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Organization of online student education

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The recommendations in the article relate to the online learning format of students together with the lecturer and do not apply to distance learning systems, for example, Moodle. But both formats can successfully complement each other in the learning process.

Creating an online learning format requires solving the following tasks:

  • Class schedule synchronization;
  • The choice of a video conferencing system, mainly it should be WebRTC-solutions (web conferences) with the ability to record lectures and broadcast on Youtube;
  • Organization of a repository of video recordings of lectures with the possibility of their publication;
  • Organization of the lecturer's workplace - PC, webcam, headset, digitizer or placement in the lecture hall of the conference system;
  • Choosing a sharing board.

Class Schedule Synchronization


Organizing the group’s class schedule in the calendar event format is convenient, since desktop clients (Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.) and email web applications, as well as Android and Apple smartphones are synchronized with calendar services and will remind students and the lecturer in advance of the upcoming event.

You can send class schedules using mass mailing services via e-mail, after collecting information about students' email addresses using forms.

For example, you can use the Sender messaging service [ https://sender.n-kraft.ru ].

  • Prepare a form for receiving data with the fields: Name, Group, Email Mail
  • Prepare a response template to the person who completed the event format. In the description, specify a link to a web conference and optionally to a sharing board.

A student who completes the form will automatically receive a response about the group’s class schedule in the format of calendar events that can be imported into Google or Apple calendars on a smartphone or PC.

Choosing a video conferencing system (web conferencing)


What you should not count on:

  • Global video communication and collaboration services can no longer cope with an exponentially increased load;
  • Shareware solutions for video communications have restrictions on the time of free work, available functionality, the number of virtual rooms and their capacity.

Recommendations to IT specialists of the university:

  • Deploy video communications solutions at their facilities, obtained from the release of computing resources occupied by other IT systems; If necessary, use the resources of regional cloud service providers;
  • Use proven open source systems with a developed community;
  • Consider scalable video communications solutions that work with a browser, webcam, and digitizer.

The number of systems that meet the criteria is not large:


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Functionally, the systems are identical:

  • Scalable
  • Easy to learn and use;
  • They allow you to share content, work in modes of combining lecture content and broadcasting video from the lecturer's webcam to create a verbal communication channel;
  • Allow you to record lectures and publish them on the Internet;
  • When you need to join more than 50 people to the broadcast, it’s better to create a YouTube lecture stream.

You can test the functionality of the solution in the Meet service [ https://meet.n-kraft.ru ]. Created based on Jitsi Meet.

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To store and publish lecture notes use WebDav repositories:


Organization of the lecturer's workplace


A typical workplace of a lecturer is a PC or laptop with a built-in or external USB camera, a headset from a smartphone or a professional headset from lantronics [ https://www.plantronics.com/en/ru/product/blackwire-3200 ] or Logitech [ https: //www.logitech.com/en-us/headsets ]. A basic set of office software should be installed on the PC, we recommend OnlyOffice [ https://www.onlyoffice.com ].

We recommend using Logitech C920s [ https://www.logitech.com/ru-ru/product/hd-pro-webcam-c920s ] or Logitech C930 [ https://www.logitech.com/en as personal webcams -ru / product / c930e-webcam ].

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If you need webcams for lecture halls, we recommend that you consider the Logitech Group [ https://www.logitech.com/ru-ru/product/conferencecam-group ] or Logitech Rally [ https: //www.logitech. com / ru-ru / product / rally-ultra-hd-conferencecam ]. Both systems provide excellent audio and video signal quality with a PTZ camera and Logitech Group speakerphone or microphones and speakers if Logitech Rally is selected.

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If the lecturer needs an electronic board i.e. handwritten water tool, we recommend using the Wacom digitizers of the Intuos Pro Paper Edition series [ http://www.wacom.ru/products/pen-tablets/intuos-pro-paper-edition.html ] together with the Wacom Inkspace application (for Windows 7 / 8/10, Android and IOS) [https://www.wacom.com/ru-ru/products/apps-services/inkspace ]. One of the functions of this application - Live Mode, provides the ability to broadcast handwriting from the device to the PC display, which can be published in a video session.

If a functional board is required, but without the need for sharing it, then the best solution would be OpenBoard [ https://www.openboard.ch ].

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If you need a sharing board, we recommend using the Whiteboard service [ https://meet.n-kraft.ru/whiteboard/ ] or deploy a similar service on your resources [ https://github.com/cracker0dks/whiteboard ].

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Using the parameters in the URL request, you can create unique boards for collaboration and distinguish between participants who are simultaneously editing on the same board.

In the request for access to the board, you need to specify its identifier, as well as the username, for example https://meet.n-kraft.ru/whiteboard/? whiteboardid = nkraft & username = IvanIvanov

URL parameters:

  • whiteboardid - all connected to the board with the same identifier can share it;
  • username - the username is displayed to others during editing.

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