Slides for the presentation given at International Conference on Web-based Learning (ICWL) 2015, Guangzhou, China

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ICWL 2015
5-8 November, 2015
Guangzhou, China

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• Motivation
• Handling 3D objects in Web Browsers
• Near real-time collaborative manipulations of 3D
objects
• Evaluation
• Conclusion & future work
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• Emerging 3D technologies (3D scanners, printers..)
– Web-based access and manipulation
– Access to hard accessible/expensive resources
– High quality digital representations of physical artifacts
• Support learning at scale
– One to many, many to many (peer), one to one learning
– Mix of personal and collaborative systems
– Mix of informal and formal learning
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annotations

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• X3D
– ISO (ISO/IEC IS 19775-1:2013) standard for 3D graphics handling
– Emerged from Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
• x3dom
– Native support of X3D in Web browser
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System Platform Domain Annotation Open Source
[Settapat et al., 2014] MVC Framework Virtual Worlds
Modern Pedagogy
no no
[Landro et al., 2014] Web portal Academic
communities
no no
SmithsonianX3D Web-based Cultural Heritage yes no
3DSA Web-based Museums yes no
ToBoA-3D Web-based Dedicated Virtual
Environments
yes no
• Web-based annotation systems available
• Open source libraries for 3D Web objects available
• BUT not together 

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• Developed in EU projects (ROLE, Metis, Layers)
• Applied in Exploratory Teaching Space (ETS) at RWTH Aachen
University together with hospital
• Anatomy 2.0 Web Platform for tutors and learners
– 3D object store
– Near real-time collaborative manipulation of 3D objects in the Web
browser
– Lightweight persistent annotation of 3D objects
• Personal Learning Environments (PLE) Renzel, D., Klamma, R., Kravcik, M.,
Nussbaumer, A.: ”Tracing Self-Regulated Learning in Responsive Open Learning Environments”
– Designed for personalization, customization & adaptation
– Awareness among participants
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• Dedicated Website
• Course creation and visualization
• 3D object upload
• Link to a Personal Learning Environment
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Community
Space
Members
Widgets
Chat
HTLM5
Content
Space

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• Widgets: 3D object store and 3D viewer widget
• Annotation & shared handling supported in viewer
• NRT collaboration enabled using XMPP protocol

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• Meso-level annotations (3D object level) [Cao et al. 2015]
• Knowledge exploitation
– Highlight the non-obvious information
– Disambiguate meaning
– Reflection (collaborative scenario)
• Customizable and lightweight format

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• Microservice-based &
widgetized
• Graph-based
annotation storage
• Open source &
standard-based

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• Early results obtained from ETS blended learning project
– Two study sessions
– 24 medicinal student participants
• Target
– Performance of annotations service
– Usability of browser-based 3D objects

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• Lightweight approach for collaborative manipulation of 3D
objects on the Web
– Open source development
– Textual annotation and near real-time mechanisms
– Evaluated using anatomical objects with good results
• Know-how on fast prototyping of scalable technical
solutions that can be succesfully used for learning
• Challenges
– New ROLE SDK release to allow flexibility and easy
deployment/configuration in various learning settings
– Integrate analytics using community monitoring and success
measuring
– Commsonomy usage for learning purpose
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nicolaescu, toubekis, klamma@dbis.rwth-aachen.de
Nicolaescu Petru
Anatomy 2.0 Project Website
GitHub: https://github.com/rwth-acis/