Virtual classroom for multimedia teaching on WWW

The specific issue addressed in this paper is tailoring specific functionality to allow a group of teachers and students to carry out the learning process in digital signal and image processing in an electronic virtual environment that is meant to replace the physical class environment. In order for such an environment to be obtained, not only the course content itself but also different Web-based tools for interaction between the students and teachers are needed. A graphical user interface (GUI), designed and presented in the paper, brings together the students and teachers through virtual class and lab-sessions help and chat rooms. As digital signal and image processing are areas that heavily depend on mathematics, the lab-sessions are performed through MATLAB Web Server. Some specific applications are shown as well as complementary tools like Web-calendar and digital library. Finally, benefits and future work on this virtual classroom are discussed.