DISTANCE LEARNING ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM (Introduction)

1. Everything over IP DISTANCE LEARNING ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM (Introduction) InfoGLOBAL · Virgilio, 2 · Ciudad de la Imagen · 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón · Madrid (España) · Tel: +34 91 506 40 00 · Fax: +34 91 506 40 01 · info@infoglobal.es · www.infoglobal.es

2. Index • What is IG-Class. • The ideal education system. • Traditional and distance learning. • Scopes and environments of application. • Economic advantages.

3. What is IG-Class The distance learning platform IG-Class constitutes a complete multimedia solution for distance education using IP data networks, eliminating the geographical barriers and offering the best educative support for the student. Ideal for the students instruction in educative centers and for the training of corporate employees. Its pedagogical key is constituted for being the only platform of conventional learning at distance, and that offers the greater economic advantages to the institutions and companies that implement it. • Consist of two subsystems, integrated in Web, to offer the best educative solution, and to try to constitute in the ideal training system: • Asynchronous system, that incorporates functions such as access to the documentation, teamwork, accomplishment of exams, electronic mail, agenda, administrative information, etc. • Synchronous system, that makes possible for the students the access to a real live class, with audio and video from the teacher, reception and attendance from a limitless number of students, remote visualization of slides and applications, electronic whiteboard, etc.

4. The ideal learning system As base, we are going to propose a series of necessities that must have the ideal learning system, and on which the pillars of the IG-Class platform rise. The main ones are the following: • Reflect the traditional learning in the new electronic media, using the latest telecommunication technologies and offering a total interactivity between the teacher and the students. • Incorporate in the same platform all the set of tools necessary for the training, including documentation, exams, tools for teamwork and collaboration, attendance to virtual multimedia classes, etc.. • Facilitate the access to learning for students and workers, being implanted in students without needing expensive equipment, and offering savings in the corporative training expenses. • Very easy to use even for users with little computer skills to make it extensive to the greater number of students. • Sustained in standard architectures of the market, in order not to remain obsolete and to have its extensibility assured in the future.

5. Traditional and distance learning Now we will analyze the advantages and inconveniences offered by the traditional and the distance learning systems, for which we will take a series of characteristics as base, showing the results in the following table. Thus, it is possible to appreciate, basically, how the traditional education is a proven and very powerful system, valid for the learning of a student, but too rigid for the training necessities needed by organizations like companies nowadays. Nevertheless, distance learning, employee by itself, also have deficiencies that are due to be solved. However, IG-Class, by its special conception, is based on the traditional learning, but integrates the technologies and media to constitute itself in the most powerful distance learning platform, and offers the advantages of both worlds, without any of the previously mentioned shortcomings.

6. Scopes and environments ofapplication The IG-Class platform is extensible to practically any environment, although, due to its characteristics, is clear its implementation in the following situations: Educative institutions such as schools, universities, private academies. IG-Class will allow to reach simultaneously all the students enrolled in a course, without concerning their geographic location, through a single teacher. Thanks to its synchronous and asynchronous operating modes, it is able to reflect real classes without neglecting the personal study of the student, access to documentation, accomplishment of tests, etc. Companies with multiple delegations geographically dispersed From a single site it will be possible to offer continuous training or specific courses to employees in all the delegations of the corporation, avoiding travel and lodging expenses, and reaching from the very first moment all the employees, who will not have to dedicate complete working days to their training, but the merely precise time and will be in the office at all times. Large corporations for internal communications In the same way, directive sessions could be organized to reach the employees, although the sessions be only carried out in a single location, but the lack of space would make it impossible to concentrate them in a same place. In such cases, it would only be necessary the use of a local network, with a minimum consumption of its capacity for the session.

7. Economic advantages The implementation of the E-Learning IG-Class platform, in addition to the pedagogical advantages previously described, also offers great economic advantages to the company or the institution that incorporates it. • Thus, for educative centers , we can summarized the following ones: • Expansion of courses and extension of students, although there is no more existing physical space in the center, obtaining new clients through this channel. • The use of the IG-Class platform has reduced necessities, and even the accomplishment of virtual multimedia classes precise very little space. • In companies and institutions where employees are trained is even clearer the benefits obtain by implementing the IG-Class platform: • The expenses derived from the training of workers, such as travels, diets, lodging, etc., are eliminated almost totally. • The employee continues being at the office, and invests only the time precise for his training, since it is received in his job post. He will not even have to agree in dates and hours with other colleagues. • Without special space requirements for training, avoiding in addition the concentration in a same place of employees from dispersed centers. The IG-Class platform reaches all the centers at the same moment.

8. DISTANCE LEARNING ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM (Synchronous System) InfoGLOBAL · Virgilio, 2 · Ciudad de la Imagen · 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón · Madrid (España) · Tel: +34 91 506 40 00 · Fax: +34 91 506 40 01 · info@infoglobal.es · www.infoglobal.es

9. Index • System characteristics • Technical architecture of the system • Components detail - Server Component - Teacher Component - Student Component • Graphic schemes of the stations • System Requirements

10. System characteristics • Ultimate generation of technological standards: • Client/Server Web technology. Student client totally integrated in Internet Explorer. • Audio-visual multimedia encoding based in MPEG-4 and in Microsoft Windows Media formats. • Data transmission by any TCP/IP network using IP Unicast and IP Multicast protocols, taking advantage of any local network, Internet, satellite, DTT, cable, etc. • Multiple collaboration tools in a real class: • High quality audio and video of the teacher and students • Slides presentation in GIF, JPG and Flash formats • Remote electronic whiteboard controlled by the teacher • Bi-directional chat in real time between all the class • Test-type questionnaires with statistics in real-time • Remote full-screen visualization of Windows applications • Global Web navigation by Internet guided by the teacher Complete teacher control of the class, with listing of the students and their status, managing hundreds of simultaneous students. Very intuitive and easy to use as much for teachers and students. With no need of special hardware – totally based on software components.

11. System architecture (I) • Three component 100% client/server architecture, specially designed for its use in networks with IP Unicast and IP Multicast transmission protocols: • IG-Class Server (network and applications server) • IG-Class Teacher (teacher station and media encoding) • IG-Class Student (student client and system access) • Specially design for its use on IP Multicast networks, with total support of IP Unicast, as much for live classes as for recorded, being optimized even for the combined and simultaneous use of different networks at multiple bandwidths (asymmetric networks). • In scenarios with IP Multicast transmission: • As broadband network it is supported the use of standard corporative networks or wireless networks (satellite, DTT, DAB, cable and microwave) • User return through any type of narrowband network (Internet access, GSM, PSTN, ISDN), or the same broadband network if it is bi-directional. • Satellite, DTT and DAB has the following advantages: • Total coverage • Cost of the service independent from the number of students • Ease of installation for the student (for example, standard digital TV antenna)

12. System architecture (II) First scenario: IG-Class over a Broadband Satellite/Cable Operator (IP Multicast). IG-Class Server IG-Class Student Broadband Multicast GSM / PSTN / ISDN Internet IG-Class Student IG-Class Teacher

13. System architecture (III) Second scenario: IG-Class over a Broadband/Narrowband Internet Operator (IP Unicast) IG-Class Server PSTN / ISDN / ADSL Internet IG-Class Student 56 KBPS PSTN Modem IG-Class Student 64 kbps ISDN Modem IG-Class Student 256 kbps ADSL Modem IG-Class Teacher

14. IG-Class Server Component (I) • Functionalities for the IG-Class Server component • System required by the network operators or companies with own Intranet. • Support of an unlimited number of educative centers, courses, teachers, students and classes. • IP Multicast and IP Unicast diffusion of live or previously recorded classes. • Global broadcasting of classes recorded through IP multicast protocol with integrated programming. • Adaptive IP Unicast diffusion of sequences at multiple bandwidths, simultaneously. • Integrated data base management without external engine requirements, or with support for the principal SQL engines such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, etc. • Secure validation of users with different cryptography levels. • Automatic upgrade server of student client application. • Detailed descriptive information log in an events data base file. • Network parameters and disk quotas totally configurable through its interface. • Automatic synchronization of recorded classes between multiple dedicated servers. • Runs as independent application or as Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 service. • Integration for network operators: invoicing module and service provisioning system. • Totally integrated with asynchronous IG-Class for system management and administration via Web.

15. IG-Class Server Component (II)

16. IG-Class Teacher Component (I) • Functionalities of IG-Class Teacher component • System required by the teacher of the educative center or by the own organization • Very agile visual presentation of the interface, with access to all options with a single click. • Total control of the students in the class, participating or disconnected, with tree-type browse. • Instantaneous encoding and viewing of local video sequences (from the teacher) in the ultimate multimedia standards (MPEG-4 and Microsoft Windows Media). • Slides transmission in GIF, JPEG and Macromedia Flash formats with local previewing, forward, reverse, skip and overprintable slide pointing device. • Control and visualization of the students intervention, always controlled by the teacher. • Electronic whiteboard to create and transmit, in real-time, drawings to all the students in class. • Interactive tests in real-time with statistic and graphic information of the answers. • Support remote visualization support of Windows software applications with 10.000 : 1 compression. • Global navigation in the class through Web pages, remotely managed by the teacher. • Instantaneous session recording in server for a later reproduction. • Very easy to use by any teacher, even with minimum computer knowledge.

17. IG-Class Teacher Component (II)

18. IG-Class Student Component (I) • Functionalities of the IG-Class Student component • System required by each participant student in a live or recorded class • Totally integrated in a standard Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet navigator. • Attendance to live classes or reproduction of recorded classes, either programmed or on demand. • Automatic reception controlled by teacher without student intervention • Enlargement support of video sequences and slides to a greater size. • Multimedia intervention in class under request or teacher’s will • Automatic update of the student version through a Web page. • Partial disconnection with class reception without PSTN, GSM, ISDN connection or any Internet access, and therefore without any communication cost for the student in this status. • Reproduction of recorded sessions from devices like CD-ROM/DVD... • Storage of multiple classes in a same CD-ROM (up to 4 hours of recorded classes), in DVD-ROM (up to 30 hours of recorded classes) or in local or remote network units. • Skip to any part of the class through an historical log with the most relevant events. • Minimum hardware requirements: basic multimedia and no connectivity.

19. IG-Class Student Component (II)

20. Stations scheme (I) IG-Class Teacher System Speakers Main camera 5 4 3 Fixed microphone Video and audio mixer 6 Documentary camera 7 2 TV and Video player Clip-on microphone 8 10 IG-Class Teacher Keyboard 1 9 TFT Monitor 11 Graphic tablet

21. IG-Class Student and IG-Class CD-ROM System Microphone (only for IG-Class Student) 3 2 Camera (optional and only for IG-Class Student) • IG-Class Student System • Pentium II 233 MHz Processor o higher • 64 MB RAM • 2 GB HDD • CD-ROM • Microsoft Windows 95/ 98 /ME orWindows 2000 / XP Home o Professional O.S. Speakers System requirements: 4 Keyboard 1 5 Stations scheme (II)

22. IG-Class Teacher System Dual MB 370 FCPGA Socket Dual Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz Processor 128 MB RAM 10 GB IDE UDMA66 HDD 52X CD-ROM 32 MB Video Board 16 bits 48.000 Hz Sound Card PAL Video Capture Card 100 mbps RJ-45 LAN adapter 1,44 MB FDD Spanish PS/2 Keyboard USB graphic tablet with mouse and pen 15" TFT Multimedia Monitor Main Video Camera PAL Documentary PAL camera with headlamps 14" TV and video player Multimedia mixer with 3 video and audio inputs Omnidirectional Clips-on microphone All wiring required for PC and peripheral connections Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional O.S. IG-Class Teacher system All software preinstalled with CD-ROM copies included System requirements (I) Detailed specifications of IG-Class Teacher IG-Class Teacher system equipment is delivered by InfoGLOBAL in a preinstalled package. Components included in the package detailed left.

23. System requirements (II) IG-Class Student minimun requirements Detailed specifications of IG-Class Student 100% PC Compatible Computer Intel Pentium II 233 Mhz processor 64 MB Ram 2 GB HDD 8X CD-Rom 32 MB video board 16 bits 44.100 Hz sound card Standard headphones or speakers Standard microphone The IG-Class Student system equipment delivered by InfoGLOBAL is composed by a CD-ROM with the student application, licensed card and instruction booklet, as detailed left. IG-Class Student connectivity requirements Broadband access GSM/PSTN/ISDN for return Optional suggesred components USB o RCA videoconference PAL Camera System delivered with IG-Class Student IG-Class Student application in CD-ROM Application licence card Instructions booklet O.S. Supported with IG-Class Student Microsoft Windows 95 Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE Microsoft Windows Millenium Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional