Forum OpenACS Development: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses

1: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses

Posted by Jerry Hall on 11/08/05 10:24 AM

I am considering using .LRN to develop an eLearning package for a client. We have many hours of video which we would like to use portions of (i.e. 5-20 minute clips) in a given course. We will also use PowerPoint, Excel, PDF's etc. for support materials.

Have you used streaming video in any .LRN implementations and/or can you point me towards any documentation as to how that was accomplished?

Thanks much!

2: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Patrick Giagnocavo on 11/08/05 01:44 PM

I had a client that did something similar. What we did find is that AOLserver was not the best way to serve up long-running clips. I believe the reason was that each video stream used its own thread.

Instead, use either a very lightweight web server like thttpd, or better yet, get the Helix or Quicktime media servers and use them to serve content.

3: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Koot on 11/08/05 01:48 PM

Hi Jerry,

Have you checked this http://chronicle.com/free/2005/06/2005062401t.htm

Cheers
Ben

4: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Nima Mazloumi on 11/08/05 02:07 PM

We use Microsoft Enterprise 2003 Server and the Media Service (free of charge) together with dotLRN and it works very well.

While currently this is done manually we will write a little package for dotLRN that allows professors to upload
a movie together with some meta data. The file is the automatically encoded for different bandwith and provided
as a stream via a link list in a portlet.

Our package will only work with Windows Media Service and
movies recorded with Camtasia Studio. Though extending it to indicate another encoders like virtualdub and streaming servers like darwin should be not too difficult.

Costs (Academic License):
Windows Enterprise 2003 550 EUR
Camtasia Studio 142 EUR

5: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Alfred Essa on 11/08/05 05:03 PM

MIT Sloan uses a separate server to stream video/multimedia content. I would go along the lines recommended by Patrick and Nima.

You can integrate it with .LRN so that the user doesn't know that the streams are being fed from a different server.

By now there might also be some affordable video appliance boxes in the market.

6: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Rafael Calvo on 11/08/05 10:51 PM

Hi
We already have video conferencing, whiteboard, slide shows streaming and more in our Beehive tool. It is an integration of Macromedia Communiation Server with dotlrn using IMS LD.
It would be easy to add video delivery.

We need a partner willing to put in some cash before we can release it as open source.

You can learn more about it at:
http://www.weg.ee.usyd.edu.au/projects/beehive/
I strongly recommend you see the multimedia animations.

cheers

Rafael

7: Re: Streaming Video and .LRN - Can I integrate video in .LRN courses (response to 1)

Posted by Jerry Hall on 11/09/05 02:30 AM

Thanks all for your ideas. I would appreciate any others as well!

Great to see such a responsive community :)