Question and Answer Technology (QAT)

Overview QAT, short for Question Answer Technology, is designed to promote the virtual learning experience by adding mobility, interactivity, multimodality on top of state-of-the-art Virtual Learning Systems (VLE). The primary goal of QAT is to facilitate classroom-like interaction between students and lecturer, remotely. In detail, QAT advances the state-of-the-art e-learning paradigms through the following aspects; Allows students to retrieve lecture materials through their mobile device and to participate in a realistic lecture experience after-the-fact Allows students to ask questions and have them answered in a simple and natural way, by dictating to the mobile device. Allows students to collaboratively work on the same question.  Allows lecturer to observe/manage/participate in students’ collaborative Q&A actives via multiple-modalities (e.g. visual, aural and etc). We proposed QAT based on a comprehensive review on current VLE systems. The design principles are to avoid reinventing-the-wheel and to attack major problems identified. A short comparative study against e-Presence (URL), a desktop-based commercial solution, is conducted to evidence QAT’s innovation. A prototype system is developed to validate our concepts. The prototype consists of three major components developed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005: Plug-in running on Microsoft PowerPoint to produce Audiovisual Presentation Slides Metadata. A web server which handles content distribution and interaction with end users. A dedicated windows form application running on desktop PCs and PDAs for users to retrieve lecture materials and conduct Q&A activities. This system uses the Microsoft.NET Framework throughout its components. Overall, the prototype demonstrated the soundness of the architectural design. Our work on it should continue as rapidly as possible. We recommend the following actions in the near future: Develop lecture material content adaptation module. Intelligent summarize lecture material to suit mobile device’s nature Automatic transcription of audio. Project team Dr On Wong (Mentor) Andrew Tan Siak Chuan Chien Soon Jon David Wang Lei Publications Soon Talks Microsoft Imagine Cup Australia Finals, Remix conference 2007, Melbourne, 26 June 2007. Slides can be obtained here Download A simple prototype is available for download soon. Version 0.1 (May 2007) QAT Presentation QAT Lecturer Pocket QAT QAT Services Contact a2.tan@qut.edu.au