1.5. Related Systems

Widely-used commercial systems that contain subsets of the functionality we desire include:

The goal of our Electronic Classroom is to provide a set of functionality that allows a student to attend a lecture without needing to be physically present. Much of the functionality we want is present in the above systems, but not all of it.

Notably, we want this software to be capable of sharing slides of arbitrary length, with scrollable elements. None of the software we have reviewed has this feature.

A detailed review of each tool follows in these subsections:

      1. Microsoft PowerPoint

      2. GNU Image Manipulation Program

      3. Blackboard

      4. Pidgin

      5. Scriblink

      6. TeamViewer

      7. GoToMeeting


A summary of features provided is provided in a feature comparison matrix.


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