document last updated 3/20 7pm PPRC proposal for 1997-1998 from WWWIC PROPOSERS Phil McClean (Plant Sciences), Director of WWW Instructional Support Ross Collins (Communications) Frank Dooley (Agricultural Economics) Paul Juell (Computer Sciences) Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat (Geosciences) Brian Slator (Computer Sciences) The WWWIC committee Phil McClean (Plant Sciences), Director of WWW Instructional Support Ross Collins (Communications) Tom Colville (Veterinary/Microbiology) Frank Dooley (Agricultural Economics) Paul Juell (Computer Sciences) Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat (Geosciences) Brian Slator (Computer Sciences) Val Tareski (Electrical Engineering) Nancy Lilleberg (ITS Multimedia Center) James Ross (ITS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- slator@badlands.nodak.edu >Brian Priority being addressed The World Wide Web Instructional Committee (WWWIC) proposes to continue and expand its role as campus WWW technology leader at NDSU. The WWWIC proposes to pursue this aim by narrowing its focus -- to concentrate on monitoring and mastering the far advanced, cutting edge, and emerging technologies that appear on the technical horizon each day. To accomplish this, WWWIC seeks support from the Planning, Priorities and Resource Committee (PPRC) under Priority B: Technology. >Brian Statement of need/problem In its first year of operation the WWWIC functioned as a bellwether for what was then novel Web-based initiatives such as home pages. The NDSU campus was only just waking up to the fact of the World Wide Web, and the need was for the technologically advanced and the "early adopters" of technology to learn from each other and spread what they knew. The WWWIC was a clearing house for this type of technical content and advice, and became a focal point of the rapid Web development occurring on the NDUS campus since that time. The WWWIC explored and mastered the new technologies before they were well-understood, and served as a techno-support group and facilitator to the fledgling Web-based efforts. As a consequence of this and other efforts at NDSU, the World Wide Web established a small but solid foothold and became a campus presence. In its second year, the WWWIC became more of a facilitating and evangelizing group. An active effort was made to enlist the "second wave" of technology users, and the resources of the committee were expended in the attempt to spread the available technologies across the NDSU campus. Largely as a consequence of the WWWIC's success in this mission, the World Wide Web has made its way into every corner of campus and we have seen the NDSU Web presence transformed by startling growth. Now, administrative initiatives have changed the face of the World Wide Web effort at NDSU. The Information Technology Roundtable (ITR) has endorsed a proposal for a Center of Multimedia Information Technology (COMMIT). The Center for Academic Information Technology (CAIT) has been approved, and funding is being secured for two fulltime staff positions, initially in support of the Academic Technology Partnership (ATP) program which is being initiated at NDSU for the summer of 1997. These overt signs of institutional support signal the beginning of formalized structures to foster campus efforts in instructional technology. The also signal the end of the facilitating role currently filled by the WWWIC. The time has come to move on. Taken separately or together, the first two years of the WWWIC existence can only be viewed as unvarnished success. In its first year, WWWIC was engaged in exploratory research and cutting edge development. In its second, the focus shifted to facilitation, instruction, and mentoring. Now, for its third year, and in light of the recent administrative developments just listed, the WWWIC proposes to continue forward by returning to its past. With the World Wide Web now firmly established on campus, and structures in place for its support, the WWWIC proposes to move ahead, in cooperation with these new entities, through the next wave of Internet and Multimedia research to once again take a cutting edge and pioneering position in the NDSU World Wide Web effort. The need is for a determined and technically savvy group to take the lead: to explore, and to assess, and research and develop. And to keep an eye on the horizon for the next "killer app", whatever that might be, in order that NDSU can maintain the Web-based technology advantage that the WWWIC has helped create over the last two years. >Brian Purpose of project The WWWIC proposes to take a general approach to cutting edge technology that will facilitate its adoption by others. By exploring the new as quickly as it is discovered, the WWWIC will be in a position to assess, recommend, and disseminate the latest developments for the benefit of the campus at large. The WWWIC will take the role of "earliest adopter", in order to map each new landscape so that others can follow closely behind on ploughed roads. The most obvious benefactors of this effort will be the new institutional structures for informational technology: COMMIT, the CAIT, and the imminent ATP program. We anticipate the WWWIC's research efforts into emerging technology will form a beneficial partnership with these institutional structures and their goals for advanced development in these areas. In plain language, the WWWIC will figure out how to use the latest innovations, so that others can less painfully employ them. Specifically, the WWWIC has identified three discrete but related areas of innovative research that are both highly technical and highly promising in terms of broad applicability: 1) user interface, client software, and Java development; 2) visualization, conceptual modeling, and VRML development; and 3) active simulations, synthetic environments, and interactive models. 1) User Interface, Client Software, and Java Development Research in the area of end-user interaction includes discovering better and more efficient ways of presenting information, supporting navigation, and delivering content. Client programs and browsing interfaces have moved through several generations within just the last few years, and there appears to be no end in sight. There is a need for simply monitoring these developments and tracking these trends. There is a further need for adopting these technologies in order to stay abreast and further them. It is clear, for example, that Java development, for all the many recent strides, is still in its infancy. It appears likely that Java will be the WWW language of choice for the immediate future, although the shape of that future is far from clear. 2) Visualization, Conceptual Modeling, and VRML Development Research in conceptual structure building includes representing physical systems in a spatially oriented and graphically rendered manner. These structures facilitate learning and understanding in a uniquely accessible way, since the object of study might be abstract or theoretical, microscopic, or even subatomic. This approach to system development has positive advantages on one hand, and presents profoundly technical and conceptual difficulties on the other. VRML, the Virtual Reality Markup Language, has emerged as a highly plausible standard, but expertise is scarce because of the difficulty in developing complex systems using VRML, and the sometimes prohibitive processing requirements it places on computing environments. Still, the advantages of this approach are becoming obvious and the need is for tractable methods of implementation. 3) Active Simulations, Synthetic Environments, and Interactive Models Research in active learning environments includes implementing "live" simulations for exploration and discovery that engage learners while treating them to a plausible synthetic experience. Simulated environments are valuable teaching tools because they can take a learner to places they would never ordinarily experience -- either because they are too dangerous, or because they are a physical impossibility. Unfortunately, simulations are complex and difficult to build. The need is for research into the construction of such systems, so that appropriate tools can be developed to facilitate later constructions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Phil Plan of action/implementation Plan of Action (this will be the lead narrative to tie the projects together) Active learning involves students interacting with course materials. From a computer technology perspective, this involves interfacing with the materials in a computer environment, visualizing the subject matter in a 2D, or better yet, a 3D environment, and modeling the material so that the student can learn concepts by manipulating parameters related to the subject matter. Currently, it is not known how to best implement these three concepts into software that promote increased student learning. We are proposing to directly address these three areas by developing products that will provide a dual purpose. First, each development product described below has a tangible outcome that will immediately be usable by students. Equally important though, the knowledge gained in producing these classroom products will define a development strategy that can be employed during the development of future products for other NDSU faculty. Furthermore, successful strategies that show us how to do early development steps can be adopted by other project development teams even before the initial product is itself finished. Therefore the advanced development expertise of the CAIT will be growing continually during the development of these products. Interface project(s) Visualization project(s) Modeling project(s) Evaluation of Project The project will be evaluated after the software projects are incorporated directly into NDSU courses. For example, several of the course materials related to the eukaryotic cell have been difficult for students to learn. Comparing exam scores will allow us to assay whether the students have better learned the materials. To determine if the design of the material is appropriate usability studies will be performed with students during the development process. To determine if the expertise level has increase in the CAIT, product development will be tracked to determine if advanced products are finished at a more rapid pace. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bernie Anticipated results/impact Anticipated results/impact This project will have the following impacts: 1) specific WWW resources will be constructed using Java, virtual reality, and mathematical modeling, that will be used in research and teaching at NDSU. These resources will be modular, meaning that they will be easily modifiable for use in a variety of disciplines across campus. 2) a pool of expertise will be created in developing and using advanced interactive technologies at NDSU, that can act as a resource to the campus as a whole, with the result that NDSU will continue to be at the cutting edge of WWW development. Plan for Dissemination of Results In addition to a final report to be submitted to PPRC at the end of the grant period, the WWWIC will disseminate products and results of this project in the following ways: 1) On the campus network 2) At conferences and in periodicals in the form of presentations and papers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bernie Plan to sustain project ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Val Plan for dissemination of results Val Evaluation of project -------- Draft 3-20-97 Plan for dissemination of results As pieces of each investigator's research efforts are implemented, they will be placed on the WWW so they can be used by students and accessed by others who are interested in those results. WWWIC will also work with the NDSU Teaching Support Center to conduct seminars describing the results obtained from this instructional research. Evaluation of project Evaluation will be done on three levels. The project participants will complete survey forms which will gather information on the amount of effort extended to implement particular ideas and the participant's impressions on the success of that implementation. Students who use the project products will be surveyed to get their reactions to the value of getting their course materials delivered via these advanced technologies. Participants in the Teaching Support Center seminars will be surveyed to obtain their reactions to the ideas that are presented in the seminar. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Budget Budget Item Cost 2 10hr/wk RA's for 12 months___ $12,000 3 10hr/wk RA's for 10 months___ $15,000 Software $2,000 ---------------------------------------------- Total $29,000 Budget justification Budget match Homer WOW MM-tech fee workstations ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: bernie's cutting edge piece Data visualization is becoming an increasingly important of dealing with large datasets. In the Earth Sciences, these datasets may be range from whole rock chemical analyses of drill core fragments, to soil surveys across a state, to synthetic datasets from a mathematical model. I propose to create a link from the text-based output of a mathematical model of water chemistry to a 3D graphical view of that data. The user will have the ability to select variables to be plotted in 3D and then will be able to manipulate the resulting plot on screen, all over a WWW interface. The benefit of such an interface will be to better show relations between chemical variables that otherwise would only be apparent by tedious plotting and comparison of large numbers of 2D graphs. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Paul technical problem It is hard to effectively show the execution of a program. This particular true for rule based programs used in expert system. This project will produce a 3D model of the complete program execution. The model will be distributed in vrml form, allowing the student to fly through the steps of execution of the program. In addition, there will be a number of special Java driven Hot Buttons that will allow variations in the presentation. This will allow stepping trough the program, putting the program into a play loop and hiding various parts of the information. This project will take numerous development cycles to make an intuitive display with controls doing what the user expects and that allows useful options. The initial version of this display will have a pictorial presentation of the working memory state (the variables) and the rules (the program) on a plain. Each step in the execution will then be displayed as a plain stacked on top of the previous plain. The values matching the IF part of the rule will be displayed in the same color as will the rule the values match. The action part of the matched rule will be in another color matching the color of the changed state information. This will allow the user to see, at a glance, the sequence of states and the actions at each step. This 3D display would be used both in class to display the examples and by the students. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: My contribution to the PPRC grant Phil Students are often confronted with information that is dynamic and has a deep interrelationship. In today’s classroom, simply presenting that knowledge in a two-dimensional realm does not compel the student to understand the various relationships of that knowledge. The 3D world is much betters suited for that type of knowledge. If the student has access to such a 3D world that ties the knowledge base together, improved student learning may be the outcome. Therefore, we propose to develop a three dimensional graphical image of a eukaryotic cell. This cell will be navigable via Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) browser. The image will contain all of the different cellular structures such as mitochondria and chloroplasts, the nucleus and unique topological features such as the cytoskeleton. All of these structures will be based upon the latest knowledge about these cellular structures. Simply having an attractive 3D graphic itself will itself provide students a perspective of cellular organization. But VRML also permits navigation to deeper concepts. The 3D cell will be linked to content. For example, by clicking upon the nucleus, the student will enter the nucleus. Within the nucleus they will be able to what DNA replication in action. Each step of the replication process will be navigable to obtain more detailed information about the process. Within the nucleus, other processes such as transcription will be modeled. These models will include 3D visualizations of protein/DNA interactions necessary for correct gene. Biochemical pathways are an essential component of life. This 3D graphic will link the student to different pathways. During this year will concentrate on the Kreb’s cycle in the mitochondria. By entering the mitochondria, the student come upon a live animation of this important biochemical cycle. The enzymes involved and the products of the cycle will be fully displayed. The enzymes will be linked to external databases that provide in depth details about that protein. Because the enzymes are often the product of the organelle and nuclear genes, the interactivity between the two genomes can also be studied. The student will also be presented with options that allow them to mutate any gene encoded a component of the pathway. The results of the mutation will be directly observed in this 3D world by the student. An important question to ask is why is this considered to be an advanced research topic? The simple answer is that 3D renedering and interactivity is a new field. Answers to questions such as how to best utilized computer and network resources to deliver this type of 3D feature are not known. The dynamics of traveling through such a display are also an unknown. Another important unknown is updating the module. New discoveries are being made in the field of molecular genetic and biochemistry at a relatively rapid pace. How can we design such a 3D world so that modifications are easy to incorporate without redesigning the 3D world from the bottom up. This 3D cellular world can also serve as a model for any 3D world. The solutions that we seek can have application to other fields in which dynamic, interrelated information is the found for knowledge. Therefore the research solutions that we arrive at will pave the way for these applications else where on campus. ----------------------------------------------------------- From slator@badlands.nodak.edu Thu Mar 20 21:59 CST 1997 Under 1) User Interface, Client Software, and Java Development Graphical MUD/MOO on the World Wide Web (Brian Slator) Ongoing research in the Computer Science department involves the construction of educational technology applications for tutoring and training. These applications are of a particular type: synthetic, multi-user environments --- spatially oriented and designed on a model that promotes learning-by-doing, collaboration, exploration, and positive role-playing. Systems of this sort capitalize on the advantages inherent in game-like educational media. These synthetic environments are implemented as a graphical MUD/MOO (MUDs are typically text-based electronic meeting places where players build societies and fantasy environments, and interact with each other; MOOs are object-oriented MUDs). The participants in a ROLE-based environment are immersed in a sustained problem-solving simulation. To succeed in their virtual world and effectively play the game, the learner must necessarily master the concepts and skills required to play their part. To "win", they need to learn the domain, and they need to learn their role in it. Virtual role-playing environments can be a powerful mechanism of instruction, provided they are constructed such that learning how to play and win the game contributes to a player's understanding of real-world concepts and procedures. We believe the value of play in learning can hardly be over-stressed. Students quickly tire of rigid tutorial systems designed to teach at any cost and at some predetermined pace. However, since simulations can be adaptive and responsive, playing a role in a simulation can be fun. Players will throw themselves terrier-like into an environment if it feels like a game. Insofar as possible, educational software should be engaging, entertaining, attractive, interactive, and flexible: in short, game-like. The MUD/MOO technology supporting these educational environments is in many ways similar to a Web server. The server runs a game simulation constantly, and players connect using client software whenever, and from wherever they like. The server is an active simulation implemented on an object oriented database, and the database supports messaging and scripting so that the virtual world can be both inhabited and implemented at the same time. Many players and many implementers can be resident at the same time, and they can interact with each as they choose. This is just to say that the server technology is fairly mature, quite general, and reliably robust. However, the same can not be said for the client technology. In the current model of operation, client software must be implemented using TCP/IP and the standard C/C++ development libraries. The result is a platform specific program that must be reimplimented for every computer. The need is for a delivery mechanism that spans the user community and yet delivers acceptable enough performance that remote users will be satisfied with their learning experience. For these reasons, we propose a Java client development effort to coordinate with the synthetic environment research mentioned above. This will produce a generalized client that can be used with the existing research project, and can be effortlessly adapted to new synthetic environments, such as the Geology Explorer, described elsewhere. Under 3) Active Simulations, Synthetic Environments, and Interactive Models The Geology Explorer (Brian Slator) The Geology Explorer is a synthetic environment to be implemented as a graphical MUD/MOO, an architecture described elsewhere in this proposal. This project is intended to teach college level geology students how to act like geologists. We plan to develop an Earth-like planet in a synthetic environment and dispatch small teams of geology students to the surface in search of evidence that the planet will support colonization. The first module will involve mineral exploration, where students will be expected to plan an expedition, locate and assess potential mineral and ore deposits, and survive the somewhat hostile environment in order to report on it. Physical Geology (NDSU Geology 120) is an large-enrollment (>400 students/section), 3 SH lecture course offered in the environment of Stevens Auditorium. Aside from lecture, the course content is augmented by slides, by a set of course lecture templates, by a textbook, and by a web resource site (links, images, self-quizzes, etc.). Virtually 100% of the students enrolled in the course are there to complete either general education requirements ("Science and Technology" or "Global Perspectives" categories) or specific course requirements within their majors. Of the 434 students enrolled in at the beginning of Fall, 1996, none were Geology majors. The challenge for the instructor is try to make these non-science oriented students think like a scientist: proposing and testing hypothesis, making appropriate decisions utilizing the basic tools of a geologist, working with the language of geology as a science, etc. It is obviously impractical for an instructor to take each of these 434 students into the field and have them individually experience taking the role and decision processes of a geologist in site investigations, mineral and rock testing, earth process modeling, field measurements, etc. However, these experiences can be individually presented to the student in the form of a synthetic environment, in which each student would in the role "as a geologist" be expected to address a series of highly realistic geologic situations. Within this environment, he/she would have to make decisions similar to those of a "real" geologist using the tools and techniques of a geologist. In many respects, Physical Geology is an ideal course for a role-based environment. Unlike many of the other sciences, Physical Geology is highly visual, with landscapes ranging from mountaintops to ocean floors, from arid North Dakota badlands to intensely-leached tropical soils, from gently-flowing streams to violent volcanic eruptions. In addition, because it is tied to an Earth-like planet, the course has a geographic base upon which to establish this synthetic environment. The base is not limited to just the Earth's surface but to the relationship of this surface to processes and energy sources deep within the planet. Synthetic environments thus can be established for the student at any position on or within the Earth sphere, with the student playing the role of evaluating diverse and often counteracting forces and processes. ---------------