Automatic capture and presentation creation from multimedia lectures

For more than a decade, the RIPPLES group at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed and deployed content delivery systems to support on-campus and distance education. This has been an effective but expensive approach because of its dependence on content captured by human operators and substantial production effort. Presentations Automatically Organized from Lectures (PAOL) is a classroom-capture system that is transparent to and places no constraints (teaching style or pedagogy) on a lecturer. PAOL is unique-no other system can capture unconstrained computer-based materials, capture whiteboard writing and drawing, and produce a speaker video without requiring preinstalled software, electronic whiteboards, or special training. PAOL uses high-resolution cameras, a computer screen capture device, and a wireless microphone to automatically create multimedia Flash presentations, which include a digitally edited instructor video, enhanced images of all material presented by computer or written/drawn on a whiteboard, and an index to support navigation. The PAOL system has been used extensively during system development in several varied settings. We report on usability studies to determine the most effective presentation formats and interfaces and our efforts to capture a full course to further evaluate the impact on teaching and learning.