types of interest (pdf, ppt, doc, wmv, and xls) all download and convert transparently for use on Windows Mobile 5. See http://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jpblanch/web/epsc_feed.xml for examples.
Future Improvements
So far our file distribution has been via SD cards, but in the future we plan to use RSS to deliver media. This will allow convenient delivery of media on an as-needed basis, so that videos of homework solutions or homework annotations can be delivered when they are ready, rather than in bulk before the course begins.
We also intend to move towards devices that connect to the internet via cellular technologies, so that interaction can occur anywhere, any time. This will fundamentally change the flexibility that the student will have in terms of completing courses, particularly for the webconferences, but also for downloading documents and uploading comments to discusssion forums.
Dell Axim x51v Specifications
This work was funded by the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin through the John & Jean Berndt Technology-Enhanced Learning Initiative.
For now we are using Dell Axim x51v PocketPCs. We obtained 10 of these devices and sent them to our students, along with 1 GB SD cards containing all the resources for the course. We use several technologies to deliver our distance courses, including Xerox Docushare for document sharing, LiveMeeting for webconferences, WebCT for course management, the PocketPC version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for publishing, and Techsmith Camtasia for recording presentations. The key to delivering my course on handhelds is providing my recorded lectures and course notes on the handheld. This allows students to have all the course materials with them at all times, so that when they have some free time - perhaps on buses, planes, or trains - they can view the weekly content.
Course Notes
Each of our courses uses a set of course notes which we refer to as a Study Guide. Our study guides are all written in MS Word and converted to pdf for distribution. Porting this to the PDA was trivial, due to the quality of the VGA screen on the Axims and the quality of the Acrobat Reader on this platform. We simply copied the pdf files to the SD card using a USB card reader on our PC and then viewed them on the Axim using Acrobat. Here is a screenshot of the Axim reading one of our Study Guides.
(click to see full size)[By the way, these screen captures are made using Pocket Controller, which lets us show our PDA screen on our PC, and then use SnagIT on the PC to capture the screen.]
Recorded Lectures
We also provide weekly recorded lectures with our courses. In my course, these are typically either narrated powerpoint presentations or software demonstrations. We use Camtasia to record these and then save them, for the Axim, to wmv format for viewing with Windows Media Player. It is important to avoid using the TSCC Codec available from Techsmith, the author of Camtasia, because this codec is not available on the PocketPC. For the powerpoint presentations, I produce the videos at 640x480 resolution using the Powerpoint with Medium Audio and Video profile in Camtasia, because this offers a balance between the resolution needed for viewing and file size. For the software demonstrations, the screens are more detailed and the presentations feature much more motion than the powerpoint, so these are produced using the Full Motion Video High Audioand Video profile in Camtasia, since the Medium Video does not produce adequate quality. File sizes are typically on the order of 1 MB per 10 minutes of powerpoint video. The students typically watch these videos using the full screen mode of Windows player, in Landscape mode. [Screen captures will be added here in the future.]
File Distribution
We are beginning to use RSS for file distribution. There are a variety of RSS readers for PocketPCs, but we have been using bloglines, which has a fine mobile version. Files of all types of interest (pdf, ppt, doc, wmv, and xls) all download and convert transparently for use on Windows Mobile 5. See http://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jpblanch/web/epsc_feed.xml for examples.
Future Improvements
So far our file distribution has been via SD cards, but in the future we plan to use RSS to deliver media. This will allow convenient delivery of media on an as-needed basis, so that videos of homework solutions or homework annotations can be delivered when they are ready, rather than in bulk before the course begins.
We also intend to move towards devices that connect to the internet via cellular technologies, so that interaction can occur anywhere, any time. This will fundamentally change the flexibility that the student will have in terms of completing courses, particularly for the webconferences, but also for downloading documents and uploading comments to discusssion forums.
Dell Axim x51v Specifications
- Intel XScale PXA270 Processor at 624MHz
- 3.7" color TFT VGA display with 640x480 resolution
- Integrated 802.11b and Bluetooth
- 64MB SDRAM and 256MB Flash ROM
- CompactFlash Type II and Secure Digital / SDIO Now! / MMC card slots
This work was funded by the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin through the John & Jean Berndt Technology-Enhanced Learning Initiative.