The Multimedia Online Collaboration Architecture: tools to enable distance learning

MOCA is a suite of Internet multimedia tools to facilitate groupwork in a distance learning environment, built using standard Java utilities. MOCA's original aim was to allow several users to work simultaneously on multimedia documents using a multimedia whiteboard. Now MOCA supports both asynchronous and synchronous collaboration models. Tools for asynchronous multimedia presentation, annotation, surveys, and HW have also been developed using the same basic framework. To enable synchronous collaboration sessions between students, TAs and instructors, we have developed a scheduler tool. The system is being piloted in an advanced VLSI chip design course which allows multimedia collaboration between design teams distributed at academic sites at UMASS/Amherst, ENST/Paris, Pusan South Korea and industrial sites at IBM, Intel, AMD and Motorola.