Project Presentation (Phase 1) For The Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

The Networks and Internet Computing Laboratory (NICLAB)Computer Science Department

UBC

2009/06/25

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The LIVES System and Demo

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Principal Investigator:Dr. Son T. VuongGrad Students:Jonatan Schroeder

Shahed AlamYong ChungAlbert ChenAndrew TjiaSponsor:

Commonwealth of Learning (COL)Mr. K. Balasubramanian (Bala)

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LIVES Research Team

LIVESThe goal of LIVES is to provide illiterate

people in developing countries with An asynchronous learning tool based on auditory cues

utilizing the existing telephony/mobile infrastructure Easy-to-use Learning Management System & Learning

Content Management System

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Requirements and Deliverables

The features and functions that were asked to be implemented (and are currently implemented) in the LIVES prototype

How the LIVES is designed to logically deal with these requirements

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Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 1: The LIVES system calls registered students

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1. The LIVES system calls registered students An administrator register a student with following

information A mobile number An available time range to listen to lectures and answer

questions ‘predefined-available-time’

Preferred language LIVES detects any newly uploaded contents

(lecture/quiz) and automatically calls students An administrator can define how often (and on what criteria)

LIVES should call back if the call was missed or denied ‘predefined-callback-time’

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Requirements and Deliverables

Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 2 & 3: A user picks up (or does not pick up) the call from LIVES

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Requirements and Deliverables

2. A user picks up the call from LIVES A user will be prompted with an option to:

Listen to the lecture Answer the quiz Indicate that one cannot listen to the lecture (will be called

again after the predefined-callback-time)

3. A user does not pick up the call from LIVES A user will be called again after the predefined-

callback-time If a user does not answer the call within the predefined

available-time, LIVES will call again the following day

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Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 4: A user hangs up during the call

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Requirements and Deliverables

4. A user hangs up during the call A user will be called again after the predefined-

callback-time If the user had completely listen to the lecture, LIVES

provides a quiz If the user had not completely listen to the lecture,

LIVES provides the lecture again

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Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 5: User progress tracking by user-profile-database (The detailed statistic graphs will be available in the next version) 11

Requirements and Deliverables

5. The user progress tracking by user-profile-database Each user’s progress and profile will be stored in

‘user-profile-database’ Mobile/phone number Name / student id /address Predefined-available-time List of received lectures Answers to the answered-questions Some statistical information ….etceteras

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Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 6: User leaves a feedback using numeric input

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Requirements and Deliverables

6. A user leaves a feedback using a numeric input LIVES asks a user to answer multiple choice questions

by pushing number keys LIVES store each students answers on user-profile-

database Each user’s profile (statistics) can be retrieved later

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Requirements and Deliverables

Figure 7: LIVES responds to the user’s answer

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Requirements and Deliverables

7. LIVES responds to the user’s answer A user answer by a number key For a correct answer

Informs the user that the answer is correct Provides an explanation to why the answer is correct

(optional)

For an incorrect answer Informs the user that the answer is incorrect Asks again for the correct answer

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PSEUDO CODE – The Logic

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How Asterisk handles all the requirements systematically

through a computer program

PSEUDO CODE – The Logic

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The Technology behind LIVES

LIVES is a set of optimized computers equipped with specially designed software and hardware to deliver educational material over the phone Provides pre-recorded learning material to specific groups of people at

specific times in specific ways. This specificity is programmable –you define it!

Asynchronous : students can learn at their preferred time Bidirectional: students can answer to the questions and system can

respond instantly Does not require students to purchase special equipments Tracks down user’s progress

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The LIVES Main Server - Asterisk

The Technology behind LIVES

LIVES main server: This is the ASTERISK server This server is connected to the Internet (not a phone

line) It makes calls to students through the Internet …but the LIVES main server is connected to the

Internet, not to a regular phone line. How can it make a call to a conventional telephone / mobile phone user?

VOIP Voice over IP allows digital voice to travel over the Internet

Just like how analogue voice traverse the phone line

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The Technology behind LIVES

….Then, students need to have a phone hooked up to Internet in order to receive call from the Internet?!

NO! this is not necessary! A call from LIVES initially travels through the Internet. When it passes

through a ‘VOIP GATEWAY’ (a special machine provided by a telephone/mobile service provider that converts digital voice to analogue voice), the VOIP GATEWAY tosses the voice to a regular phone line and allows an end user to answer the call using a conventional tel or mobile phone.

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The VoIP Technology

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Call Manager(AGI) SERVER This server deals with the actual interaction with the

students. It defines How the voice clips (lessons/quizes) should be played How the user profile should be stored and updated How the user will be prompted with options How the user’s feedback will be recorded And so on…

LIVES main server (Asterisk) asks Call Manager Server on ‘How it should make a call’

The Technology behind LIVES

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The Call Manager Server (AGI)

User Profile Database and Voice Database User Profile Database

Keeps the information of each user Predefined-available-time Student number /name / location Phone number

Keeps the progress of each user GPA

Voice Database Keeps the modularized lesson and quiz voice clips

The Technology behind LIVES

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The User Profile/Voice Servers

The LIVES System

The Technology behind LIVES

Call Originator Software The software continuously asks LIVES main

server (asterisk) to make calls to students to play the lessons/quizes from Voice server according to the user information (rules) fetched from the UserProfile server

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The Originator Software

The LIVES System

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Conlusions

LIVES is an exciting project and a cool technology Research prototype implemented Potential huge impact to learning in rural poor

areas (and other learning domains)

We trust we’ve met the project deliverables Lots of fun Lots of interesting further work still (Phase 2)

Thank you! We like it and wish to continue !

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Potential Future Work (Phase 2)

Research on Scalability System Security and Access Control Enhancements and Extensibility Multimedia content and message (MMS) LMS (Enhance student performance tracking) (Semi)Automated LCMS (content org, audio synthesizer) Make it easier for instructor to upload lesson/questions Facilitate localization (generalize/parameterize design) CoreLIVES (LMS and LCMS) for various learning applns

For developed countries, OCPL project, First Nation, the blinds, learning while doing (driving, walking, jogging), poll survey, etc.

Others

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