PI Information:
Primary contact for project information: Name : Craig E Wills E mail : cew@cs.wpi.edu Fax : 5088315776 Phone : 5088315622 Address : 100 Institute Road Worcester Massachusetts 01609
Participant Individuals: CoPrincipal Investigator(s) : David Finkel; Robert E Kinicki; Matthew O Ward; George T HeinemanSenior personnel(s) : David C Brown; Isabel Cruz
Type of Institution: 4YR
Partner Organizations:
Project Goal(s):
The Webware, Interfaces and Networking Experimental Laboratory (WINE Lab) here at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) was developed to help change the way in which the topics of computer networks, user interfaces and webware are viewed and taught. The objective in developing the WINE Lab is to improve these three courses by providing students with the opportunity to complete projects, experiment with relevant techniques and make connections between topics that would not be possible in a general purpose computing environment.
Updated Project Description:
The PIs have been active in attending and participating in computer science education conferences where the project has been discussed with conference attendees. During the project, the PI has attended the ACM SIGCSE conference in New Orleans in 1999 and Austin in 2000 as well as the Small College Computing Conference in Providence in 1999. Co-PI Finkel has attended the ACM ITiCSE conference in Dublin, Ireland in 1998, in Krakow, Poland in 1999 and Helsinki, Finland in 2000, as well as the Frontiers in Education conference in Pittsburgh in 1997. At the 1999 ITiCSE conference he presented a paper on the Webware course using the the WINE Lab and to demonstrated a project developed using the lab facilities. The Webware, Interfaces and Networking Experimental Laboratory (WINE Lab) here at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) was developed in the Fall of the 1997-98 academic year to help change the way in which the topics of computer networks, user interfaces and webware are viewed and taught. The objective in developing the WINE Lab is to improve these three courses by providing students with the opportunity to complete projects, experiment with relevant techniques and make connections between topics that would not be possible in a general purpose computing environment. The premise for creating the lab is that students not only need to understand the important concepts in each domain, but students need to better understand the effects of the interaction between the domains. Computer networking and user interfaces are two traditional areas of our discipline and ones in which we offer a junior/senior level course. We see the need to change the way in which we view and teach the topics of computer networks and user interfaces. Students not only need to understand the important concepts in each domain, but students need to better understand the effects of the interaction between the two domains. With more interactive applications and a multitude of interaction devices, computer networks must handle network traffic that is more varied in its type, amount and quality of service needs. With computer networks potentially separating the user, interface and underlying application, the design of user interfaces must take into account network delays as well as interfaces to special-purpose devices only available over the network. The importance of interaction between these two domains has only been heightened with the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. The Web provides a broad range of information of various types and mediums available through a single browser application. Originally the types of user interfaces available with browsers were limited, but recent developments such as Java applets and enhancements to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) allows browsers to provide more sophisticated interfaces. The growth of the Web and the associated framework for development of its technology led our department to offer a junior/senior level course ``Webware: Computational Technology for Network Information Systems'' for the first time in the 1997-98 academic year. The WINE Lab is being used by students enrolled in the courses and by students choosing to use its facilities for their senior projects. The academic calendar at WPI consists of four 7-week terms with students typically taking three courses each term, each course meeting four times each week. The lab was used by two of the courses in the 1997-98AY and has been used by all three of the courses in the 1998-99AY. In the 1999-00AY the lab was used in two of the courses along with continuing use by students doing their senior projects. The lab equipment was extended with additional server hardware during the 1999-00AY to support more Web/electronic commerce courseware and projects.A total of 166 students were enrolled in at least one of the three courses offered during the Spring semester of 1997-98AY with respective enrollments for each class of 56 for HCI, 101 for Webware and 24 for Networks. A total of 232 students were enrolled in at least one of the five offerings of the three courses offered during the 1998-99AY with respective enrollments for each class of 130 for HCI, 70 for Webware and 116 for Networks. Obviously some students took more than one of the courses. Each one of these students was invited via electronic mail to participate in an electronic survey at the end of the each academic year. A total of 58 students took the survey the first year and 59 took it the second year. Note: Students from three offerings of the Networks class were surveyed, but only one of these offerings used the WINE Lab due to concurrent offering with the Webware course and instructor choice. The survey focused on the WINE Lab in general and more specifically on the interaction between topics in the three courses. Students were asked if they agreed with a statement that there is an interaction between topics in two specific courses. 78\% and 74\% of all students taking the HCI or Webware course perceived an interaction between these topics. When asked about specific topics. students indicated that web page design, menu design, choice of color, use of icons and consideration of handicapped users were topics that interacted between HCI and Webware. Students taking the Webware or Networks courses perceived an interaction between Networks and Webware topics at similar levels. Specific Networks/Webware topics listed were network protocols, network connections, client/server communication, security issues and network bandwidth. Many fewer respondents perceived an interaction between topics in HCI and Networks. In listing specific topics, students noted the user interface as the application layer in networking and that visualization strategies are needed for displaying network information. Students were also asked whether their perception of the interaction between topics had increased, decreased or stayed the same based on taking one or more of the courses. The results show students perceived an increase in the interaction between Webware topics and those from the other two courses, while perceiving a decrease between HCI and Networks topics. Looking at the results by course taken, the Webware students perceptions increased the most. Examination of these results shows success towards our goal of helping students better understand the interaction between topics in the domains. Interaction between Webware and other topics was perceived both at a high level and with an increase in the perception. Interaction between HCI and Networks was consistently perceived as lower, indicating less emphasis is demonstrated on this interaction in the courses. There was not a large difference in the results between the two sets of Networks students. Given that the use of the WINE Lab and projects emphasizing different types of network traffic was not a large portion of the Networks course using the lab, the result is not surprising. Students were also asked to comment on positive and negative aspects of the lab overall. Students appreciated the opportunity to work in a dedicated laboratory with current software development tools. Students complained that the lab was too hot when filled with students and machines. They also requested longer laboratory hours, particularly near assignment due dates. These are both legitimate criticisms and these were not issues during the 1999-00AY when we moved to a larger space with more open access. Because computer science students at WPI do most of their work in a Unix environment, the use of Windows NT as the operating system platform in the lab received both positive and negative responses. Many students appreciated the opportunity to gain experience in this new environment; others disliked being required to work in the Windows environment, and, when given the opportunity to choose, some Webware students returned to the more familiar Unix environment. Because this lab is our first running Windows NT, it also created new system administration problems. The use of Windows NT machines in the lab did create a problem that was more acute as course enrollments expanded beyond original expectations. Because these Windows NT machines cannot be accessed remotely, students need physical access to the machines to use them. This limitation caused particular problems at the time in which larger projects were due leading to student complaints about lack of resources. One approach for managing student access to the machines is to introduce ``closed lab'' activities during particular periods during the course. We also used group projects to lessen the demand of lab machines. Another continuing point of emphasis for is to encourage more senior projects to be done with the facilities of the WINE Lab. We believe these projects are a golden opportunity for students to more fully explore what can be done with the lab equipment without the time constraints of a regular class. The WINE Lab machines were again used for Senior Projects during the 1999-00AY.The development of learning activities to take advantage of a specific lab setting.
Innovations or Unique Successes to Date:
Based on our experiences with the WINE Lab we have learned that creating a new lab, particularly for use by a large number of students is not easy. We believe the choice of Windows NT as the platform for the lab is a good one in exposing students to a new environment. However, the change in platform from Unix, which is typically used by our students, was both unfamiliar to some students and limits them in accessing lab machines via the campus network. Given the relatively large enrollments in these classes, access to lab machines is a central issue, which has led us to consider more controlled access using group projects and closed labs. Our goals in developing the WINE Lab were to improve the three courses by providing students the opportunity to complete projects, experiment with relevant techniques and make connections between topics that would not be possible in a general purpose Unix-based computing environment. The results show some success in reaching these goals.Students outside of computer science, from departments such as electrical engineering, take these courses so there is some impact there. This project has provided results on using a single laboratory for a set of courses often considered independent. It has also involved a laboratory setting that is different from what our students generally see for their coursework. While our results have been mixed in the effectiveness of this type of laboratory, the results do make contributions for future work along these lines.
Activities and findings:
Research Activities: The Webware, Interfaces and Networking Experimental Laboratory (WINE Lab) here at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) was developed in the Fall of the 1997-98 academic year to help change the way in which the topics of computer networks, user interfaces and webware are viewed and taught. The objective in developing the WINE Lab is to improve these three courses by providing students with the opportunity to complete projects, experiment with relevant techniques and make connections between topics that would not be possible in a general purpose computing environment. The premise for creating the lab is that students not only need to understand the important concepts in each domain, but students need to better understand the effects of the interaction between the domains. Computer networking and user interfaces are two traditional areas of our discipline and ones in which we offer a junior/senior level course. We see the need to change the way in which we view and teach the topics of computer networks and user interfaces. Students not only need to understand the important concepts in each domain, but students need to better understand the effects of the interaction between the two domains. With more interactive applications and a multitude of interaction devices, computer networks must handle network traffic that is more varied in its type, amount and quality of service needs. With computer networks potentially separating the user, interface and underlying application, the design of user interfaces must take into account network delays as well as interfaces to special-purpose devices only available over the network. The importance of interaction between these two domains has only been heightened with the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. The Web provides a broad range of information of various types and mediums available through a single browser application. Originally the types of user interfaces available with browsers were limited, but recent developments such as Java applets and enhancements to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) allows browsers to provide more sophisticated interfaces. The growth of the Web and the associated framework for development of its technology led our department to offer a junior/senior level course ``Webware: Computational Technology for Network Information Systems'' for the first time in the 1997-98 academic year. The WINE Lab is being used by students enrolled in the courses and by students choosing to use its facilities for their senior projects. The academic calendar at WPI consists of four 7-week terms with students typically taking three courses each term, each course meeting four times each week. The lab was used by two of the courses in the 1997-98AY and has been used by all three of the courses in the 1998-99AY. In the 1999-00AY the lab was used in two of the courses along with continuing use by students doing their senior projects. The lab equipment was extended with additional server hardware during the 1999-00AY to support more Web/electronic commerce courseware and projects.
Research Findings: A total of 166 students were enrolled in at least one of the three courses offered during the Spring semester of 1997-98AY with respective enrollments for each class of 56 for HCI, 101 for Webware and 24 for Networks. A total of 232 students were enrolled in at least one of the five offerings of the three courses offered during the 1998-99AY with respective enrollments for each class of 130 for HCI, 70 for Webware and 116 for Networks. Obviously some students took more than one of the courses. Each one of these students was invited via electronic mail to participate in an electronic survey at the end of the each academic year. A total of 58 students took the survey the first year and 59 took it the second year. Note: Students from three offerings of the Networks class were surveyed, but only one of these offerings used the WINE Lab due to concurrent offering with the Webware course and instructor choice. The survey focused on the WINE Lab in general and more specifically on the interaction between topics in the three courses. Students were asked if they agreed with a statement that there is an interaction between topics in two specific courses. 78\% and 74\% of all students taking the HCI or Webware course perceived an interaction between these topics. When asked about specific topics. students indicated that web page design, menu design, choice of color, use of icons and consideration of handicapped users were topics that interacted between HCI and Webware. Students taking the Webware or Networks courses perceived an interaction between Networks and Webware topics at similar levels. Specific Networks/Webware topics listed were network protocols, network connections, client/server communication, security issues and network bandwidth. Many fewer respondents perceived an interaction between topics in HCI and Networks. In listing specific topics, students noted the user interface as the application layer in networking and that visualization strategies are needed for displaying network information. Students were also asked whether their perception of the interaction between topics had increased, decreased or stayed the same based on taking one or more of the courses. The results show students perceived an increase in the interaction between Webware topics and those from the other two courses, while perceiving a decrease between HCI and Networks topics. Looking at the results by course taken, the Webware students perceptions increased the most. Examination of these results shows success towards our goal of helping students better understand the interaction between topics in the domains. Interaction between Webware and other topics was perceived both at a high level and with an increase in the perception. Interaction between HCI and Networks was consistently perceived as lower, indicating less emphasis is demonstrated on this interaction in the courses. There was not a large difference in the results between the two sets of Networks students. Given that the use of the WINE Lab and projects emphasizing different types of network traffic was not a large portion of the Networks course using the lab, the result is not surprising. Students were also asked to comment on positive and negative aspects of the lab overall. Students appreciated the opportunity to work in a dedicated laboratory with current software development tools. Students complained that the lab was too hot when filled with students and machines. They also requested longer laboratory hours, particularly near assignment due dates. These are both legitimate criticisms and these were not issues during the 1999-00AY when we moved to a larger space with more open access. Because computer science students at WPI do most of their work in a Unix environment, the use of Windows NT as the operating system platform in the lab received both positive and negative responses. Many students appreciated the opportunity to gain experience in this new environment; others disliked being required to work in the Windows environment, and, when given the opportunity to choose, some Webware students returned to the more familiar Unix environment. Because this lab is our first running Windows NT, it also created new system administration problems. The use of Windows NT machines in the lab did create a problem that was more acute as course enrollments expanded beyond original expectations. Because these Windows NT machines cannot be accessed remotely, students need physical access to the machines to use them. This limitation caused particular problems at the time in which larger projects were due leading to student complaints about lack of resources. One approach for managing student access to the machines is to introduce ``closed lab'' activities during particular periods during the course. We also used group projects to lessen the demand of lab machines. Another continuing point of emphasis for is to encourage more senior projects to be done with the facilities of the WINE Lab. We believe these projects are a golden opportunity for students to more fully explore what can be done with the lab equipment without the time constraints of a regular class. The WINE Lab machines were again used for Senior Projects during the 1999-00AY.
Research Training: The development of learning activities to take advantage of a specific lab setting.
Education and Outreach: The PIs have been active in attending and participating in computer science education conferences where the project has been discussed with conference attendees. During the project, the PI has attended the ACM SIGCSE conference in New Orleans in 1999 and Austin in 2000 as well as the Small College Computing Conference in Providence in 1999. Co-PI Finkel has attended the ACM ITiCSE conference in Dublin, Ireland in 1998, in Krakow, Poland in 1999 and Helsinki, Finland in 2000, as well as the Frontiers in Education conference in Pittsburgh in 1997. At the 1999 ITiCSE conference he presented a paper on the Webware course using the the WINE Lab and to demonstrated a project developed using the lab facilities.
Discipline(s) Affected by Project:
Computer Science
Subject(s) Affected by Project:
Human-Computer Interaction Webware Computer Networks
Title(s) of Course(s) Affected by Project:
Summary Description of Pedagogical Approaches:
The development of laboratory exercises to exploit the facilities of the laboratory for improved student learning.
Journal Publications:
Types of products (e.g. textbooks, lab manuals, articles, CD-ROMs, etc.):
Course and student projects.
Other Specific Products:
A number of course and student projects have been developed for the lab. These projects are highlighted in the discussion. More details can be found at the given course Web sites. Webware: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs4241/2000d/ http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs4241/1999c/ http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~dfinkel/Courses/cs4241.html As a junior/senior level course, the contents include World Wide Web network protocols, software (browsers and servers) and languages for describing content, including languages for both client- and server-side active content. Students have used the lab for a number of projects. In one project, the students developed a simplified Web browser. This browser did not actually display Web pages, but was required to connect to a Web server and use the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) to request pages from the server. The students were required to use a Visual C++/Windows environment to complete this assignment; for most students, that meant completing the assignment in the WINE Lab. While the students were testing their Web browser, they connected to a Web server within the WINE Lab, to minimize the impact of an ill-behaved program on the rest of the campus network. In other projects, students used the web-development tools of the WINE Lab to build personal web sites and to create a web-based grocery store. These projects exposed students to tools and software such as XML, XSL, JavaScript and Perl as they developed both the client- and server-side application for the project and made use of the Web server in the WINE Lab. Another pair of projects in one of the course offerings assigned the students to develop a Web search engine, which included a crawler to discover Web content and build an index, and a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script to accept user search requests, search the index, and return a Web page response to the user. In the follow-on project, students used some form of client-side active content (e.g., Java, VB Script, Dynamic HTML, etc.) to allow their search engine to provide different kinds of searches in response to user requests. In these assignments, students were allowed to choose whether or not the use the WINE Lab and about half of the students used the development environments available in the lab. Human-Computer Interaction: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~ifc/courses/CS3041B99/ http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~dcb/courses/CS3041/ Human-Computer Interaction students worked on a number of assignments, which utilized the facilities of the lab. One assignment involved students creating their own Web page for the course. Students used the QuickCam to take a picture of themselves or scanned in a picture with the scanner. Students then created a link from the page to explain their design criteria for the page such as metaphors used or strategies for aggregating information. In another project using the lab, students designed and built a graphical interface using an interface building environment: Visual Basic. This project provided students an opportunity to apply many of the ideas and concepts that had been seen in the course. The task was to design and build a simple structured help system that used the text found in the Unix manual pages. One of the final course projects required students to work in design teams to create a movie that tells a sentence. However, this sentence needed to be understood by people (called users) who did not know the language of the people who put the movie together. One such sentence given to the students was: Leo became sad when he was watching the movie 'Titanic', thinking of all the people who sank with the ship many years ago. Students created a design on paper, a 'storyboard,' and then used Macromedia Director, a multimedia authoring tool available in the WINE Lab, to tell the sentence using pictures, sound and music. Computer Networks: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs4513/d00/ The Computer Networks course was taught once using the facilities of the WINE Lab for one of its projects. Because the course overlapped with the Webware course, the project that used the facilities was designed as a 'closed lab' where it could be completed by students in a fixed amount of time. This type of closed lab activity also fit well with the experimental project we introduced in the Networks class. The project involved students monitoring and studying the network carrying different types of traffic such as interactive, Web retrievals and file transfers. Because the machines were dedicated to a single user and connected via a switched Ethernet, students could control the type and amount of network traffic being generated and received (other than spurious broadcast traffic). Senior Projects: In the first year, few senior projects used the lab facilities because the lab was just set up and most projects had already been scheduled. One project that did use the lab was one on Java Network Management. The students built on background from the Networks and Webware courses to implement a simple Java interface using JavaBeans for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) auto-discovery. The development for the project was done in the WINE Lab and clearly illustrates the integration of HCI, Webware and Networks topics. There were notable projects using the lab in the second year. The Web Site Agent project helped users navigate a Web site. This project added a suggestion service as a separate frame to each web page from a site. Another project augmented a version of the Netscape Navigator to allow users to view the HTTP traffic sent and received by the browser. This project involved both Webware and Networking issues.
These projects are shared through publications and through the course Web pages.
Internet Dissemination:
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/Resources/WINE/
This site shows the resources of the WINE Lab.
Description of Equipment or Instrumentation:
The laboratory is equipped with 15 Pentium-based PCs running Windows NT and equipped with audio/video capabilities. In creating the lab, we believed this platform provided us with the best price/performance ratio for the features we need with a broad range of software to choose from. Each machine is equipped with Microsoft Office and Development Studio, which includes Visual Basic, Visual C++ and Visual J++, for software development. A package of software from Adobe (Acrobat, Illustrator, Pagemill and Photoshop) allows for image manipulation, drawing/painting and document production. Six copies of Macromedia Director, a tool for multimedia authoring, are also available. The laboratory machines are connected via a switched Ethernet to the campus backbone. Three QuickCam Digital cameras are available for use in observing users, development of distributed conferencing and generating video traffic for studies of network traffic patterns. Three Wacom writing tablets and a Dragon Systems speech recognition system are available for experimentation as alternate input devices. A printer and scanner are available in the lab. In the 1999-00AY the laboratory equipment was extended to include additional machines running Windows and a few machines running the Linux operating system to support student projects and courseware in Webware and electronic commerce.
Additional Sources of Funding:
Software in the laboratory was obtained with assistance of a grant from the Microsoft - Academic Cooperative Program, Higher Education Curriculum & Instructional Grants Program. Research of Professor Cruz was supported in part by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award IRI-9796052 and CISE Research Instrumentation Grant 9729878.
Contributions within Discipline:
Based on our experiences with the WINE Lab we have learned that creating a new lab, particularly for use by a large number of students is not easy. We believe the choice of Windows NT as the platform for the lab is a good one in exposing students to a new environment. However, the change in platform from Unix, which is typically used by our students, was both unfamiliar to some students and limits them in accessing lab machines via the campus network. Given the relatively large enrollments in these classes, access to lab machines is a central issue, which has led us to consider more controlled access using group projects and closed labs. Our goals in developing the WINE Lab were to improve the three courses by providing students the opportunity to complete projects, experiment with relevant techniques and make connections between topics that would not be possible in a general purpose Unix-based computing environment. The results show some success in reaching these goals.
Students outside of computer science, from departments such as electrical engineering, take these courses so there is some impact there.
This project has provided results on using a single laboratory for a set of courses often considered independent. It has also involved a laboratory setting that is different from what our students generally see for their coursework. While our results have been mixed in the effectiveness of this type of laboratory, the results do make contributions for future work along these lines.
Contact Information for Project: Colloborating Awards Project Activities and Findings: Other Features of Project Project Products, Publications, Materials: Other Types of Products
Internet Dissemination: FTP Server Address Internet Dissemination: Gopher Server Address
We welcome comments on this system
We welcome comments on this system