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Using Web Standard Technologies to Produce Recorded Presentations for Use in a Higher Education Environment

Introduction

The advancement of technology has given Higher Learning institutions an impetus to diversify their instructional methods. The effective employment of technology in learning environments is of paramount importance in order to optimize the outcomes. It can not be disputed that the internet has steered the current advancements regarding the exchange as well as delivery of vital academic information. Through its ability to provide a communal platform for information sharing, it has aided program such as distance learning, on-demand digital lessons and video conferencing. Emergent research indicates that universities are increasingly exploring the effectiveness of recorded presentations.

These constitute a combination video or recorded audio lectures that are then synchronized with classic digital slides. They would be more efficient as students would have a chance to access the slides containing specific information about a given lecture as well as a commentary in video or audio forms. In order to enhance quick access and retrieval of vital specific information, the lectures would not only be indexed but they would also be archived. This report details an investigation regarding whether web based standard technologies can be sufficiently used to produce recorded presentations for use in a Higher Education Environment.

Basically, the web constitutes of three main technologies- Universal Resource Identifiers that are commonly referred to as URIs and employed for identification and addressing; HyperText Markup Language that is also called HTML and used for exchange of structured documents and the HyperText Transfer Protocol that is commonly called HTTP and used for data communication. The main aim of establishing W3C was to develop new and advanced technologies as well as promote the open standards that were already in place. Through time, W3C has managed to introduce a host of new data formats, technologies and languages. Relevant to the subject under review comprise of XHTML, SMIL and SVG.

To begin with, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is instrumental in providing meaning as well as structure to the given content. According to Harold and Means (2004), this is an all inclusive application that draws upon the features of the previous Structured General Markup Language. Its respective features enable users to create data formats that are easy to process. The XML schema is then employed for providing definitions for XML languages and vocabularies.

In order to enhance efficiency, XML uses a distinct set of tools to manipulate and navigate the available documents. These comprise of the DOM or Document Object Model, the Xpath and XSLTransforms. DOM is effective in modeling the document to comprise of a node objects tree and then provides an ideal interface that enables the navigation and manipulation of the tree. Besides addressing the different parts that constitute an XML documents, the Xpath is equally instrumental in providing arithmetic as well as string handling functions. Finally, the XSL Transforms uses a set of rules to change one a given XML document tree to another tree.

Apart fromm the XML, SMIL or Synchronized Multimedia Integration language is another web application developed by W3C. Kennedy and Slowinsky (2002) indicate that it employs the simple XML markup to provide describe complex multimedia documents. In particular, the <par> and <seq> elements are central to the performance of SMIL. The later plays an integral role of declaring a given media objects group to play in sequences. The former encloses certain instructions or objects that need to be done in parallel.

The SVG or Structured Vector Graphics is another web application that has been developed by W3C. This is instrumental in providing diverse support that comprises of the ability to present the given text along various and complex paths like curves. Most importantly, it aids in the embedding of a variety of fonts within files. This is important as it assures the user that the image would not be distorted regardless of the fact that it could be displayed on a different machine. In addition, its feature that accords objects relative titles and descriptions makes it easy for the text to be extracted using a different format.

From the preceding review, it is certain that the different web applications can play distinctive roles in producing recorded presentations that can then be employed in the higher learning environment. With respect to methodology, this study reviewed a host of secondary sources that outlined the weaknesses and strengths of the identified web standards. This was in a bit to come up with a combination of web standards that can address the current issue with utmost effectiveness. This was based on the realization that the respective web standards have certain idyllic features that can be employed in addressing the issue at hand. Findings of the literature review are detailed below.

To start with, Streaming Media World (2001) indicates that XHTML is ubiquitous and commonly employed by the web for data exchange. Its structure is ideal and its content can be availed in different ways. However, it has poor synchronization and media control capacities. Nonetheless, it provides the most ideal format for presenting lecture slides. With regard to SVG, Eisenberg (2005) indicates that besides having the ability to preserve textual information as well as metadata descriptions, its inability to support media undermines its suitability for recorded lectures. Thus it can not be singly employed in recording or storing these. SMIL on the other hand is ideal for providing recorded slides because of its powerful synchronization and media control. Despite this, it is worth appreciating that it has a very poor text support and lacks text formatting (Schertler & Bodendorf, 2001). These shortcomings compromise the effectiveness of SMIL especially when used single handedly. However, Aggarwal (2000) affirms that it offers compelling results when employed in combination with other display technology.

At this point, it is certain that no single technology can provide an ideal solution to the issue at hand. As it has come out form the literature review, different output formats perform specific uses well. Whereas XHTML’s slidy feature delivers ideal slide formats, SMIL provides an excellent solution with regards to media synchronization. A combination of these attributes provides an ideal package that can effectively resolve the problem. In particular, a set of ideal features from SMIL and SVG are imperative in recording and presenting the recorded information. The MAPL or Multimedia Academic Presentation Language application has been proposed by Klein (1999) to store the information. This is instrumental in integrating different technologies and approaches. In his review, Michel (2004) ascertains that the relative documents have all information that is fundamental generating slides and recorded presentations at the same time. Its language according to Michel (2004) specifically describes presentations. In addition, it supports creation of slides, slide objects, layout control, temporal control of recorded presentations using a simple model and Montreal that is imperative for converting the MAPL documents in synchronized presentations comprising of SMIL and SVG (Lenz, 2005; Liu & Chen, 2000). Notably, all these features are crucial for the development and storage of recorded information. This can then be employed in learning environments of Higher Education Institutions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, recorded lectures are of paramount importance in enhancing the learning and instruction experience. As identified in the study, SMIL and SVG web standard technologies have ideal attributes that offer open yet effective means of presenting such information to the audience. With the current growth in technological advancement, it can be postulated that inherent weaknesses that pertain to combination of these technologies would be bridged in future. The proposed MAPL technology is an ideal and viable approach through which creation, retrieval and storage of recorded lectures can be attained with ease. This can be attributed to its ability to provide a wide range of semantics on similar systems, enable the author to construct slides using very little mark up and offer excellent accessibility using strong semantic markup and closed capturing. Notably, it provides an ideal solution t the problem at hand and should be employed in future to enhance the learning and instruction environment especially in institutions of higher learning.

List of Reference

Aggarwal A 2000, Web Based Learning and Teaching Technologies: Opportunities and Challenges, Idea Group, Hershey, PA.

Eisenberg D 2005, SVG Essentials, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol CA.

Harold E & Means W 2004, XML in a Nutshell, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol, CA.

Kennedy T & Slowinsky M 2002, SMIL: Adding Multimedia to the Web, SAMs Publishing, USA.

Klein A 1999, ATM-Based Infrastructure for Tele-teaching at University, Colmar, USA.

Lenz E 2005, XSLT 1.0 Pocket Reference, O’Reilly Media, Sebastopol CA.

Liu K & Chen H 2002, WSML System: Web Based Synchronization Multimedia Lecture System, Proceedings of the Tenth ACM International Conference on Multimedia, ACM Press, USA.

Michel T 2004, Synchronized Multimedia, Retrieved 25th August, 2010 from: HYPERLINK “http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/” http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/

Schertler M & Bodendorf F 2001, Teacher Guidance to Digital Lectures, ED-MEDIA 2001, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Tampere.

Streaming Media World 2001, SMW Internet, Retrieved 25th August 2010 from: HYPERLINK “http://smw.internet.com/smil/tools/authoring.html” http://smw.internet.com/smil/tools/authoring.html