Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure◆研究論文◆

Sustainable Education
Collaboration Architecture
on Digital Infrastructure
インターネット環境を利用した
持続可能な教育協力アーキテクチャ
Shoko Mikawa
Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
三川 荘子
慶應義塾大学大学院政策・メディア研究科特別研究講師

Keiko Okawa
Professor, Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University
大川 恵子
慶應義塾大学大学院メディアデザイン研究科教授

Jun Murai
Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University
村井 純
慶應義塾大学環境情報学部教授

This paper presents the first sustainable education collaboration architecture that interconnects
universities to build multilateral learning environment to foster students to become cosmopolitans. The
proposed approach is taken from technical and administrative aspect to enable effective and sustainableeducation collaborations among the universities. The distance education system enabled any contents
provider or university to technically participate in the education collaboration. The collaboration
guidelines enabled other distance education systems to interconnect with the proposed system aswell as enabling official education collaboration among the partners within the proposed system. The
operator development enabled the sustainability and autonomy of the proposed architecture. This
research is unique that it pursues how to sustain the education collaboration region-wide by integrating
the three aspects: distance education system, guideline development and operator development,
while other work focuses on only one or two components. The six years of experience conducting
the education collaborations proved the feasibility, sustainability, and effectiveness of the proposedarchitecture.
本研究は、真の世界市民たる学生を育成するため、国を超えた大学同士の連結を実現させ、大学同士の教育協力を持続的に行うアーキテクチャを提案した。遠隔教育システムでは、大学やコンテンツ提供者が技術的に教育協力に参加できる枠組みの構築を行った。協力ガイドラインでは、
提案システム上での大学間の教育協力手法の提案に加え、他の遠隔教育システムとの連結も可能とした。オペレータ育成を通し、システムの持続的・自律的な運用を可能とした。本研究は、地域規模の教育協力を持続可能なものにするため多角的なアプローチを取り、遠隔教育システム・
ガイドラインの作成・オペレータの育成を行った。他の研究ではこれら 3 つの要素が全ては揃っておらず、持続性に欠ける。6 年間の教育協力を通した実証実験より、提案アーキテクチャの有用性及び持続可能性を証明した。
Keywords: Sustainable collaboration, Distance education, Tertiary education, Multilateral environment, Asia

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learning environment in multiple universities across

1 Introduction
Why people learn? Yukichi Fukuzawa, theborders by developing an education collaboration

founder of Keio University, said in his essay

architecture that connects multiple universities in[1]“Encouragement of learning” that the God put nodifferent countries on digital infrastructure. The

one above the others, and no one below the others,

proposed architecture is consisted of three modules:

and the differences of people were caused by the

1. a distance education system, 2. collaboration

fact that they study or not. He also mentioned thatguidelines, and 3. operator development.

when people study, the results of the studies have to

The distance education system is a real-contribute to the society else there is no use of study.

time lecture-sharing environment among multiple

In order to create a place to pursue one’s study,

universities across borders. The system achieved

Yukichi Fukuzawa established the oldest university

the following three results. It solved the Internet

in Japan. Since then, many students have learned

infrastructure gap among universities by using

and graduated from the university and worked toan additional Internet connectivity on satellite

contribute to the society. The role of universities iscommunication link. It enabled lecture sharing

to develop human resources who contribute to thewith multiple universities in a realtime mannersociety, and ultimately, develop them to build theby introducing multicast-capable applications andfuture of the world. University is a place to share the

network. It enabled universities to maximize theknowledge people have accumulated from the pastutilization of the existing facilities for establishing thestudies, and offers research laboratories as the place

distance education system by introducing and clearly

to apply the knowledge.

defining Relay Site, Primary Site, and Receiving Site,

In many aspects, the world requires leaderswhich are the concepts of the universities’roles inwith global point of view. With the expansion ofthis distance education system.

global economy, big companies are placing their

The collaboration guidelines clearly defined theheadquarters and factories regardless of the country

university roles in the proposed distance education

borders. There are many problems that have to besystem so that each university can easily understandsolved with effort from multiple regions such as

how to establish its site. The guidelines also set thewater pollution and global warming. The universities

administrative collaboration procedures to enable

are one of the places to develop the human resources

formal education collaborations among universities.

who will become the leading forces in many areas.

In addition, the guidelines also defined the interfaces

We believe that these human resources have toto collaborate with other distance education systems

be trained to be cosmopolitans who can respect

to share education resources across each distancetheir own cultures and view points at the same timeeducation system.

respecting the cultures and view points of otherIn order to make the distance education system

nations. In order to develop these human resources,

scalable and sustainable, it is mandatory to havemultilateral learning environment is indispensable.

skillful human resources at each site who operate

Through jointly learning with students from otherand maintain the site autonomously. This researchcountries and sharing ideas, students learn todeveloped operators at each site, and proposed a

respect each other’s point of view, and learn how toregion-wide realtime distributed hands-on workshop

collaborate in multilateral environment.

to enable human resource development programs

This research proposes to create a multilateralwith areas where there are limitation on 1) human78

Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

resources to teach, 2) educational materials to teachuniversities in 16 countries. It is proposing to create

with, and 3) hands-on environment to teach on.

distance education environment among the group

The architecture has been deployed in Asia foruniversities, however, since the development of their

six years to evaluate its feasibility and sustainability.

distance education system is done on their existing

The simple requirements enabled many organizations

environments, and universities without existing

to interconnect. The Receiving Site was installedfacilities of network/equipment cannot participate

at 23 organizations in 11 countries. The Primaryin the distance education activities. Therefore, theSite was installed at 31 sites in 7 countries, and themain activities of APRU are limited to the meetings ofRelay Site was placed at Keio University, Shonan

several levels, i.e., the presidents, doctoral students,

Fujisawa Campus. The collaboration guidelines

researchers.

enabled autonomous education collaborations among

GDLN(Global Development Learning Network)[3],

the universities, where education collaboration canstarted in 2000, is a network run by World Bankbe forged even between two universities withinthat supports distance communications such as

this architecture. The operator development

lectures and meetings. GDLN have 120 locations

provided the skilled human resources for thefor their network, and some of the locations include

daily implementations of the collaborations. 33

universities. However, their network is not targeted

university level courses, with a total of 311 lectures,to the university-level education collaboration, andand 34 realtime sessions including conference

community building among the universities is out of

broadcasting and faculty meetings were conducted

their focus.

on the environment. The results of this six years of

AVU(African Virtual University) [4], started in

education collaborations proved the sustainability of

1997 is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organization

this architecture.

whose aim is to increase access to quality higher

This research realized an effective and sustain-

education and training through the use of information

able architecture that can achieve university-communication technologies. The AVU has 72

level education collaborations across borders toPartner Institutions in 27 countries in Africa. The

foster cosmopolitans who create the future of the

purpose of their activities does not focus on theworld. This research result will contribute to theeducation collaborations which enable any university

future creations of region-wide distance education

to join the environment and transmit/receive lectures

environments, and development of world-wide

on the environment. The universities who can receive

education collaboration platform.

the lectures are many, but the universities who cantransmit the lectures are limited in their environment.

2 Related Work

Each development is done with aim on different

There are several activities to develop region-

purposes. In order to achieve a multilateral education

wide or worldwide education collaboration

collaboration environment that includes as manyenvironment.

universities throughout the world, more integrated[2]

APRU(Association of Pacific Rim Universities) ,research approach that enables development of thestarted in 1997, aims to foster education, research

distance education facilities, education collaborationand enterprise in order to contribute to thescheme, and sustainable operation management is

economic, scientific and cultural advancement inrequired.

the Pacific Rim. APRU currently have 37 partner

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applications and classrooms to receive lectures

3 Problem Definition and Architecture
Proposalfrom three different distance education programs.

In creating effective multilateral education

Installation of similar facilities for multiple times iscollaboration architecture, several problems are to beclearly inefficient use of the facilities.

addressed.
3.1 Problem Definition

3.1.2 Inexperience of education collaboration in
multilateral environment

3.1.1 Lack and inefficient use of university facilities
It is the case with many universities that the

Official education collaboration among uni-

sufficient infrastructure and applications for sharing

versities over distance education environment

the education programs such as lectures are not yet

requires administrative approach as well as

developed. Therefore, it is often the case with cross-the technical approach. However, since this iscountry distance education environments such as

one of the first trials to develop the multilateralSpace Collaboration System(SCS)[5]

led by National

learning environment with collaboration of

Institute of Multimedia Education since 1998 thatmultiple universities across borders, the process

they install the infrastructure and applications instandardization, administrative and operational

order to conduct education collaborations. The

guidelines are not yet prepared.

infrastructure and application gap among the

Several distance education activities areuniversities exists, and in order to develop effective

emerging currently such as GDLN[3], JICA-Net [8] andeducation collaboration system, these gaps must

SEAMEO(Southeast Asian Ministries of Education

be filled. Moreover, in order for each university to

Organization) [32], each runs their own activities.

participate actively in the class and communicate

By defining the procedure to enable education

with each other to support multilateral learning

collaborations among each activity, the possibilities

environment, lecture sharing must be done in aof conducting the collaborations will widen.

realtime manner.
Project based infrastructure and application

3.1.3 Limited number of operators

installation will lead to inefficient use of the facilities.

JICA-Net[8] is an organization that also supports

For example, Asian Institute of Technology(AIT),

distance education since 2000. The 88 locations inThailand is participating in two distance education

62 countries in the world are placed mostly in the

projects, namely, Distance Education of Graduate

JICA(Japan International Cooperation Agency)

Programs via International Communication Satellite

office, and the network and applications are operated[6]

led by Tokyo Institute of Technology , and thee-Learning pilot test

[7]

by the technicians employed by JICA. It means

led by Tsukuba University.

when the project ends, all the operators will be

Two satellite antennas are installed at AIT to receive

relocated, and there will be no one to operate thelectures from each university. Since both theenvironment. When building a university-level

universities are located in Tokyo area, there might

education collaboration architecture and developing

have been other ways to share the infrastructurea sustainable distance education environment in

to broadcast lectures to AIT. Similar cases arescalable manner, autonomous operation by local

happening at other universities as well. Based onuniversity staff from participating universities

the hearing investigation, Hasanuddin University in

is indispensable. By applying this scheme, theIndonesia has installed three different infrastructures,

knowledge of network and applications operation is80

Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

accumulated in each university, and the knowledge

The distance education system realizes an

could be utilized for other distance education

environment that any university to technically able toprograms.

participate in the distance education programs run on

However, the number of technicians who canthis system, filling the network and application gaps.

operate the network and applications for distance

It also enables each university to maximize the use of

education environment is still limited in sometheir existing network infrastructure and applications.

regions. This is because the number of human

The collaboration guidelines are consisted of 3

resources who can teach the local staff to beparts. First, the contents delivery guideline andoperators is limited, teaching materials for cutting

contents reception guidelines are designed to enableedge technologies are not prepared, and somethe contents partner and the contents receiving

universities lack the equipments to teach the local

universities to freely circulate the educational

staff with.

contents on the proposed distance education system.
While the guidelines for other work often show
only how to setup and manage the each work’s

3.2 Education Collaboration Architecture Proposal
This research proposes a university education

system, our guidelines include the administrative

collaboration architecture that enables multilateralperspective such as developing a new academic

learning environment for each university to foster

course, managing copyrights, agreement to realize

cosmopolitans to lead the future of the world. The

official collaborations among different universities.

architecture is consisted of 3 modules, and each

Second, the bridging guideline is designed to enable

module solves the above mentioned problems.

the sharing of educational contents with other

The modules are 1) distance education system, 2)

distance education systems such as GDLN, JICA-

collaboration guidelines, and 3) operator development

Net and SEAMEO. Normally, since each projectas illustrated in Figure 1.

focuses on the education collaborations within their

Figure 1 Education Collaboration Architecture Overview

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systems, these kind of guidelines to collaborate withas shown in the cases of distance lectures between

other distance education systems are not prepared

Wisconsin University and Keio University [13] andto expand the collaborations beyond the proposed

between University of California, Los Angeles andsystem. And third, the operator development

the Kyoto University [14]. On the other hand, many

solves the lack of technicians at each university byuniversities still do not have sufficient Internet

proposing human resource development programs,

infrastructure to receive distance lectures. For

including region-wide distributed hands-on

example, when this research started in 2001,

workshop.

there was no Internet infrastructure at University

By realizing the proposed education collaborationof Computer Studies, Yangon in Myanmar, andarchitecture, universities will be able to build

Hasanuddin University in Indonesia was utilizing

multilateral learning environment to connect their

28.8kbps cable modem telephone line for the network

learning environment with other universities, whereconnection. The Internet infrastructure gap exists

students can learn and communicate with students

among the universities. This research aims to solvefrom other countries in realtime manner. The

the heterogeneous network situation of the lecture-

distance education system is operated autonomously

providing university and lecture-receiving university

by each university to sustain the environment, and it

to encourage lecture circulations among universities

interconnects with other distance education systems

worldwide.

to expand the education collaboration possibilities.

This research defines the functions and procedures each university should refer to when

4 Distance Education System

participating in the proposed distance education

4.1 Design

system. The idea is to apply a relay site between the

There are number of communication medium

lecture providing university and lecture receivingon which distance education can be conducted, such

university to adapt the heterogeneity of networks

as telephone line, radio, satellite communication,

and applications among the participating universities.

[9]and the Internet . The Internet infrastructure has

The categorization of the functions is as the following.

advantages over other infrastructure as it can support
data transfer such as lecture material and character- Student Sitebased communications as well as sharing the video> Receiving lectures

and audio. Also, the network infrastructure can be- Primary Sitedeveloped using different links such as fiber optic> Providing lectures, receiving lectures

cables, power cables, telephone lines, wireless> Coordinating the lectures including acommunication infrastructure such as satellite link

moderator of lecturesor 802.11 equipments. Therefore, satellite Internet is- Relay Siteused as the infrastructure for the proposed system.

> Providing lectures, receiving lectures andIn general, the lecture providing universities,

relaying lectures

which have accumulated research results and latest> Realtime translation such as Japanese toknowledge for certain topics, are located in the areas

Englishwhere broadband Internet infrastructure is already> Format conversion, lecture archival anddeveloped. These universities are already equipped

redistribution

with distance education systems on their campuses> Network monitoring82

Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

By introducing the categorization of each site andlecture sharing universities, and 3) efficient use ofdefining their functions, any education collaboration

facilities, are the three objectives of the proposed

can be described as the circulation of educational

distance education system.

resources among these sites. Each site design canbe applied to any university in the world. Figure 2

4.1.1 Filling the infrastructure gap

shows some examples of the educational resource

The past researches [15][16] show that at leastcirculation. Since there is a Relay Site between the1Mbps network connection is required from thePrimary Site and the Student Site, the Primary Site

Primary Site to the Student Site to conduct distanceis required to have sufficient Internet infrastructure

lectures, but the backward network connection

and applications to conduct the distance education

can vary as long as the Students Site can give

only to the Relay Site. The Student Site is also

some feedback to the Primary Site. In the age ofrequired to have sufficient Internet infrastructure andthe information, almost all of the universities areapplications to the Relay Site. Based on this proposal,

equipped with some kind of Internet connection.

a more flexible distance lecture can be conducted on

Therefore, this research proposes to utilize thethis system.

existing Internet infrastructure for the feedback

As stated in subsection 3.1, the design of thismean from the Student Site to the Primary Site, anddistance education system aims to solve the problem

install an additional link to receive the lectures fromof infrastructure gap and inefficient use of thethe Primary Site to the Student Site.

facilities. In addition, as this research proposes

Since the proposed distance education

to create a multilateral learning environment forsystem should have wide coverage area as muchstudents, it is important to share lectures on thisas possible, and the universities could be locatedsystem in realtime manner. These 1) filling the

anywhere from the remote island to the mountaininfrastructure gap, 2) increasing the number of

top, the wired network is difficult to be applied.

Figure 2 Design Concept

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Wireless communication system such using themulticast capabilities are used. They are VIC andcommunication satellite is appropriate to be applied

RAT (Video Conferencing Tool and Robust Audio

because 1) a single satellite can cover as much as

Tool)[18][19] and VideoLAN[20]. The former application

1/3 part of the world, 2) as satellite communication

is a video conferencing application, and the latter is autilizes fixed frequency and bandwidth allocation,

video streaming application. The policy of designing

the network bandwidth that is applied on thethe applications is to use open source software

infrastructure can be guaranteed on the link, andas much as possible, as to minimize the cost for3) the path from the source to destination can

installation. Windows Media Technologies[21] did

be developed with just single hop despite of thehave same functions with VideoLAN. However, sincegeographical distance. Therefore, this research

it requires a Windows Server Professional to operate

adopts the satellite link as its Internet infrastructure.

the application, the application was considered to lack

However, the Internet connection assumes

the system generality. Since the VIC and RAT enablebi-directional network links, and this approach

all the participating sites to transmit their video andthat utilizes asymmetric links of existing Internet

audio unlike the video streaming applications, theinfrastructure at each university and the link over

VIC and RAT is introduced as the primary distancethe communication satellite infrastructure does noteducation application in the proposed system.

work as it is. Therefore, UDLR (Uni-Directional Link
Routing) technology[17]

For material sharing, a software dedicatedly

is utilized to emulate the bi-

developed for this system, called the LivePresenter

directional linkis used. The function of the LivePresenter is tosynchronize the slide change timing in a Flash fileconverted from a PowerPoint file. It can show and4.1.2 Increasing the number of lecture sharing
universities

share the pointer and characters written on the slide

In order to share single lecture among multiple

as shown in Figure 3.

universities in realtime manner, applications with

Figure 3 LivePresenter Overview

84Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

Figure 4 Design overview

using Internet relay chat (IRC)[19], and the material

4.1.3 Efficient use of facilities
The Relay Site acts as a proxy to deliver the

sharing is done using the LivePresenter.

lecture from the Primary Site to the Student Site. The

The Student Site is required to have 1Mbps

connection between the Primary Site and the Student

Internet connection from the Relay Site. The site withSite is made using unicast, and then the lecture will

sufficient Internet infrastructure can connect directly

be broadcasted to all Student Sites using multicast.

to the Relay Site, and the site without sufficient

Any Primary Sites who have more than 1Mbps

Internet infrastructure have to install the receive-

connections to the Relay Site can have the advantage

only satellite antenna as the Internet link to receiveof Relay Site. The Primary Site and Student Site are

the lecture video and audio from the Relay Site. The

designed to have several types so that each university

applications for broadcasting the lectures are thecan choose most preferable design based on their

VIC/RAT and VideoLAN, and the each site chooses

Internet connection and the application they have.

the application, namely VIC/RAT, IRC or Bulletin

Figure 4 shows the overview of the proposed distance

Board, to send the feedback to the Primary Site

education system design.

based on their Internet connection.

The Primary Site can be any location that has

The Relay Site is equipped with a satellite

sufficient Internet connection to the Relay Sitetransmitter to guarantee a sufficient communication

utilizing the existing Internet infrastructure. Basedpath to the Student Site. It converts the applicationon their connectivity, the Primary site can choose

format from DVTS, Polycom and SonyPCS to VIC

their video communication applications to use

and RAT and VideoLAN to be broadcasted to the

DVTS
PCS

[22]

[24]

(30Mbps one way), Polycom[23]

or Sony

Student Site, and converts the format in opposite way(512kbps-2Mbps one way) and VIC/RAT

to relay the feedback from the Student Site to the(1.5Mbps one way). The staff communication is donePrimary Site.

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The network and application designs to achieve

developed in 23 locations in 11 countries in Thailand,

the efficient use of facilities are described at table 1.

Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Bangladesh,
Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar, Malaysia and Mongolia
as shown in Figure 5. The Relay Site was developed

4.2 System Development
An experimental deployment has been con-in Keio University, Japan with collaboration with AI3

ducted to show the feasibility of the proposed

Project[26]. Since the distance education system was

distance education system in Asia[25]. The satellite

developed experimentally in Asia, the Relay Site islink used in this experiment is JCSAT-3, whichdeveloped in Japan. However, the same architecture

covers Asia. The Primary Site was developed in 31

can be applied to other regions like Europe or Africa,

locations in 7 countries, and the Student Site wasand in that case, the Relay Site will be developed

Table 1 Network and applications at each site
Network

Video/Audio
Application

Staff
communication

Primary- Sufficient network to Relay
Site using the existing Internet
infrastructure- DVTS (30Mbps)- Polycom (512kbps - 2Mbps)- SonyPCS(512kbps - 2Mbps)- VIC/RAT (1.5Mbps)- Live Presenter
- IRC
- BBS

Relay
- Link over Bi-Directional
Satellite antenna- Link to the world’s network
backbone- Converts the applications ofPrimary Site to the Student Siteapplications

Figure 5 Student Site Coverage in Asia

86

Student- 1Mbps to Relay Site over thesatellite link
- VIC/RAT (256kbps -1.5Mbps)- VideoLAN (256kbps -1.5Mbps)

Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

in other sites that have both sufficient Internet

Table 2 Increasing number of the partner siteconnection to the world’s network backbone, and can

Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

build satellite earth station that can cover the region.
The Relay Site can be installed at multiple places tomeet the requirements of the Primary Sites and theStudent Sites. By connecting these Relay Sites in the
future, an education collaboration environment that

Number of partner sites
10
10
11
18
20
23
23

covers entire world can be developed.
4.3 System Evaluation

is equipped with satellite antenna and network

4.3.1 Filling the Infrastructure Gap

equipment to participate in the lecture shared on the

By introducing a receive-only satellite link as anproposed environment. The proposed environment

additional link to the existing Internet infrastructure

enables all the 23 Student Sites to join a single lecture

at each university, any university regardless of theirsimultaneously. There is no limitation of the number

existing Internet infrastructures could establish theof the participating site, and more Student Sites can

sites

[16]

. When we conducted the lecture streaming

participate in the proposed system in the future.

testing in May-June 2006 targeting 10 universities

Thus, multilateral learning environment acrossin 8 countries, 3 universities could not receive theborders is established with the proposed system.

lecture streaming, and other 4 universities could notreceive the streaming video in sufficient quality. After

4.3.3 Efficient use of facilities

the installation of our environment, all the sites could

Introducing of the Relay site enabled the Primary

receive the lecture streaming in sufficient quality.

Site to be established regardless of the location as

The details of the improved quality are shown inlong as the site has sufficient Internet connection to[15]

the previous research. University of San Carlos in

the Relay Site. By utilizing this design, 31 Primary

Philippines, 5 universities in Indonesia established

Site were established in 7 countries including

the Student Site regardless of their locations inIndonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, theremote islands. The Tribhuvan University in Nepal

United States, and Japan. A total of 33 university-levelestablished the Student Site in spite of the 3hours

courses including 311 lectures as shown in Table 3,

and 15minutes time differences from the Relay
Site in Japan. All the established 23 Student Sites

Table 3 Number and Topics of Shared Lecturesin 11 countries can receive good quality video andaudio from the Primary site, and the introducing

Year
2002

# of lectures
39of the satellite communication link as the Internet

2003

6

2004
2005

26
65

2006

60

2007

88

2008

37

infrastructure met the requirement of filling theinfrastructure gap.
4.3.2 Increasing the number of lecture sharing
universities
Every year, the number of participating partner
sites increased as shown in Table 2. Each site

TopicsIT, Marine Science andTechnology
Engineering, Marine Science andTechnology
Marine Science and Technology
IT, Agriculture, Disaster
Management, Engineering,
Marine Science and Technology
IT, Agriculture, Disaster
Management
Disaster Management, IT,
Biotechnology, Renewable
Energy, Marine Science andTechnology
IT, Agriculture

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and 34 realtime sessions were broadcasted utilizing[31]

this systeman agreement only once to conduct the education. Lecture topics include biotechnology,

collaborations utilizing the proposed education

marine science and technology, information

collaboration architecture. They do not have to signtechnology, disaster management, law, agriculture

and agree on the way of collaborations every time aand renewable energy. More than 250 professors

new partner participates in the architecture.

gave lectures or speeches on the proposed system

In this research, three types of guidelines are

and throughout these lecture broadcasting, theprepared to enable the education collaboration

Student Site did not have to change any configuration

among the partner organizations.

to receive different topics by different organizations.
The first module, distance education system

Contents delivery guideline

solved the lack of university facilities for the- MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to agree

distance education mentioned in subsection 3.1.1

on the delivery of lectures through the Internet,

by introducing the additional Internet infrastructure

and be archived online, to form a collaboration

over the satellite link. It also solved the inefficient

scheme for delivering the lecture in the future

use of university facilities mentioned in subsection- Copyright Form to clear the copyright issue

3.1.1 by defining three sites, Primary Site, Student- Primary Site setup guide including network andSite, and Relay Site, to maximize the facility use

application configurationof each site. Introduction of this model enabled

Contents reception guideline

any education collaboration to be the circulations- MoU to agree on the contents usage policyof educational resources among these three sites.

(to use the delivered contents for educational

The contents providers can maximize the use of

purpose only), form steering committee, academic

existing infrastructure to publish their lectures,committee, operator committee in each Student

and universities can receive different topic lectures

Site to smooth contents sharing

from different organizations without changing their- Student Site setup guideline including network andlecture receiving facilities. The system that enableapplication configuration

multilateral learning environment was created by thisBridging guideline

research.

- MoU to agree on the contents usage policy (touse the delivered contents for educational purpose

5 Collaboration Guidelines

only)- Network and applications setup manual to enable

5.1 Proposed Guidelines
In order to operate the proposed multilateral

the contents sharing

education collaboration environment effectively,
a formal agreement on the administrative level of

5.2 Guideline Evaluation

the university is required as well as the technicalThe site development and education collabo-

guidelines. The contents providers can be not justrations were done based on the guidelines.

universities, but other organizations who handle

The content providing site was developed in

educational matters such as NGOs and international

31 places in 7 countries, and content provider suchorganizations, and research laboratory divisions in

as JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency),

companies. By having a collaboration framework,

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific andthe contents providers and universities have sign on

Cultural Organization) were also able to provide their

88Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

workshops[27], monthly operator meeting, internshipcontents utilizing our environment.
The contents receiving site was developed inprograms and e-mail based daily communications

23 educational organizations in 11 countries. 33

were conducted. The purpose of these training isuniversity-level courses including 311 lectures and 34

to foster the human resources to be able to develop

realtime sessions such as conference broadcastingother operators. The operators require at least 2-3

and faculty meetings were conducted following theyears of experiences to be the trainer for otherguideline.

operators, based on the 6 years of experiences ofLecture sharing with other distance education

training the operators. However, the evolution ofsystems such as APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced

Internet technology is fast, and spending that much

Network)[10], UniNET (Thailand Inter University

time for developing the trainers is not realistic. The

Network)[11], and INHERENT (Indonesia Higher

operators have to be trained more intensively in

Education Network)[12]

was achieved following theshorter time.

guideline.

This research proposes a mechanism to organize

The second module, collaboration guidelines

a distributed realtime workshop where the lecturer

solved the inexperience of education collaborationand participants are located at each local university.

in multilateral environment mentioned in subsection

In this way, the lack of teaching human resources will3.1.2. By following the collaboration guidelines,

be solved with the remote lecturer and local teachingcontents provider, contents receiving site and otherassistants. The lack of educational materials will be

distance education systems are able to participate

solved with already developed materials at the areasin the education collaboration conducted on thewhere the accumulated knowledge and operation

proposed distance education system. The uniquenessexperiences of network infrastructures are available.

of this research is to support the education

The lack of educational environment can be solved

collaborations to be conducted from technicalby placing the minimum required equipments at

and administrative perspectives. Based on theStudent Site and placing rich hands-on environment

development of each site and educational resource

at Primary Site.

sharing following the proposed guidelines, theThe contents of the workshop include basic

guidelines were evaluated as feasible, universities are

UNIX operation, introduction to TCP/IP, routerable to conduct education collaborations following

installation, lecture archival server construction,

the guidelines prepared by this research.

distance education application operation, and satellite
receiver box operation. Even though the workshop

6 Operator Development

for the proposed environment is designed for the

Local operators are indispensable to develop the

distance education program operators, most of theeducation collaboration environment in sustainable

contents of the workshop could be used to develop

yet scalable manner. However, as stated in subsection

general network operators.

3.1.3, the number of operators is limited in each

Based on the past face to face operator’suniversity due to 1) inadequate number of lecturers

workshop experiences, the following components

who can tech, 2) lack of education materials, and 3)

have to be prepared to train the operators with hands-

lack of teaching equipments.

on exercises.

In order to develop the local operators at eachsite, various activities such as annual operator

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アジアにおけるネットワークと遠隔教育

The requirements are considered well,

1. Lecture and hands-on environment> Lecture from the lecturer to the participants

implemented and evaluated utilizing the proposed> Distribution of hands-on materials

distance education system inviting 42 participants> Projection of lecture materials and lecturer’s

from 19 organizations in 10 countries from August

display on screens

22 - August 26, 2006, and 42 participants from 16> Hands-on practice using a computer allocatedorganizations in 10 countries from March 31 - April
4, 2008[28][29][30]. Figure 6 shows one of the workshop

for each participant

environment in a local university.

2. Communication among the lecturer, TA andparticipants> Question and answers among the lecturer andparticipants> Supervision of hands-on status for eachparticipant
3. Preparation> Fulfilling the prerequisite to participate in theworkshop
Following requirements have to be met to realize
the workshop in distributed manner.

Figure 6 Workshop Environment

1. Projection of lecture materials on the screen
Effective ways to show the lecturer’s hands-on
status as well as the PowerPoint lecture material

The third module, operator development,is required.

solved the problem of limited number of operators
mentioned in section 3.1.3 by introducing the

2. Minimized requirement for equipment at local
site

distributed realtime hands-on operator workshop

This workshop aims to utilize the existingthat fosters the trainers for other operators. The

environment at local sites as much as possible.

proposed model of operator workshop enabled more

However, the equipments and network

frequent human resource development programs ininfrastructure situations differ from site to site. A

locations where they lack 1) the human resources tomechanism to absorb the computer specificationteach, 2) educational resources to teach with, and 3)

differences and network bandwidth differences

hands-on equipments to practice on. The contents ofat each site is required.

the proposed workshop can be used for general IT
human resource development programs to conduct

3. Reviewing scheme of hands-on process
Mechanism to peek the hands-on process of

remote hands-on programs in locations where

each participant from the lecturer is required.

Internet infrastructure is not yet developed.

4. Supervision mechanism for the lecture

7 Conclusion

A scheme to answer the participants’ questions
in timely manner is required.

This research proposed sustainable education
collaboration architecture in order to realize

90Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

multilateral learning environments in each university.

were broadcasted utilizing this system. The topics

With the introduction of the Internet, real education

shared on this system include law, biotechnology,

collaboration which connects university to university

marine science and technology, information

has made possible. In the age of globalization, thetechnology, agriculture, and renewable energy each

university’s role has changed from developingfrom different organizations from different locations.

human resources that could contribute to the local

Student Site did not have to change any configurationsociety to developing cosmopolitans who can lead

while receiving these lectures.

the future of the world. In order to realize the

The second module, the collaboration guidelines,

environment, universities have to interconnect withdefined the procedure for education collaborationeach other across borders to realize multilateral

for contents providers (contents delivery guideline),learning environment where students can learncontents receiving universities (contents reception

and communicate each other to become a realguideline), and other distance education systems

cosmopolitan. This research proposed three modules(bridging guideline). By defining the guidelines,

to realize the education collaboration architectureeach party could conduct education collaborations

among universities.

autonomously on the proposed distance education

The first module, distance education systemsystem. The 311 lecture sharing on 6 fields was

was designed to meet following three requirements;

enabled based on the contents delivery and contents

1) filling the infrastructure gap, 2) increasing thereception guidelines. By following the bridging

number of lecture sharing universities, 3) efficientguidelines, collaborations with other distanceuse of the facilities. The design of the distanceeducation systems such as JICA-Net (1 course,

education system was to define the functions of

5 lectures), UniNET(Connected, but not shared

universities, namely Primary Site, Relay Site andlectures yet), SEAMOLEC(3 courses, 27 lectures)

Student Site, and model any type of education

were realized as well as sharing lectures especiallycollaboration to be the circulation of educational

designed for the proposed distance education system.

resources among these sites. Filling the infrastructure

The third module, operator development,

gap was solved by introducing the receive-only

addressed the problems of lack of human resources

satellite link as the Internet infrastructure. With theto teach, educational resources to teach with, andestablished environment, 7 out of 10 sites, whichhands-on environment to teach on. In the 2006

could not receive the lecture video and audio inworkshop, 98% participants were satisfied withgood quality, become able to receive them without

the hands-on environment, 83% participants were

problem. Increasing the number of lecture sharing

satisfied with the distance supervision environment,

universities was solved by introducing the multicast

and 93% participants were satisfied with the local-

capable application, and 23 Student Sites developed

tutoring environment. 95% participants werein 11 countries in Asia become able to share a single

satisfied with the overall distributed hands-on typelecture simultaneously in realtime. Efficient use ofworkshop quality, and therefore, we evaluatedfacilities was solved by introducing the Relay Site,

the proposed workshop model was feasible. By

and as result, 31 Primary Sites were developed in 7

proposing distributed realtime hands-on workshop,

countries, and 1 Relay Site was developed in Keiomore frequent IT human resource development

University. Altogether, 33 university-level courses

program can be conducted in the Internet developing

including 311 lecturesareas. The proposed workshop contributed to theand 34 realtime sessions

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特集

アジアにおけるネットワークと遠隔教育

sustainability of the proposed distance education

collaboration. These guidelines could be utilized tosystem.

collaborate with other distance education systems

This research differentiates itself from otherthat are proposed by other researches, as well as toworks in that it actually develops the distancecollaborate within the proposed system. The operator

education system that interconnects universities

development accomplished to develop number ofand contents providers to autonomously collaborate

operators at each local site by reducing the cost for

maximizing the use of their existing facilities. It

running the human resource development program.

also develops education collaboration procedure on

With these approaches, we developed the first region-

multilateral learning environment. It develops humanwide successful sustainable education collaboration

resources in universities to operate the system rather

scheme.

than hiring professionals to enable autonomous and

The result of six years of experiment of runningsustainable operation of the proposed architecture.

the system and conducting education collaborations

Table 4 shows the comparison of the proposed

showed the sustainability and effectiveness ofarchitecture with other works.“X”shows thethe architecture. With more pedagogical studies,

components that are introduced in each work, andexpansion of the contents partners and contents“-”shows the components that are not introduced inreceiving partners, and connections with othereach work.

distance education systems, we wish to connect
the universities all over the world to create realmultilateral environment for students to become real

Table 4 Comparison of the proposed architecturewith other works

APRU
GDLN
AVU
ProposedArchitecture

Distance
Education
System−X
X
X

cosmopolitans.

Education
Operator
Collaboration Development
Environment
X
−
−
−
X
−
X

X

No other work focus on all of the componentsthat are necessary to sustain the region-wide
education collaboration. Each component is designed
to accomplish the sustainability of the education
collaboration. Distance education system is designed
to absorb the heterogeneous network and application
situation in each area and to be developed in a shorttime and low cost. The proposed system could beapplied to anywhere on earth where is facing the
network and application differences. The guideline
development accomplished to propose administrative
collaboration procedure as well as the technical92

Sustainable Education Collaboration Architecture on Digital Infrastructure

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