About This Tool

This web-based, multimedia educational learning tool is designed to educate
students about probability and its use and importance in the design and
performance analysis of computer networks like the Internet.

• It is being developed by Prof. Ken Vastola with Java applets by
  Hing Lun Chan and Boris Nabutovsky.

• It started out life as a set of notes for the ECSE course 35468,
  Computer Communication Networks.

• The notes were converted to HTML using LaTeX2HTML.

• Thus the LaTeX2HTML icons are available for a student trying to
  learn networking to navigate the tool.

• This tool has also been designed so that it can be used by students in an
  undergraduate probability course who are asking the question:
  ``Why am I being forced to learn all this mathematics?"

  Such students can follow the dice next to learn about the effects of
  randomness and how to use probability to analyze its impact on networks.

Educational Web Features of This Tool

Some of the features of this tool which have been implemented include:

• Animation using Java. We have developed several applets which animate various network components and systems. These Java applets illustrate important basic and advanced concepts in probability and motivate the mathematics of probability through its applications to computer networking. Each applet is controllable by the instructor through the HTML page in which it's embedded or by the student through panel controls.

  A sample applet used in this demo. A packet queueing system is animated.

  Another applet which has yet to be integrated. It animates an Aloha wireless network.

• ``Ask the Professor (or TA)." The question mark icon appears at the top of every page (including this one). When the student clicks this icon, a CGI (common gateway interface) is invoked which creates and displays a form. This form allows the student to send email to the professor or TA.

  One feature of our approach is that the email automatically contains the URL of the page on which the student clicked the question mark icon. This allows the professor to easily understand and view the context the student was in when s/he asked the question. This will also allow implementation of the automated FAQ sheet feature described below.

• Pop Quiz. Interspersed are ``pop quizzes" in which the student is asked to answer a question. The student's answer to the question determines the next link followed.

  Here's an example.

• Automated Context-Dependent FAQ Sheet. Using the feature that email questions will contain the reference page from which they were asked, we plan to build a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sheet for each page of the tool which (we hope) the student will check before sending in his/her question.

  The FAQ icon will be placed just to the left of the question mark icon at the top of each page. It is also brightly colored to attract the eye of the beast.