A Real-Time Interactive Web-Based Environment for Training

摘要

The World Wide Web and the emergence of advanced tools lead to an increase in the quality and quantity of web-based applications. One such is Web-Based Simulation (WBS). In this paper, the web is used as the communication media to create a Virtual Training Environment (VTE) exploiting an Advanced Distance Learning (ADL) framework for training and educational purposes. A parallel and distributed simulation engine is integrated into the system which establishes a distributed web-based simulation empowering the platform with cluster and grid computing. Through digital audio and video streams, the participants are interacting in real-time in the virtual lab and collaboratively work on their training agenda. This environment is synchronous requiring the students to join the class at specific time similar to a typical classroom. Key challenges in this system include scalability, communications delays, security, and synchronization. This paper provides an overview of the system as well as how the real-time interaction could be integrated in the distributed web-based virtual training environment. Further, we examine several existing commercial tools as potential candidates for integration in the system. Since all of these tools have their strengths and limitations, we conclude a tailor-made homegrown solution might be more desirable.