Intelligent interactive broadcast education

• US 6,074,216 A
• Filed: 07/07/1998
• Issued: 06/13/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Cueto, Jose Augusto Fernandez
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafer, Robert A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROVNAK, JOHN EDMUND
• Application Number:
  US09/112,066
• Time in Patent Office: 707 Days
• Field of Search: 434/107, 434/307 R, 434/322, 434/323, 434/324, 434/327, 434/331, 434/332, 434/335, 434/336, 434/350, 434/351, 434/352, 434/353, 434/362, 434/118, 348/1, 348/2, 348/12, 348/13, 348/14, 348/15, 348/61, 707/3-5
• US Class Current: 434/322
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/14 with provision for individual teacher-student communication
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/073 all student stations being capable of presenting the same questions simultaneously

Abstract

An interactive education process permits students at remote locations to provide feedback to an instructor in an ordered manner. Each student is provided with a network connection to an interactivity engine which includes a natural language interface. Responses to the feedback are provided through the interactivity engine to the student. In addition, the responses are ranked in accordance with the number of users logged on, and the number and nature of the questions or other feedback. If there is a significant number of questions or feedback on the same subject, the responses are grouped and are provided to a stage manager or the instructor for broadcast response. The inquiries and responses are published at an internet site and are accessible by all of the students. By using this technique, student feedback during remote instruction is facilitated, without overburdening the instruction process. In addition, the students are given an ability to participate in the instruction in an active manner.

Claims

1. Method of providing educational instruction and providing a capability of extending the instruction to at least one remote site, the method comprising:

a. broadcasting instructional material, and providing said broadcast to a plurality of students;

b. providing an interactivity engine for receiving input data and generating, as an output, reply data related to the input data, said reply data including student query information;

c. providing a computer network connection between the interactivity engine and said plurality of students;

d. using the interactivity engine to display said input data in a ranked order;

e. providing said display to an instructor in a manner which permits integration of responses to said input data with said broadcast, wherein

the output of the interactivity engine includes data weighted according to preselected criteria, the preselected criteria including ambiguity of the resolved search requests.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising providing said input data in the ranked order including providing a ranking in order of frequency of recurrency of characteristics of the input data.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising providing access to the reply data to the instructor simultaneously with providing of said input data, thereby permitting the instructor to use the reply data in said integration of responses.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising said interactivity engine including a computer with a searchable database.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising providing, as a part of said computer network connection, an internet connection.

6. The method of claim 1 comprising using a natural language inquiry format for interpreting data received as input data and for generating the reply data.

7. The method of claim 6 comprising ranking the input data according to a detected number of students or other users logged on, a number of inquiries, and a nature of the inquiries received.

8. Method of providing an interactive broadcast to members of an audience at a plurality of remote sites, the method comprising:

a. transmitting a broadcast program and providing the broadcast to the plurality remote sites;

b. providing a computer network connection between said plurality of remote sites to an interactivity engine, the interactivity engine including a computer with a database, and responsive to an input of inquiry data by searching the database for corresponding reply data;

c. providing two way computer network communications between the members of the audience and the interactivity engine through said computer network connection, so that the members of the audience may provide the interactivity engine with feedback as said input of inquiry data, and receive said corresponding reply data;

d. using the interactivity engine to rank said inquiry data and display, to a broadcaster, said input data in a ranked order and provide, as an output, said ranked data;

e. using said display of said input data in the ranked order to provide human response to the input data during the transmission of the broadcast program, wherein

the output of the interactivity engine includes data weighted according to preselected criteria, the preselected criteria including ambiguity of the resolved search requests.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising using the interactivity engine to provide responses to the inquiries in association with the display of the input data in a ranked order, thereby providing quick access to the responses to the broadcaster.

10. The method of claim 8, comprising using the interactivity engine to provide responses to the inquiries in a listed format to said members of the audience, thereby permitting each member of the audience to view the results of inquiries by other members of the audience.

11. Method of providing an interactive broadcast to members of an audience at a plurality of remote sites, the method comprising:

a. transmitting a single broadcast program in a broadcast format, and providing the broadcast to the plurality remote sites;

b. providing a computer network connection between said plurality of remote sites to an interactivity engine, the interactivity engine including a computer with a database, and responsive to an input of inquiry data by searching the database for corresponding reply data;

c. providing two way computer network communications between the members of the audience and the interactivity engine through said computer network connection, so that the members of the audience may provide the interactivity engine with feedback as said input of inquiry data, and receive said corresponding reply data;

d. using the interactivity engine to rank said inquiry data and display, to a broadcaster, said input data in a ranked order and provide, as an output, said ranked data;

e. using said display of said input data in the ranked order to provide human response to the input data during the transmission of the broadcast program, wherein

the output of the interactivity engine includes data weighted according to preselected criteria.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising using the interactivity engine to provide responses to the inquiries in association with the display of the input data in a ranked order, thereby providing quick access to the responses to the broadcaster.

13. The method of claim 11, comprising using the interactivity engine to provide responses to the inquiries in a listed format to said members of the audience, thereby permitting each member of the audience to view the results of inquiries by other members of the audience.