Sanna Laine

The effect of time and place dependence when utilizing video lectures

In many learning institutes, diversification of teaching with the help of various technologies has become an essential part of educational arrangements. With the increase in the use of networks for teaching purposes, the use of streaming videos is now one of the possibilities to be reckoned with in trying to increase flexibility in studies. Specially recorded on-demand videos provide the students with better chances to decide when, where and how to study. Information on how students use on-demand videos can be obtained, apart from student questionnaires, from the log files of a media server. These files offer an information source that, on the one hand, is diverse but, on the other, cumbersome and less used. This article examines, with the help of the log files of the media server, matters related to time and place dependence and the use of videos by the students. The investigation is based on the analysis of the log data entered about videos transmitted during the masters education programme in information technology in 2008.

H.264 QoS and application performance with different streaming protocols

Streaming techniques, including the selected streaming protocol, have an effect on the streaming quality. In this study, the performance of three different streaming protocols in a disturbed communication channel is evaluated with a modified version of the FFPlay player. A H.264 encoded video is used as a test sequence. The number of displayed image frames, the frame rate and playout duration are used as objective metrics for QoS. The metrics brings out differences of streaming protocols in our test environment. They are measured at the application level and have a connection to the user experience.

Diversification of adult education with the help of video lectures

For some years now, adult education and working while studying have had an important role in the modern society. Mature-age study brings with it some special features, such as time use limitations, which must be taken into account when creating educational programmes for the students concerned. Above all, flexibility must become a major feature of participation in education. In relation to the Master Studies in Mathematical Information Technology at Kokkola University Consortium, the aim for some years now has been to increase that flexibility by diversifying traditional lecture teaching with the help of real-time and on-demand video lectures. With the help of the results presented in this paper we set to evaluate the suitability of the practice used with video lectures to diversify education in circumstances where the students are working adults and, in addition, where many of them live far from the campus area. According to the results, studying with the help of videos suits well to adult working students. Introduction of videos decreases participation in face-to-face teaching, but, as a whole, participation may even increase once videos have become available. Clearly, the most common use purpose for the videos is to compensate for the absences from face-to-face teaching. Due to their flexibility, on-demand videos are particularly suitable for this purpose. Also, participation in real time education, either with the help of videos or face-to-face teaching, seems popular.

Using WMS log files as an indicator of QoS and application performance in on-demand streaming videos

When utilizing video streaming for professional purposes, the quality of service needs to be evaluated by the service provider. This is the case especially when the service must be available for a large number of customers with a wide range of network interfaces and terminal equipment. Service providers have usually information about network-level metrics. However, the problem is that conditions that appear similar in a networklevel may cause very different responses in an application level, and the other way round. In this article, we study how Windows Media Servers log files can be used to evaluate the QoS of video transmission, and we also examine the application level performance based on the log files. The level of QoS affects user satisfaction and thus QoE, although the relationship between them may be complicated. Understanding how the application responds to deteriorated network conditions gives tools to evaluate also QoE. The examination is limited to on-demand streaming sessions in which UDP is used as a transport protocol.

The Role of Log Entries in the Quality Control of Video Distribution

Diversification of university teaching with the help of video lectures has become much more common during the past few years. Once videos have become an essential part of teaching arrangements, whoever organizes the teaching must also pay attention to factors related to videos in quality system work for teaching. In the video production process it is the factors related to video transmission that exert influence on the usability of videos and set limitations for their production. A lot of information about those factors can be obtained from the media server log files. The particular focus of this paper is on the functionality of the connection between a server and a client and its effect on users. The paper deals with information obtained from a media server’s log file, describes the activities around collection and handling of log data, and introduces a preliminary classification for monitoring video transmissions. The results obtained from the media server’s log files are presented in accordance with that classification system at the end of the paper.