Personalizing the Lecture Experience
Overview
StuPad is a ubiquitous computing system designed for the classroom environment
to study how technology impacts the lecture experience. As part of
the Classroom 2000 project, it follows the general theme of reducing the
amount of tedious note-copying that students typically perform during a
class. Instead, notes presented by the instructor are automatically
captured and broadcasted to the students desk where StuPad seamlessly integrates
the both the lecturer's notes and the student's notes. As a result
students are provided with the opportunity to take summary type notes that
capture the essence of the material presented during class.
History
StuPad evolved from two different prototypes that were developed for the
Apple Newton MessagePad 2000 and the Palm Pilot. The following a
links point to screenshots for each prototype:
These prototypes contributed to the design in the next iteration of implementation.
Because the synchronization and integration of the student's notes (captured
on either the MessagePad or the Palm Pilot) and the instructor's captured
notes (located on the web) would require some manual effort in the post
production phase, there was a clear need for networked machines to be used
to automate the integration of the student's private set of notes with
the instructor's public notes. Thus, the next prototype was designed
with networked laptop PCs as the target platform in mind.
As it turns out, by using a platform that is networked, StuPad is able
to do more than just automate the synchronization and integration between
the student's private notes with the instructor's notes. By adding
to each StuPad clients the routines to read events broadcasted from the
Zen* system, StuPad was able to retrieve the instructor's slides live during
class...enabling students to annotate directly on top of them. Futhermore,
functionalities such as the ability to share notes or to post anonymous
questions could be implemented into the StuPad system.
The next several iterations of the system involved evaluation of the
system as well as testing of the system on actual classes that used the
Classroom 2000 technology. From these studies, StuPad has since been
modified and targeted for networked PCs that would have pen-based video
display tablets (Mutoh tablets) as the capturing devices in the classroom.
The kinds of notes the students take as well as how they take notes were
surveyed and the results have all contributed in the design of StuPad.
The
Design
A formal design document of the current StuPad version is being worked
on at this time.
However, please look at the following web page for more information
on the initial evaluation performed on the system, as well as the design
criteria and the StuPad prototype.
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_98_fall/projects/no_notes.
The
Prototype
The following are some screen shots of the capture and access interface
of the system.
Figure 1. The Capture Interface.
Figure 2. The Access Interface.
People
Involved
StuPad Project Advisor:
StuPad is designed and developed by:
-
Ahmad Aslami, and
-
Khai Nhut Truong
Inital formative evaluation was performed by:
-
Steve Lin
-
Margaret Li
-
Brian McNamara, and
-
Khai Nhut Truong
StuPad Papers
- Personalizing the Capture of Public Experiences.
(word,
html)
Truong, Khai N., Abowd, Gregory D., and Brotherton, Jason A.
"Personalizing the Capture of Public Experiences." To appear in the
Proceedings of UIST'99.
- StuPad: Integrating Student Notes with Class Lectures.
(word,
html)
Truong, Khai N. & Abowd, Gregory D. "StuPad: Integrating Student Notes
with Class Lectures." In the Extended Abstracts of CHI'99,
pp.208-209. May, 1999.
For
More Information
Further information on the Classroom 2000 project and the Zen* system can
be found at: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/c2000.
StuPad is a Future Computing Environments (FCE) project in the College
of Computing and GVU Center at Georgia Tech. More information can
be obtain by contacting Dr Gregory
D. Abowd or Khai N. Truong.
Modified By: Khai
N. Truong
Last Modified: January 11, 1999