Net-based Learning and the mStar Environment

Abstract

This licentiate thesis presents a Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) environment, mStar, from the perspective of net-based learning. The novel usage of IPmulticast based tools in teaching scenarios have been evolved to an interactive environment that supports time and location independence for students following distributed courses. The mStar environment has been designed to be scalable through the use of IP multicast and a server-less design. Robustness is achieved by separating traffic by loss tolerance, where traffic that accepts no loss uses a reliable multicast protocol and traffic that can accept some loss may use repair techniques. To enhance robustness even further, network resource management is suggested (which is important within a corporate network). If the tools are to be used over a non-multicast enabled or low bandwidth network, then the traffic can be tunneled and even concentrated. Everything from small group meetings to large lectures is supported, which to..