For a tutorial on how to operate Virtual IA, click here.

Virtual IA (Instructional Assistant) was developed to provide a means of communication between video streaming students (those watching the live class on the Internet via video streaming) and the course instructor during a class session.

Historically, human Instructional Assistants have filled this role. They sit in the classroom with the instructor and use a computer to participate in a "chat session" with the students watching via video streaming. If a video streaming student has a question for the instructor, the IA asks the question on behalf of the video streaming student.

Virtual IA was designed to mimic a human IA in these key areas:

• It retrieves questions from video streaming students and presents them to the class instructor.
• It prevents the instructor from having to juggle additional computer applications such as chat applications or browser windows to accommodate video streaming students. This allows the instructor to focus on teaching without having to focus on the technology.

Consisting of hardware and software components, Virtual IA is designed to run on a standalone computer system situated on or near the instructor's desk. Once the Virtual IA software application is running, the instructor controls the application using a simple three-button controller. This empowers the instructor to manage incoming questions without having to manage an additional computer system.

Virtual IA was designed to be unobtrusive. In the most basic form, the instructor needs only to glance at the computer monitor from time to time to view questions posed by video streaming students and answer the questions verbally. As questions come in, they immediately appear in large text, which can easily be read from several feet away. If students ask more questions than can be displayed on the screen, the instructor can navigate between questions by using the Next Question/Menu Item or Previous Question/Menu Item buttons on the controller. The instructor can also clear the questions. This option is available once the Menu/Enter button has been selected on the controller.

A sophisticated scheduling engine has been implemented into Virtual IA as well. This allows Virtual IA to automatically prepare itself for a new class session.

Virtual IA provides a simple solution for handling video streaming student questions, and allows Old Dominion University to expand its Video Streaming program while continuing to provide excellent faculty and student support.