Social Environment Utilization System Built on “Low-Cost Computing”: Building Highly Versatile, Low-cost Remote Class Environment

Abstract

Today, Online programs are now attracting a great deal of attention in the field of university
education. The number of universities that offer online programs is increasing not only in Japan,
but all around the world. Education through online classes is now common, and it is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Currently, there are two major methods of remote education in Japan: “Two-way simultaneous method” and “On-demand method.” “Two-way simultaneous method” enables students in another location to attend the class real time, using dedicated hardware supported by satellite communication or the Internet. “On-demand method” is a way by which the content of a recorded class is distributed on the Internet. Students can attend the class by viewing it. However, Two-way simultaneous method is the common way currently employed by most Japanese universities when they deliver remote classes. This is because stable communication needs to be ensured. However, construction of a remote class environment is a very expensive system. As described above, most Japanese universities have built remote class environment to deliver remote classes, using expensive dedicated hardware. However, with the remarkable development of computers and communication environments in recent years, anyone can now enjoy high-speed communication environment like 5G. Thus, we aim to build, in this research, an environment for simultaneous and bidirectional remote classes without using the dedicated remote class hardware. We aim to achieve this, minimizing the cost by using free or low-cost software. In this study, we define the above idea and method as “Low-Cost Computing.” In this research, we define “Low-Cost Computing” as combining several common items to create, at a very low cost, something that offers high performance that would have taken a high cost to deliver. Based on this concept of "Low-Cost Computing", we construct in this research a low-cost remote class environment that anyone can easily use.