1.1. Problem Statement
The general problems to be addressed by the EClass project are the
following:
-
to provide a reliable and easy to use software tool that allows teachers and
students to collaborate on lectures electronically in a way comparable to physical media such as
whiteboards
-
to provide a way for students and instructors to draw on lectures, ask questions, and gauge the
difficulty of the lecture
-
to provide a way for teachers to interact with students, create questions, and
conduct polls
While these problems have been solved by a number of commercially available and
public domain products, the EClass tool provides a solution with certain
functional improvements over existing tools. Specific problem areas are the
following:
-
a way for teachers to collapse/expand on certain topics while preserving layers
-
providing a tool for students and teachers to gauge the difficulty and understanding of the lecture
-
a way to draw on lectures and save lectures for future viewing
The EClass project addresses the requirements of a particular customer.
This customer needs a tool with a collection of features not available in any
single existing tool. This aspect of the problem is one of combining a set of
existing features in a way that the features have yet to be combined in another
product.
In addition to the development of functioning software, the EClass project
focuses on two additional problems not addressed in commercial tools:
-
multiple user modes where the teacher can allow a student all capabilities of the
software, permission to draw on their own screen, or total lockdown mode where students can only
watch the lecturee
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