On operational scheme for remote lectures in inter-university distance learning project

This paper proposes an operational scheme to support remote lectures in an inter-university distance learning project. Besides the significant improvement of video conference systems, the operational aspect of remote lectures among participating universities tends to be less attended because its operation is basically independent in each university. Lack of a practical experience on operating remote lectures will introduce factors of reducing the quality, scalability or sustainability of the distance learning project. Our solution is to standardize the operational scheme among participating universities based on the concept of Layered Architecture of the remote lecture environment, Administrator that can access and maintain the entire environment, and Centralized Application Network to achieve these features. The proposed scheme has been evaluated at the actual operation of more than 600 remote lectures in an inter-university distance learning program in Japan since 2007.