WebSteer: A Java-Powered, Web-Based Instruction Environment

WebSteer is an Educational Environment for distance education over the Internet entirely built in Java by The Recife Java Team at the Departamento de Informática, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, at Recife, in the northeast of Brazil.

The challenge here is that of developing a system capable not only of displaying information in the way we are used to in the Internet, but of creating innovative ways implementing experiments, demonstrations and simulation with the possibility real-time interaction.

WebSteer is capable of delivering interactive Web-based lectures composed of cooperating text, graphics, multimedia information and Java animations to any Java-enabled browser.

The WebSteer environment is composed of a Slide Projector, a WorkBench and a Multimedia Interface, all under the supervision of the WebSteer Core Controller. The Workbench supports a set of instruments or tools implemented in Java. These objects can be very active and may represent real-life devices such as calculators, protoboards, plants, etc. The Slide Projector delivers either classical lecture-type information or else instructs the user to interact with the Workbench and Multimedia Interface in order to accomplish the goals of a given lecture.

The Multimedia Interface (not implemented in the software submitted to the Java Cup) delivers generic multimedia information complementing the information displayed in the Projector and Workbench applets and can also be used as a means of communication between students and instructor(s). This way, audio and video presentations could be delivered to students and the Interface, with the proper input/output devices connected to it, could serve as a bi-directional multimedia communication channel.

In order to write the presentations, we have designed JetScript, a minimalist event-based language using which the lecture designer can control the Slide Projector and its contents, the Workbench and instruments loaded therein, as well as managing multimedia communication. JetScript is interpreted by the WebSteer Core Controller, which keeps track of the actions currently under way in the other components and takes the necessary measures to coordinate them, as well as handling exceptions.

WebSteer is a also meta-applet and highly reflexive. In the WebSteer Core Controller applet below, as you can see, three prototype "courses" are shown:

and the bottom "Clear" button is used to get rid of the current presentation and prepare for the next one.

To get started, we suggest that you click the "About WebSteer" button. By doing that, you will get into a lecture which explains how WebSteer works, with the Projector and Workbench interacting, controlled by a JetScript... that is to say, a lecture about WebSteer in WebSteer!...

The applet is down here!...

This image is the placeholder for the original applet of WebSteer.

It is not really an applet!

The "Jumping Box" shows a classic Java applet working as a WebSteer instrument and describes how easily any applet can be modified to work inside WebSteer. Have a look, it's dead easy!...

The "Learning Segments" and "Learning Functions" buttons take you to two sections of a prototype Pre-Calculus course that gives a hint of the potential of WebSteer as an Internet tool for training and education. Do follow the links activated by the buttons and think about the possibilities!...

To know more about the process of designing and implementing WebSteer and about who did it, if you wish to do so, please click here...

Copyright (C) 1996, The Recife Java Team, Departamento de Informática and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. All rights reserved. WebSteer is being developed as part of a research project ("Sistemas Avançados de Hipertexto") funded by CNPq, FINEP and IBM Brasil.