VCOIN: Virtual Classroom Over the Internet

Today we live in the world where geographic distances on this planet are no longer big hurdles for information exchange. This has been possible due to widespread use of the Internet in recent years. Emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have been significant in the development of low cost distance learning systems. In recent years, technologies for multimedia online publishing and online collaboration have developed significantly. Because of these developments, cost-effective information exchange and two-way communication across the Internet is possible. This thesis proposes a new virtual classroom model named Virtual Classroom Over the Internet (VCOIN). It also presents a high-level architecture and a implementation of a prototype of VCOIN. VCOIN introduces a new approach towards teaching across the Internet. It also has some unique features that brings it one step closer to being a truly virtual classroom system over the Internet. Lessons learned from various experiments of the VCOIN prototype are described in this thesis.