Description:The exemplary embodiments described herein detail for illustrative purposes are subject to many variations in structure and design. It should be emphasized, however, that the present invention is not limited to a particular bundled cable for providing data and voice related services to multiple subscribers as described. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, but these are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.
The terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced items.
The terms “having”, “comprising”, “including”, and variations thereof signify the presence of a component.
The invention envisions an interactive system for education dissemination in a virtual environment that enables a holistic educative interaction between the educator and the students in a manner that closely replicates the experience of an in-person education session. The goal of the present invention is to ensure that students’ queries are resolved in real-time in a manner that ensures recallability of the content. Fig.1 illustrates the interactive system 100 that enables a live virtual environment for students and educators to interact on a real-time basis. The system 100 includes a virtual class module 200 configured therein to enable the virtual environment for education dissemination. The virtual class module 200 incudes a first display device 205, such as an interactive display board, a display screen capable of displaying content, a notebook or a laptop, a desktop and any other device capable of displaying audio-video content. A user, such as an instructor or a teacher, interacts with the first display device 205 to aid the education dissemination process. Particularly, the first display device 205 displays the educational content to be used for education dissemination. The educational content may be in the form of presentation slides, text documents or videos. It may be evident that the educational content may include several slides, documents etc. and same shall be referred to as “different portions of the educational content” in the ensuing description to indicate that while interacting with the educational content, the first user explains the different portions of the educational content by changing the displayed content on the first display device 205. The user interacts with the first display device 205 by verbally explaining the different portions of the educational content displayed thereon, switching between the different portions and annotating on the content with explanatory notes using an electronic writing instrument compatible with the first display device 205. A camera 250 may capture the first user’s interaction in real-time for enabling a live-feed thereof to be generated to aid the purpose of dissemination of educational content to students through a virtual environment. The present invention envisages that the different portions of the educational content are identifiable with the help of specific content identifiers, such as numerals, slide numbers, alphanumeric identifiers and the like. The virtual class module 200 also includes an image capture module 210, communicably coupled to the first display device 205, that captures images of the different portions of the educational content along with the first user’s interaction with the same. Particularly, the image capture module 210 captures images of the annotations made by the first user while explaining the different portions of the educational content. In embodiment of the present invention, the image capture module 210 is adapted to capture an image of the displayed content as well as first user’s interaction therewith on the first display device 205 by taking a screenshot thereof. Further, the present invention envisages that the image capture module 210 is configured to capture the user’s interactivity with the displayed portion of the educational content that continues for a pre-determined period. This ensures that only the images of relevant interactions of the user are captured and irrelevant interactions, such as with irrelevant portion of the educational content, are ignored. The captured images of displayed content and the relevant interactions are referred to as “instructional image” in the following description. As will be evident from the ensuing description, the instructional images of the different portions of the educational content is used for preparing a distribution copy of the educational content to aid the recallability of the same by the students when they refer to the material at a later stage. Further, for the purpose of the present invention, irrelevant interactions could include the content, which even though is being displayed on the first display device 205, does not have much educative value and thus, the instructor spends limited time on the said content. In an embodiment of the present invention, any displayed content with which the instructor interacts for more than 5 seconds could be considered to have good educative value and hence, the interaction of the instructor therewith is captured by the image capture module 210. Additionally, once the image capture module 210 determines that the interaction with the first display device 205 is relevant, one or more instructional images of the first user’s interaction are captured at pre-determined intervals. In an embodiment of the present invention the pre-determined interval is between 2 to 3 seconds. As already elaborated above, for the purpose of the present invention, interaction with the displayed content means annotating the same with an electronic pen/marker on the first display device 205 while explaining the same to the students for dissemination of the educational content. As the first user continually interacts with the different portions of the educational content, one or more instructional images are captured for each of the different portions. For instance, if the first user is explaining slide 1 of a presentation for 10 seconds, the present invention envisages that 4-5 images (at intervals of 2 seconds) of the first user’s interaction with the slide is captured as the instructional images for that slide. As the first user progresses to explain different slides, one or more instructional images for each slide are captured. In an embodiment of the present invention, the instructional images may include the content identifier of the portion of the educational content and a timestamp of the instance when the instructional image has been captured by the image capture module 210.

Further, the one or more instructional images of the different portions of the educational content captured by the image capture module 210 are transmitted in real-time to a server 215 of the virtual class module 200. The server, in-turn, processes the instructional images for each different portion of the educational content to identify a distribution images therefrom. There will be a distribution image for each portion of the educational content. Distribution images for all the different portions are collated together to form a distribution copy. The method of generating the distribution copy by the server 215 will be explained with reference to the one or more instructional images of one of the different portions of the educational content and same method is applied on the other instructional images for the remaining portions of the educational content, and thus, the explanation of the method will not be repeated for the sake of brevity. In an embodiment of the present invention, the server 215 receives the one or more instructional images and firstly analyses the same to identify the content identifier thereof. Particularly, the analysis step ensures that all instructional images pertain to the same portion of the educational content. After ensuring that all instructional images relate to the same portion, the server 215 selects the instructional image which has the latest time stamp and this is identified as the distribution image. This is one of the simplest methods envisaged by the present invention to select the distribution image and is based on the assumption that the image with the latest timestamp would have the latest annotations as being later in time than the previous instructional images. Thus, the instructional image with the latest timestamp is identified as the distribution image and stored in the distribution copy along with the content identifier. On similar lines, the one or more instructional images for each of the other portions of the educational content are analysed and distribution images for the same are determined. The distribution copy is thus populated with the determined distribution images for the different portions of the educational content such that the distribution copy of the entire educational content is prepared.

In another embodiment, the method of identification of the distribution image involves the server 215 comparing the one or more instructional images for each of the different portions of the educational content to identify the instructional image with the latest annotations. The identified instructional image is classified as the distribution image for that particular portion of the educational content, and will be used for generating the distribution copy of the educational content. Yet again the described embodiment will be explained with reference to one portion of the educational content and it may be understood that the same methodology may be applied for other portions similarly to identify the distribution images therefor and generate the distribution copy finally. In the described embodiment, the server 215 compares the one or more instructional images with each other based on any known techniques, such as OCR, to identify the image with the latest information/annotations. Based on the comparison, the server 215 determines the distribution image for the specific portion of the educational content and after determining the distribution images for the remaining portions, the server 215 generates the distribution copy for the entire educational content.

The present invention envisages that while storing the distribution images, the content identifier for the specific portion of the educational content is appended to the same for indexing purposes and easy identification. Thus, each of the distribution images pertaining to the different portions of the educational content is appended with the content identifier for the particular portion of the educational content. It will be evident that as the instructor teaches the different portions of the educational content, distribution image for each portion is determined, based on any of the two techniques explained above, and appended with the content identifier pertaining to the portion of educational content after which it is added in the distribution copy such that as the educational session proceeds, the distribution copy gets populated with the distribution images of the educational content with complete annotations and markings of the instructor. In an embodiment of the present invention, the server 215 is adapted to process the distribution images by visually enhancing the annotations so as to make the same clear to read. At a later period of time, when the student reads the distribution copy having instructor’s explanatory annotations, he/she is able to understand the educational content effectively, thereby adding to the recallability of the educational content. Fig. 4 illustrates a visual record 500 maintained by the server 215 of the distribution images contained being appended to the distribution copy and the pertinent content identifier for each of the distribution images. As shown, the visual record 500 has two modules – image module 505 to store the distribution images and identifier module 510 to store the content identifiers for each of the distribution images. The visual record 500 could help any personnel managing the entire system 100 to keep track of the changes being made to the distribution copy.

Further, another aspect of the live environment of the system 100 is the students that are able to receive the live feed of the first user’s interaction with the educational content from the camera 250 of the virtual class module 200 as well as the continually updated distribution copy. Thus, the students are connected to the instructor by accessing the virtual class module 200. Particularly, each of the student, interchangeably termed as a second user, has a student module 300 that includes a communication device 305 such as a laptop, a notebook, a desktop PC, a tablet or a mobile phone, that is capable of establishing a communicable coupling with the server 215 through any conventional communication channel such as WAN, LAN, internet and the like, to receive the live feed being captured by the camera 250 in real-time. Each of the student module 300 has a specific authentication ID that is provided to the server 215 for authentication of the student and subsequently, access is provided to authenticated student modules 300. In an embodiment of the present invention, the authentication ID may be encrypted and decrypted when being exchanged with the server 215. The present invention also envisages that to enable the second user or the student to interact with the educational content imparted by the first user or the instructor, the student module 300 has an interactive dashboard 315 configured on the communication device 305 of the student. Fig. 2 illustrates the configuration of the interactive dashboard 315 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the dashboard 315 has at least a content module 320 and a query module 325. The present invention envisages that the second user is able to view the live feed of the first user’s interaction with the educational content in real-time in the content module 320. The content module 320 displays the live feed while the query module 325 displays, in real-time, the distribution images already populated in the distribution copy that is continuously being updated by the server 215 as the educational session proceeds. Thus, as newer distribution images are added to the distribution copy, same are also updated in the query module 325 of the second user so that he/she has a snapshot of the instructions passed on by the first user in the form of the distribution images. In the event the second user has any query or doubt on any of the distribution images being displayed, he/she may raise a query event by inputting his/her query in the query module 325, as shown in Fig. 2. The query event could include a text string, a numeric string or a combination of both and also the content identifier for the specific portion of the educational content. The query event may also include the identifier, such as a name associated username or identification number, of the second user to enable identification of the source of the query event. Further, it is important to note here that the query event is raised in the real-time as the live feed is being reviewed by the second user, just as it happens in an in-person class. This ensures that the student is able to clarify his doubts and questions without keeping it for a later time when he may forget the same.

The system 100 additionally includes a monitoring module 400, shown in Fig. 1, that is communicably coupled to the at least one student module 300 and the virtual class module 200. The monitoring module 300 monitors the interactions between the virtual class module 300 and the at least one student module 300, particularly with respect to the respective query events raised by the student modules 300. The present invention envisages that the monitoring module 400 may be a communication device 405 such as a laptop, a notebook, a tablet, a desktop PC, a mobile phone and the like, operated by a third user. The monitoring module 400 is adapted to receive from the virtual class module 200 the live feed of the educational session and the query events raised by the different second users from the student modules of the second users. In an embodiment of the present invention, the query event may include a popularity counter value attached thereto, which is adapted to count the instances of same or similar query events being raised by the second users. For instance, if two students have same or similar query, the popularity counter value of the query event could be marked as 2 by the monitoring module 400. The monitoring module 400 includes a global query module 410, as shown in Fig. 3A, configured on the communication device 405 that receives all query events raised by different second users and displays the same in a sequential order. Further, the global query module 410 displays the different query events along with their respective popularity counter values and graphic icons to increase the popularity counter value. The monitoring module 400 also includes a reference module 415 to display the distribution image to which the different query events pertain along with pertinent content identifier thereof, as shown in Fig. 3A. Particularly, the monitoring module 400 reviews the different query events raised by the connected student modules 300 in real-time and assigns a priority order to the same. This is relevant because not every query event may relate to a query or doubt that is important. The query may relate to a trivial aspect, such as meaning of particular variable considered in a formula or value of a particular constant referred therein, and hence, may not have the same importance as another query event that pertains to a query related to conceptual understanding of the educational content. Therefore, the present invention envisages that the monitoring module 400 reviews each of the query events raised by the various student modules 300 and grade the same in a priority order based on the level of importance of the queries/doubts contained in the query event to generate one or more prioritised graded query events. The aspect of grading is important because the queries which are found to be relevant/important are placed for consideration of the first user to resolve during the educational session. Additionally, the monitoring module 400 resolves the trivial query events on its own without assigning any priority level to the same so that only the relevant queries are resolved by the first user/instructor. The present invention envisages that any educational session is for a limited period of time, which needs to be optimally utilized. Consequently, it resolves the trivial query events while grading the important query events for the resolution by the second user. The grading of the queries could be carried out based on pre-determined criteria, such as its popularity counter value or the perceived importance value of the query in terms of the educational concept it relates to. Particularly, the third user may grade the different query events by placing them in a priority order based on if a large number of students have raised similar doubts or if the third user perceives that a particular query event relates to an educational concept that every second user/student should understand clearly. For instance, if several students (second users) have similar type of query and have raised respective query events, instead of showing all the query events to the first user as separate instances, the monitoring module cubs all the query events together by showing a consolidated query event for all the queries but having a high popularity count value indicating that the query is popular amongst the students. In an embodiment of the present invention, the grading may be additionally carried out based on the consideration if such query events have been raised historically in some other previously held educational sessions. Such query events having been raised earlier points towards the importance of the educational concept to which the query relates. Further, the prioritised graded query events are transmitted by the monitoring module 400 to the virtual class module 200 and displayed for the first user on an interface, as shown in Fig. 3B. Each of the prioritised graded query events at least include the information about the content identifier for enabling the first user to identify which portion of the educational content does the particular query event relate to.

Fig. 3B illustrates the layout of displayed content on the first display screen 205 of the first user, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the displayed content includes the educational content in a specified portion ‘A’ and the prioritised graded query events displayed in portion ‘B’ thereof. The first user while continuing with his ongoing interaction with the educational content may choose to resolve one or more of the prioritised graded query events displayed in the portion ‘B’. For this, the first user identifies, based on the content identifier, the specific portion of the educational content to which the query event relates and re-interacts with the relevant portion of the educational content by displaying the said portion for resolving the query event. The first user resolves the query event by explaining the displayed educational content, as will be explained in conjunction with Figs. 5A to 5C. As shown in Fig. 5A, the query module 325 of the interactive dashboard 315 of the student module displays the distribution images on which the students may raise query events. These query events are visible to the first user while he/she is interacting with the educational content, as shown in Fig. 5B and 5C and explained in conjunction with Fig. 3. The first user may choose to answer any of the prioritised graded query events by re-interacting with specific portions of the educational content to answer the specific query events. In this process, the first user may make additional annotations, over existing ones, on the displayed educational content, as shown in Figs. 5A to 5C, which is again captured by the image capture module 210 in the form of one or more instructional images in the same manner as has been already explained earlier with reference to Fig. 1. The captured one or more instructional images, referred to as updated instructional images, are yet again transmitted to the server 215, which identifies the updated distribution image based on any of the two selection techniques as explained earlier with reference to distribution image. The server 215 thereafter replaces the existing distribution image for the specific portion of the educational content in the distribution copy with the updated distribution image. To identify the existing distribution image in the distribution copy, the server 215 compares the content identifier of the updated distribution image with the content identifiers of all the existing distribution images in the distribution copy using any know technique, such as OCR comparison, and upon finding the relevant existing distribution image, replaces the same with the updated distribution image. In the event the first user does not make any annotations, the comparison will return a null result and hence the existing distribution image will not be replaced. In this manner the distribution copy is updated with the latest annotations and explanations of the first user on the educational content. This distribution copy may be provided to the second users after the conclusion of the educational session to help them understand the educational content at a later time period, thereby adding to the recallability of the educational content.

Therefore, from the foregoing, it will be apparent that the present invention enables to configure a holistic learning environment, which enables education dissemination in a virtual environment with the benefits of in-person educational sessions where students could pose their queries and get the same resolved in real-time. The present invention, thus, enables an efficient learning platform that, while resolving the students’ questions, also provides them with a distribution copy with complete explanatory annotations of the instructor after the conclusion of the session, thereby adding to the recallability of the session. Particularly, the students may refer to the distribution copy that has annotations of the instructor and thus, it may be easier for the student to recall the explanation of the concept included in the distribution copy. Additionally, since the educational session is being carried in a virtual environment, it may be preferable to avoid unnecessary disruptions on account of the instructor spending time on trivial queries/questions. The present invention avoids this by providing the monitoring module that grades the raised query events based on the discussed pre-determined criteria so that only the relevant queries are directed to the instructor for resolution, thereby efficiently using the time of the educational session. Therefore, the present invention enables enhanced student engagement and retention capability while providing them timely assistance on their queries.

Further, it may be evident to a person skilled in the art that the system and the various components thereof, such as the virtual class module, the student module and the monitoring module may be configured as a hardware, a software or a combination thereof. The various components are able to communicate with each other over conventional hardwired or wireless links enabled through RF routers, system buses, LAN connections and the like.

Since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments are apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention is not considered limited to the example chosen for purposes of disclosure, and covers all changes and modifications which do not constitute departures from the true spirit and scope of this invention.

Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as herein described.

As one of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate, the example system and method described herein can be modified. For example, certain steps can be omitted, certain steps can be carried out concurrently, and other steps can be added. Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail, it is understood that the invention is not limited correspondingly in scope, but includes all changes, modifications and equivalents coming within the spirit and terms of the claims appended hereto.

The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application, and to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is understood that various omissions and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient, but such omissions and substitutions are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention
, C , C , C , Claims:1. An interactive system for education dissemination in a virtual environment, the system comprising:
a virtual class module comprising
a first display device to display educational content thereon to enable a first user to interact with different portions thereof;
an image capture device to capture in real-time at least one image of displayed educational content and the interaction of the first user therewith carried out for a pre-determined period on the first display device, each of the at least one captured image referred to as instructional image being identifiable by at least a timestamp;
a server coupled to the image capture device to receive the instructional images pertaining to the different portions of the educational content, identify a distribution image with latest timestamp for each of the different portions and save the identified distribution image for each of the different portions in real-time in a distribution copy stored in a data repository;
at least one student module pertaining to a second user, each of the at least one student module comprising
a communication device communicably coupled to the server to receive the distribution images in real-time,
an interactive dashboard configured on the communication device to enable the second user to interact with the distribution images in real-time and raise a query event; and
a monitoring module communicably coupled to the virtual class module and at least one student module to grade all query events from the at least one student module in a priority order to generate at least one prioritised graded query event and communicate the same to the first user,
wherein the first user re-interacts with specific portions of the educational content pertaining to the prioritised graded query events and to selectively update the same, and
wherein the image capture device captures at least one image of the re-interaction, referred as updated instructional image being identifiable by at least a timestamp, with the specific portions of the educational content and transmits the same to the server, and
wherein the server identifies the updated instructional image with latest timestamp for each of the specific portions of the educational content to determine the updated distribution image for the specific portions and update the distribution copy by replacing respective distribution images with the updated distribution images.
2. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the virtual class module comprises a camera to capture the first user’s interaction with the different portions of the educational content in real-time.

3. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 2, wherein the interactive dashboard displays the interaction of the first user with the different portions of the educational content captured in in real-time by the camera.

4. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pre-determined period is at least 2 seconds.

5. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the monitoring module grades the query events based on pre-determined criteria.

6. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 5, wherein the pre-determined criteria comprise number of historical instances of similar query events being raised.

7. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 5, wherein the pre-determined criteria comprise number of current instances of same query events being raised.

8. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interaction of the first user comprises adding annotations on the different portions of the educational content.

9. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 1, wherein the distribution image is identifiable by content identifiers comprising one or more of numerals, alphanumerical identifier and the like.

10. The interactive system for education dissemination as claimed in claim 9, wherein each of the prioritised graded query events are appended with the respective content identifier thereof for enabling the first user to identify the portion of the educational content pertaining to the prioritised graded query event.