Introduction

The goal of the GÉANT GN5-1 WP4 incubator is to look for ideas for new digital services in support of European research and education. Through the incubator, the GN5-1 project is offering to its participants manpower to develop service Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs), aimed at a possible inclusion into the GÉANT community’s portfolio of above-the-net services. The PoCs could be something completely new or add functionality to existing services. 
The incubator ultimately aims to reduce risks associated to the development of innovative ideas before committing resources on the level of a project task or GÉANT service. Above-the-net services in support of research and education extend well beyond commodity cloud services (both community and commercial). 

Piolt P1 - "eduMEETime - the eduMEET Activity Monitor"

eduMEET is a great example of a service that began as a concept within our community and now extends bespoke video-conferencing support for education and research activities globally. New functionalities are regularly added to this solution making it a highly competitive, extremely valuable toolset within the NREN portfolio. That is why for the first pilot of the the incubator, an extesnsio for eduMEET has been chosen to be implemented.

eduMEETime is an innovative eduMEET extension for monitoring the participation time of students in educational videoconferencing sessions. In the ever-evolving landscape of education, online videoconference lectures have become an essential tool for remote learning. Their success, however, depends heavily on student engagement and active participation. By tracking how long a user has participated in such lectures, educators can foster accountability, identify students in need of support, adapt instructional strategies, evaluate the effectiveness of lectures, promote interaction and recognise high performers. Implementing these practices not only improves the quality of the online learning experience, but also ensures that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed in learning.

Objective

Thanks to the open architecture of eduMEET, in the project we has created an extension allowing authorized users (like teachers) to monitor the participation time of students in a videoconferencing session. As eduMEET uses the OIDC protocol for Single-Sign-On (SSO) functionality using OpenID, it can be integrated with SSO services provided by provides like Google, GEANT or others. This way users can use the credential of their institutions to login into eduMEET. We have created an extension that monitors eduMEET videoconferencing sessions recording how much time a given user has spent in a videoconferencing session. This information is gathered and visualized to an authorized person.

Project Innovation

Currently there is a high need of an open-source tool allowing for monitoring of participation time in videoconferencing sessions that integrates with SSO services. Of course, commercial solutions allow to track participation time of users, but require that all users have to have accounts in the service of the provider. From the data protection point of view, students should not be forced to give their personal data to commercial providers.

In recent years, the introduction of online videoconference lectures has revolutionised the field of education. With the rapid development of remote learning and virtual classrooms, it has become crucial to monitor and analyse students' active participation in these virtual learning environments. Tracking how long a user has participated in an online videoconference lecture is a valuable tool for teachers and institutions, offering many benefits that contribute to the overall success of the learning process.

By tracking the time students participate in video conference lectures, teachers can promote a sense of responsibility among students. Knowing that their involvement is being monitored, students are more likely to remain engaged and attentive during sessions. Increased accountability leads to higher levels of responsibility, as students see the value of active participation and its direct correlation to academic performance.

Monitoring user attendance times allows teachers to identify students who may be struggling or at risk of falling behind. Students who consistently attend class for shorter periods of time or miss lectures altogether may require additional support and intervention. Early identification of these students allows teachers to address challenges quickly, providing personalised support and resources to help them stay on track.

Understanding how long students participate in online lectures helps teachers adapt their teaching strategies. By analysing engagement patterns, teachers can identify aspects of the lecture that may be less engaging and then improve their teaching methods. This data-driven approach ensures that teachers tailor their presentations to students' preferences, learning styles and concentration times.

Tracking attendance time also helps to assess the effectiveness of online video conference lectures. Instructors can use this data to measure the overall interest and attention of the class. In addition, they can compare participation rates across lectures or topics to determine which topics require further clarification or additional resources to increase understanding and engagement.

Online videoconference lectures can sometimes be one-sided, with the instructor speaking and students passively listening. By monitoring participation time, teachers can encourage students to interact and collaborate more. Integrating interactive elements such as quizzes, surveys, discussion sessions and discussion forums can create a more dynamic learning experience and foster active student engagement.

Tracking user participation time is not just about identifying students who are struggling; it is also about recognising and rewarding high achievers. By recognising students who consistently participate actively and for extended periods of time, teachers can motivate others to follow suit. This positive reinforcement creates a supportive learning environment where students are encouraged to excel and take pride in their contributions.

Impact

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, online videoconference lectures have become an essential tool for remote learning. Their success, however, depends heavily on student engagement and active participation. By tracking how long a user has participated in such lectures, educators can foster accountability, identify students in need of support, adapt instructional strategies, evaluate the effectiveness of lectures, promote interaction and recognise high performers. Implementing these practices not only improves the quality of the online learning experience, but also ensures that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed in learning. As technology continues to shape the future of education, monitoring user participation remains a key aspect of providing effective and inclusive learning opportunities for all.

As the results of this project are an extension of eduMEET, they are available for the existing deployments of eduMEET, as well as for new ones. Following this approach, the GÉANT community has gained a new tool for broad usage. As contributing to eduMEET follows a well-organized pattern, to enable usage by the community, we have followed the predefined process:

Discuss eduMEETour approach of creating the designed functionality and integration points with the eduMEET developer community

• Develop our software, test it and validate
• Create a GIT branch for the developer community to test
• Create a GIT pull request
• Merge with the main GIT branch of eduMEET

PoC deployment

The PoC has been developed and tested with eduMEET users. The first deployment can be found in the edumeet development instance deployed at https://dev1.edumeet.eu/.

To access the user activity statistics got to https://stats.dev1.edumeet.eu/.

Conclusions

From the lessons learned during the pilot, a call for proposals for 2 more PoCs has been started in August 2023. The proposal submission happens on the GÉANT Indico https://events.geant.org/event/1470/. The call is limited to GN5-1 project partners as the cost of concept development will be covered by project Person Months (PMs), available specifically for this purpose. 8 PMs will be allocated to each successful PoC.
It will be possible to form a consortium of partners within the GN5-1 project in order to harness all the skills necessary to develop and demonstrate your concept. It is anticipated that the development of ideas will occur in 4-month sprints.

The key questions to by answered by the proposers are:

• The problem you want to solve / the target group or area that will benefit and how.
• The innovative features of the project.
• The expected project results – what you will deliver.
• The expected impact on the GÉANT community’s portfolio of above-the-net services.

The proposals will be assessed by subject matter experts coming from the GÉANT community. Each proposal will be scored in the following areas:

• Innovation and Excellence of the proposal

• Quality and efficiency of the implementation and the management
• Potential impact