JP5222633B2 - Distance education support device, distance education support method, and distance education support program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to information technology used for distance learning such as e-learning.

  In recent years, distance education (e-learning, etc.) using information infrastructure such as the Internet has been actively used in in-house education of companies. The advantage of distance learning is that students can learn wherever they like and many students can learn efficiently.

  There are two types of distance learning: synchronous (live type) where multiple students take live lectures at the same time, and asynchronous (on-demand type) where students take recorded lectures at their preferred time. There are two types.

  In addition, the technique used in order to perform distance education is disclosed by the following patent documents 1-3.

  Patent Document 1 describes a technique for advancing a learning program as a technique related to a synchronous type, reflecting the total result of answers to questions from students who view the learning program.

  Patent Document 2 describes a technique for analyzing the voice of a student's answer to a mini-test as a technique related to an asynchronous type, grasping the degree of confidence of the student, and re-answering a practice question in an unconfident field. .

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 describes a technique relating to an asynchronous type, in which an instructor's speech and motion characteristics are projected onto an animation character to give the student the impression of interacting with an actual teacher.
JP 2007-123975 A JP 2006-293102 A JP 2006-30513 A

  However, synchronous distance learning has the advantage that students can attend with a sense of tension because they are live, but it is difficult for students to ask other instructors and ask questions, and time constraints are strong. There are disadvantages.

  Asynchronous distance learning has the advantage that students can take lectures at their preferred time, but because it is recorded, it is difficult to maintain the tension at the time of attendance. There is a disadvantage that you can not.

  As mentioned above, synchronous distance learning and asynchronous distance learning have their respective disadvantages, and in order to increase the effect (education effect) that each student understands the contents of the lecture, it is necessary to devise the above disadvantages. It is.

  Based on the above problems, the present invention is a remote education support device, a remote education support method, and a remote education support method that enhances the educational effect by making use of the respective advantages of synchronous remote education and asynchronous remote education while supplementing the respective disadvantages. The purpose is to provide a distance learning support program.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the distance learning support device according to the present invention is a remote education setting device for setting a conversation schedule between a lecturer and a student when the student occupies and interacts with the lecture data distributed to the student terminal. Lecture on a student management unit that manages the reproduction status of the lecture data for each student and a question (hereinafter referred to as “instructor question”) that is given to the student by the lecturer during reproduction of the lecture data. A question timing specified by the amount of data replayed, a lecturer question table storing the expected interaction time between the instructor and the student, and for each student, the lecturer from the student during the reproduction of the lecture data A question table for storing questions (hereinafter referred to as “student questions”), a reproduction status of the lecture data for each student managed by the student management unit, and the quality of the lecturer The table and the student question table are referred to, and for each student, whether or not there is a dialogue time set based on whether or not each instructor asks the student, and if a student question is issued from the student, Individual dialogue schedule candidates are determined based on a combination of whether or not to set a predetermined dialogue time for answering student questions, and among the individual dialogue schedule candidates among the whole dialogue schedule candidates that combine the individual dialogue schedule candidates of each student For the overall dialogue schedule candidates that do not overlap in the dialogue time period, the overall education effect value that is larger as the dialogue time is longer and the continuous non-interaction time is shorter is obtained, and the overall schedule that maximizes the overall education effect value is obtained. A dialogue schedule setting unit that sets candidates as dialogue schedules.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, when the dialog schedule setting unit detects the end of the dialog, detects the attendance of the student to the lecture using the lecture data, detects the question from the student The conversation schedule is set in at least one of cases where a student leaving from a lecture using the lecture data is detected.

  In another embodiment of the present invention, the overall education effect value is a total of individual education effect values obtained for individual interaction schedule candidates constituting the overall interaction schedule candidate, and the individual education effect value is an individual interaction schedule candidate. An output value of a dialogue time evaluation function that gives a larger value as the dialogue time set in the dialogue is longer, and a larger value as the dialogue time set in the individual dialogue schedule candidate is longer and the continuous non-interaction time is shorter. This is a total of individual educational effect values calculated for each individual dialogue schedule candidate constituting the whole dialogue schedule candidate based on the output value of the tension function. In this case, by further providing a dialogue history table for storing the past dialogue time results between the lecturer and the student for each student, the dialogue time evaluation function is stored in the past history table. It is possible to adopt a configuration that is set so as to give a larger value as the dialogue time is longer.

  In still another embodiment of the present invention, in the case where the next scheduled dialogue is a dialogue performed using a lecturer question according to the dialogue schedule set by the dialogue schedule setting unit, the student who is scheduled to talk with the lecturer In contrast, a dialogue management unit is provided that outputs the lecturer question so that the student question can be presented. If the next scheduled dialogue is a dialogue performed using a student question, the dialogue management unit outputs the student question to the lecturer so as to be presented.

  In still another embodiment of the present invention, when information related to a student question is stored in the student question table, the conversation schedule setting unit performs the student question using the student question. The individual dialogue schedule candidates are determined such that the time zone for dialogue with the lecturer is ahead of the time zone for dialogue with the instructor using the lecturer question.

  In still another embodiment of the present invention, when the lecture data distribution instruction is received from the student via the student terminal, the lecture data is distributed to the student terminal so that it can be reproduced in real time. Lecture distribution department is provided. In this case, the student management unit may adopt a configuration in which the lecture data delivery from the lecture delivery unit to the student terminal of the student is interrupted while the lecturer and the student are interacting with each other.

  The distance learning support method according to the present invention is a distance learning support method for setting a conversation schedule between a lecturer and a student when the student occupies and interacts with the lecture data distributed to the student terminal. Questions specified by the amount of playback of lecture data regarding the playback status of the lecture data for each student being managed, and questions that are given to students by the teacher during playback of the lecture data (hereinafter referred to as “lecturer questions”) A lecturer question table that stores the timing and expected interaction time between the lecturer and the student regarding the question, and a question (hereinafter referred to as “student”) that is given to the lecturer during reproduction of the lecture data for each student. (Referred to as a “question”), and whether or not a dialogue time determined based on whether or not each instructor asks each student is set for each student, If there are student questions, individual dialogue schedule candidates are determined based on the combination of whether or not a predetermined dialogue time is set for answering the student questions, and the individual dialogue schedule candidates for each student are combined. Among the dialogue schedule candidates, for the whole dialogue schedule candidate in which the time zone of the dialogue time does not overlap between individual dialogue schedule candidates, obtain an overall educational effect value that becomes larger as the dialogue time is longer and the continuous non-interaction time is shorter, An overall schedule candidate that maximizes the overall educational effect value is set as a dialogue schedule.

  The distance learning support program of the present invention is a computer program that causes an information processing apparatus to execute each process included in the above method.

  According to the present invention, by realizing a semi-synchronous distance learning that combines an asynchronous lecture using lecture data and a synchronous lecture in which a live conversation is performed between a lecturer and a student, The effect can be further enhanced. Specifically, by implementing the present invention, from the overall dialogue schedule candidate that is a combination of individual dialogue schedule candidates representing the dialogue schedule between the instructor and each student, the longer the dialogue time between the instructor and the student is, In addition, it is possible to set the overall schedule candidate having the largest overall education effect value that becomes a larger value as the continuous non-interaction time is shorter, as the conversation schedule. If a dialogue schedule is obtained, it is possible to maintain the degree of tension in each student's lecture by allowing dialogue between the instructor and the student as appropriate during the lecture. As a result, the educational effect can be further enhanced. .

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, elements having the same function are denoted by the same reference numerals in a plurality of drawings, and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a distance learning system configured using the distance learning support device of the embodiment. In this system, the lecture management server 120 corresponds to the distance learning support apparatus of the present invention.

  This system includes an instructor interaction terminal 110, a plurality of student attendance terminals 140, and a lecture management server 120. The instructor interactive terminal 110 and the lecture management server 120 are connected via a communication line such as a LAN, and the lecture management server 120 is connected to the student learning terminal 140 via a communication line 130 such as the Internet.

  The instructor interaction terminal 110 is a computer that is used when the instructor interacts with the student and is in charge of inputting and outputting various data. The instructor's voice or data representing sentences typed from the keyboard is sent to the lecture management server 120. In addition to the transmission, the instruction to be transmitted to the lecturer and the question from the student transmitted from the lecture management server 120 are displayed on the screen. As the instructor interactive terminal 110, a general information processing apparatus including various hardware such as a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a hard disk drive, a keyboard, and a mouse can be employed.

  The student attendance terminal 140 is a computer that is used by students when taking lectures and is responsible for inputting and outputting various data. The student attendance terminal 140 displays the contents of lecture data distributed by the lecture management server 120 on the screen, Are transmitted to the lecture management server 120, and information indicating that the student has started or ended the course is transmitted to the lecture management server 120. The student information terminal 140 can also employ the above-described general information processing apparatus.

  In this embodiment, the instructor and the student are not limited to the instructor and the student in the educational institution such as school or learning, but the instructor includes a person who teaches some arts, sports or knowledge. Or a person who receives a professor of knowledge.

  The lecture management server 120 sets a conversation schedule between the lecturer and the student when the student occupies the conversation with respect to the lecture data distributed to the plurality of student learning terminals 140. The dialogue with the instructor may be performed by each student one by one or in groups of a plurality of students. In the case of a configuration in which conversations with lecturers are performed in units of groups, management may be performed using a table that stores the identifiers of the groups and the members of the groups in association with each other.

  The lecture management server 120 is configured by the above-described general information processing apparatus, and as various databases, a lecturer question database 151, a student question database 152, a dialogue history database 153, a dialogue plan database 154, a progress status database 155, and A lecture content database 156 is provided. Hereinafter, “database” is referred to as “DB”. These databases are stored in storage means such as a hard disk drive or RAM.

  Further, the lecture management server 120 includes a lecture distribution unit 121, a student management unit 122, a dialogue design unit 123, and various function units realized by the CPU executing a predetermined distance education support program (not shown). The dialogue management unit 124 and a communication unit 125 that connects the lecturer dialogue terminal 110 and the student dialogue terminal 140 so as to communicate with each other.

  The instructor question DB 151 has a question timing specified by the replay amount of the lecture data and a predicted instructor related to the question for questions (hereinafter referred to as “instructor questions”) issued from the instructor to the students during the reproduction of the lecture data. It is a database as an instructor question table for storing the dialogue time between students. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, the question ID for identifying the question, the question timing (degree of progress) of each question during the reproduction of the lecture data, the content of the instructor question (question content), the respective questions The conversation time expected for the conversation performed using the conversation (hereinafter referred to as “expected conversation time”) is associated and stored as instructor question information. In this embodiment, the degree of progress is used not only to indicate the presentation timing of a question but also to be used as a word indicating the amount of lecture data played back, that is, the progress of a lecture.

The student question DB 152 is a database as a student question table that stores, for each student, a question (hereinafter referred to as “student question”) issued from the student to the lecturer during the reproduction of the lecture data. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, a question ID for identifying a question, information indicating the transmission source of the question (here, a student ID for identifying the student who asked the question), and a question from the student learning terminal 140 The time of transmission, the progress of the lecture data at the time when the question was transmitted from the student learning terminal 140, the content of the student question (question content), and a flag indicating whether or not the instructor answered each question (answered And unanswered) are stored as student question information. In the embodiment, the student question DB 152 corresponds to a student question table in the present invention. In this embodiment,
The dialogue history DB 153 is a database as a dialogue history table that records a dialogue history such as a past dialogue time record of the student for each student. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, a lecturer ID, a student ID, a dialogue type indicating whether the lecture is a question presented by a lecturer or a student, a question ID, a dialogue start time, and a dialogue required. The actual time and the conversation contents are stored in association with each other. The dialogue type is “lecturer question” in the case of a dialogue based on the question presented by the instructor, and “student question” in the case of a dialogue based on the question presented by the student.

  The dialogue plan DB 154 is a database that records the entire dialogue schedule determined from combinations of individual dialogue schedule candidates for dialogue between the lecturer and each student. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the lecturer ID, the student ID of the student who is the conversation partner, the time to start the conversation (dialog start time), the scheduled time of the dialog (scheduled dialog time), the question ID, and the dialog The type is stored in association with each other. When the conversation type is an instructor question, the scheduled conversation time is stored with the value of the expected conversation time for the question with the same question ID in the instructor question DB 151. When the conversation type is a student question, a predetermined required time is stored in advance. (For example, 5 minutes) or the time required to increase or decrease according to the size of the question data received from the student learning terminal 140 is stored. A method for determining the dialogue schedule stored in the dialogue plan DB 154 will be described later with reference to FIGS.

  The progress DB 155 is a database that records the reproduction status of the lecture data for each student, that is, the progress of the lecture for each student and the attendance status of the lecture for each student such as “listening” and “interactive”. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the student ID of each student participating in the lecture, the time when each student started the lecture (reproducing the lecture data), the degree of progress, and the attendance state are associated with each other. Stored. The attendance status is “Not attended” if the lecture has not yet been taken (reproduced the lecture data), “Interviewed” if the lecture has been taken (reproduced the lecture data), and the lecturer is talking If the lecture is “in progress”, if the lecture has been completed (reproduction of lecture data has been completed), then “taken”, leave the lecture using the recorded lecture (reproduction of lecture data other than the start of conversation) If it is interrupted for a reason), it shall be “Away”.

  The lecture content DB 156 is a database that records lecture data to be transmitted to the student attendance terminal 140. As a specific example of lecture data, lecture video (moving image) or audio is essential information, and supplementary lecture materials such as text can be employed. Also, in the lecture content DB 156, when the degree of progress is designated, lecture data after the designated degree of progress can be extracted from the lecture data. In this embodiment, recorded lecture videos (recorded lectures) and lecture materials are used as lecture data.

  When the lecture distribution unit 121 receives an instruction to send a recorded lecture from the student via the student learning terminal 140 during a predetermined lecture time period, the lecture distribution unit 121 stores the instruction in the lecture content DB 156 for the student learning terminal 140. The recorded lectures are transmitted so that they can be played back in real time, and lecture materials are transmitted as necessary. In addition, the lecture distribution unit 121 records the progress of the recorded lecture in the progress DB 155 each time (for example, at intervals of 1 to 10 seconds).

  In addition, while the recorded lecture is distributed, the latest information in the progress status DB 155 is always referred to. For example, when the lecture state is not “listening”, such as when the lecturer and the student start a conversation, Stop distribution (interrupt if playback is in progress). When the recorded lecture has been played back to the end, the attendance status in the progress status DB 155 is changed to “already attended”.

  The student management unit 122 manages the playback status of the recorded lecture for each student (specifically, for each student learning terminal 140) on the progress status DB 155. Specifically, for each student, the student management unit 122 receives information indicating start of attendance (attendance), suspension of attendance (withdrawal), and end of attendance, and a question transmitted from the student attendance terminal 140. For example, in the student learning terminal 140, when the student presses a learning start button (attendance button) displayed on the screen, the student management unit 122 receives the learning start information from the student learning terminal 140, and the progress status DB 155. Is changed from “not attended” or “leaved” to “listening”.

  Also, when the student presses the attendance stop button (leave button) displayed on the screen, the student management unit 122 receives an instruction to stop the delivery of the recorded lecture from the student attendance terminal 140, and displays the attendance status in the progress status DB 155. Rewrite from "listening" to "withdrawing". Furthermore, when a question is received from the student attendance terminal 140 playing a recorded lecture, a new record is created in the student question DB 152 and the above-mentioned student question information relating to the question is stored. Furthermore, the student management unit 122 interrupts transmission of the recorded lecture from the lecture distribution unit 121 to the student learning terminal 140 used by the student from the start to the end of the dialogue between the student and the lecturer. Let

  The dialog design unit 123 functions as a dialog scheduling setting unit that schedules a dialog performed between the lecturer and the student. Specifically, referring to the playback status of the recorded lecture for each student managed by the student management unit 122, the instructor question DB 151, and the student question DB 152 at a predetermined timing, whether each instructor asks the student about each student. Whether there is a conversation time set based on whether or not a student question is issued from the student, and whether or not a predetermined conversation time (for example, 5 minutes) is set for answering the student question. Based on the combination, individual dialogue schedule candidates are determined. Of the overall dialogue schedule candidates that combine the individual dialogue schedule candidates of each student, the longer the dialogue time and the continuous non-interaction time for the whole dialogue schedule candidates in which the dialogue time periods do not overlap between the individual dialogue schedule candidates. The overall educational effect value that becomes a larger value as it is shorter is obtained, and the overall schedule candidate that maximizes the overall educational effect value is set as the conversation schedule. Further, the dialogue design unit 123 records the contents of one dialogue schedule as a result of dialogue scheduling in the dialogue plan DB 154.

  In the embodiment, the predetermined conversation time for the student question is set to 5 minutes, but an arbitrary time such as 1 minute or 10 minutes can be set. Furthermore, the predetermined dialogue time for the student question is not limited to a uniform time, and is based on, for example, a criterion (for example, dialogue time = data amount × count) predetermined according to the data amount of the student question. It shall include the calculated time.

  Further, the dialogue design unit 123 always refers to the latest information in the student question DB 152 and the progress DB 155, and sets the dialogue schedule (dialogue) in any of the following cases (1) to (5). Scheduling). Hereinafter, these five cases are referred to as scheduling conditions.

(1) When a dialogue end instruction is detected The above case corresponds to the case where the dialogue between the instructor and the student is terminated. For example, the dialogue management unit 122 changes the attendance state of the progress DB 155 from “in dialogue” to “listening”. ”Can be detected and dialog scheduling can be performed. By performing dialogue scheduling each time the dialogue between the instructor and the student is completed, it is possible to respond immediately when the dialogue is finished earlier than planned or when the dialogue is finished later than scheduled.

(2) When the attendance of a student in a lecture using a recorded lecture is detected. This case corresponds to a case where a student starts attending a recorded lecture. For example, the student management unit 122 indicates the attendance state of the progress DB 155. It is possible to detect the rewriting from “not attended” or “leaved” to “listening” and perform dialogue scheduling.

(3) When it is detected that a question has been issued by a student This case corresponds to a case where a student asks a question. For example, the student management unit 122 detects that a question content has been added to the student question DB 152, and dialogue is performed. Scheduling can be performed.

(4) When a student leaving from a lecture using lecture data is detected In this case, this corresponds to a case where a student attending a recorded lecture interrupts playback of the recorded lecture for reasons other than the start of dialogue. It is possible to detect that the student management unit 122 has rewritten the attendance state in the progress DB 155 from “listening” to “leaving”, and perform conversation scheduling.

  Note that the conversation scheduling may be performed when at least one of the scheduling conditions (1) to (5) is satisfied. More detailed processing of dialog scheduling will be described later with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  The dialogue management unit 124, in accordance with the dialogue schedule set by the dialogue design unit 123, is a dialogue terminal for interacting with the lecturer the student learning terminal 140 used by the student who is talking with the lecturer among the student learning terminals 140. Select as. Then, the dialogue between the lecturer and the student is relayed between the selected dialogue terminal and the dialogue terminal 110 for the lecturer, thereby mediating the dialogue between the lecturer and the student.

  When the dialogue type of the dialogue plan DB 154 is “Lecturer Question”, the dialogue management unit 124 stores the dialogue in the lecturer question DB 151 when mediating the dialogue between the lecturer and the student according to the dialogue schedule determined by the dialogue design unit 123. The information regarding the question among the instructor question information is transmitted to the student who is scheduled to interact. As a result, the question from the instructor is displayed on the screen of the student learning terminal 140 used by the student scheduled to interact, and a dialogue (question and answer) on the instructor question is started.

  On the other hand, when the conversation type is “student question”, the student interaction terminal 140 representing the transmission source stored in the student question DB 152 is selected as the interaction terminal to mediate the interaction between the instructor and the student, and the student question The information about the information can be presented to the lecturer (for example, displayable, voice output is possible). As a result, information related to the student question is transmitted to the instructor interaction terminal 110 via the communication unit 125, the student question is displayed on the screen of the instructor interaction terminal 110, and the conversation (question and answer) is based on the student question. ) Starts. The process performed by the dialogue management unit 124 will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by the dialogue management unit 124.

  The dialogue management unit 124, based on the dialogue schedule determined by the dialogue design unit 123, is in a standby mode (instructor is waiting and a student is taking or leaving a recorded lecture) 201 and a dialogue mode (instructor and The state of any one of the students interacting) 203 is shifted. Hereinafter, each process of the standby mode 201 and the dialogue mode 203 by the dialogue management unit 124 will be described.

  First, in the standby mode 201, the dialogue management unit 124 always refers to the latest information in the dialogue plan DB 154, and the remaining time until the dialogue is started with respect to the instructor dialogue terminal 110, the student ID of the student who is the partner of the dialogue. And information about the first question (question from the instructor or question from the student) that is the subject of the next dialogue is transmitted in a displayable manner. When the dialogue plan DB 154 is rewritten by the dialogue design unit 123, new information is transmitted to the instructor dialogue terminal 110 accordingly.

  Then, the dialog management unit 124 performs an end determination process 202 that determines the end method of the standby mode 102 at a predetermined timing, and determines whether or not the entire process ends (for example, from the standby mode 201 to the dialog mode 203 as the lecture time elapses). Whether or not to end without transition). When the entire process is to be terminated, the process is terminated without transition to the interactive mode 203.

  On the other hand, the dialogue management unit 124 shifts from the standby mode 201 to the dialogue mode 202 when the next dialogue start time determined in the dialogue schedule comes.

  When the dialogue manager 202 asks the student a question at the start of the dialogue mode 202, the dialogue management unit 124 transmits the question content to the student learning terminal 140 so that the question can be displayed. Further, the fact that the scheduled dialogue time has come is transmitted to the lecturer dialogue terminal 110 so that it can be displayed. In this case, for example, instead of displaying that the remaining time until the start of the dialog is zero, a message “Please start the dialog” may be displayed. Further, the attendance state of the progress status DB 155 is changed to “in progress”.

  Further, in the dialogue mode 202, the dialogue management unit 124 relays the dialogue data between the lecturer and the student between the communication unit 125 and the dialogue terminal selected from the student learning terminal 140, so that the dialogue between the lecturer and the student is performed. Mediate. For example, the data representing the content of the utterance entered at the student attendance terminal 140 is relayed to the instructor interaction terminal 110 and displayed on the screen of the instructor interaction terminal 110, and conversely, input at the instructor interaction terminal 110. The data representing the content of the remarks is relayed to the student learning terminal 140 and displayed on the screen of the student learning terminal 140. In addition, data representing the elapsed time and remaining time of the conversation (difference between the scheduled conversation time and the elapsed time) is transmitted to the instructor interaction terminal 110 in a displayable manner and displayed on the screen. When a dialog end button displayed on the screen of the lecturer dialog terminal 110 is pressed, a dialog end instruction is transmitted to the lecture management server 120. When the lecture management server 120 receives the dialog end instruction, the dialog management is performed. The unit 124 moves from the interactive mode 202 to the standby mode 201.

  Even in the dialog mode 203, the dialog management unit 124 performs the end determination process 204 at a predetermined timing and determines whether or not to end the entire process (for example, the transition from the dialog mode 203 to the standby mode 201 with the lapse of the lecture time). Whether or not to end without checking). And when complete | finishing the whole process, a process is complete | finished, without changing to the standby mode 201. FIG.

  On the other hand, the dialogue management unit 124 shifts from the dialogue mode 203 to the standby mode 201 when there is time (instructor waiting time) from the end of the dialogue to the next dialogue.

  The dialogue manager 124 records the dialogue contents in the dialogue history DB 153 when the dialogue mode 202 ends. Note that the recorded dialogue contents are later sent to the students by e-mail or the like, which is useful when the students review the lecture. In addition, the attendance state of the progress status DB 155 is changed from “busy” to “listening”. Further, when a dialogue with a question from a student is performed, the flag of the student question DB 152 is changed from “unanswered” to “answered”.

  FIG. 8 is a chart showing an example of a dialog schedule as a result of dialog scheduling by the dialog design unit 123. The concept of dialog scheduling will be described with reference to this figure.

  In FIG. 8, the horizontal axis represents time, and a horizontal bar represents a lecture time zone using a recorded lecture and a student attendance time zone. In each time zone, a time zone with a diagonal pattern or a horizontal stripe pattern represents the following meaning.

(1) Time zone with horizontal stripes within the solid line frame This time zone indicates the time zone of the past or current dialogue on the subject of the instructor's question (2) Diagonal line pattern within the solid line frame This time zone indicates the time zone of the past or current dialogue on the question from the student. (3) Time zone with horizontal stripes in the dashed frame This time zone Indicates the time zone of the dialogue scheduled to be based on the question from the instructor. (4) The time zone with a diagonal line in the dashed frame This time zone is based on the question from the student. (5) Time zone where the pattern is not drawn within the solid frame The instructor is waiting and the student listens to the recorded lecture. Indicates the time zone.

  In addition, the lecturer and the student whose dialogue time zones overlap in the figure are the other parties of the dialogue.

  It is assumed that the lecture time is specified in a time zone such as 17:10 to 17:50. Each student can take a recorded lecture at any time during the specified time period. The lecturer interacts with each student according to the dialogue schedule set by the dialogue design unit 123 from the start time to the end time of the lecture.

  In the example of this figure, the current time is 17:25, and the lecturer and the student 3 are in conversation. There are two types of dialogues: dialogues based on questions from instructors and dialogues by answering questions that have been accepted from students at present (only the former is scheduled in the figure).

  In addition, a plurality of questions to be presented from the lecturer to the student are prepared in advance in the lecturer question DB 151, and it is determined at what progress of the recorded lecture. Therefore, a question that is scheduled to be presented after the current degree of progress of each student is a candidate for future dialogue.

  In addition, the instructor may interact with a student multiple times or not at all. Furthermore, it is not necessary to present all questions prepared in advance to all students, and it is not necessary to answer all of the questions received from the students. Based on these considerations, a dialogue schedule is set by the dialogue design unit 123 so as to effectively utilize the limited time of the lecturer and enhance the educational effect.

  In this embodiment, the effect that the student understands the contents of the lecture well is expressed as an educational effect. This educational effect is expressed using an educational effect value that becomes larger as the dialogue time between the instructor and the student is longer and the continuous non-interaction time between the two is shorter. A method for calculating the educational effect value will be described later with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of dialog scheduling by the dialog design unit 123. The dialog design unit 123 performs the dialog scheduling when any of the scheduling conditions described above is satisfied. Hereinafter, the contents of the process will be described.

  Steps 301 to 310 are loop processing for all students whose attendance state in the progress status DB 155 is “listening”.

  First, the dialog design unit 123 acquires the ID and progress of one line of the student whose attendance state is “listening” from the progress DB 155 (step 302). Thereafter, the processing up to step 309 is performed for the student related to the record acquired in step 302 (hereinafter referred to as “processing target student”).

  The dialogue design unit 123 acquires from the student question DB 152 the question ID, the question time, and the question content of the processing target student among the questions with the flag “unanswered” (step 303).

  The dialogue design unit 123 acquires the dialogue type and dialogue time related to the past dialogue between the processing target student and the lecturer from the dialogue history DB 153 (step 304).

  The dialogue design unit 123 obtains from the lecturer question DB 151 the question ID, the expected dialogue time, and the degree of progress of a question having a degree of progress larger than the degree of progress obtained in Step 302 (Step 305).

  The dialogue design unit 123 reproduces the lecture data of the processing target student managed by the student management unit 122, the student question acquired by referring to the instructor question DB 151 in step 305, and acquired by referring to the student question DB 152 in step 303. If there is a dialogue time set based on whether or not each instructor question is asked to the processing target student, and if the student question is issued from the processing target student, further answering the student question Based on a predetermined dialogue time, an individual dialogue schedule candidate is determined based on the combination of the presence / absence of dialogue time setting for answering the student question (step 306).

  The timing for conducting the conversation based on the question from the instructor is the time of the degree of progress designated in advance for each question in the instructor question DB 151. Specifically, the start time of the dialogue on the question from the instructor is the time when the time has elapsed from the current time by the difference between the progress that is scheduled to start the dialogue and the current progress of the student to be processed. It is. In addition, the timing of answering the question from the student as a subject (answering the question) is any timing until the playback of the recorded lecture at the student learning terminal 140 ends, for example, the remaining time until the end of the lecture The time is divided into intervals of about 1 minute (for example, 40 for the remaining 40 minutes and 30 seconds), and a dialogue for answering the question is started at the beginning time of any one of the breaks. Of course, it is preferable to answer questions from students as soon as possible. However, there are many cases where it is not possible to answer immediately because of the balance with other students, and there are cases where it is not possible to answer during the lecture time. For questions that could not be answered, it is desirable to reply by email or other means after the lecture.

  In this step 306, a combination of dialogues is created that reflects whether or not to answer the question from the student, when to answer, or whether to conduct dialogue on each of the instructor's questions. Specifically, assuming that the remaining time of the lecture of the processing target student is M minutes and is divided into M, and assuming that the number of instructor questions acquired is N, the maximum number of dialogue combinations created is ( M + 1) × 2 ^ N (however, if there is no question from the student, it is 2 to the Nth power). In the above equation, the coefficient is not M but (M + 1) because there is one case where the question is not answered. In this embodiment, even when there are a plurality of questions from the students to be processed, the maximum number of dialogues that can be made using these questions as the subject matter is to mean that multiple questions are answered at once. The expected dialogue time is uniformly determined in advance as 5 minutes.

  In step 306, the dialogue design unit 123 sets the individual dialogue schedule so that the time period of the dialogue performed using the question from the student precedes the time zone of the dialogue conducted using the question from the instructor. Define candidates. Specifically, the dialogue design unit 123 excludes the following individual dialogue schedule candidates.

(1) Individual dialogue schedule candidates that are scheduled to conduct dialogues based on questions from teachers without conducting dialogues based on questions from students (2) Dialogue times based on questions from students Individual dialogue schedule candidates whose band is scheduled to be after the dialogue time zone based on the question from the instructor The individual dialogue schedule candidates in the above (1) and (2) , A question will be asked by the instructor, and it will be excluded because it is unnatural.

(3) Individual dialogue schedule candidates in which the dialogue time zone based on the question from the student overlaps with the dialogue time zone based on the question from the instructor This individual dialogue schedule candidate is excluded because it cannot be realized. It shall be.

  Subsequently, the dialogue design unit 123 performs a loop process related to the individual dialogue schedule candidate created in Step 306 (Steps 307 to 309).

  The dialogue design unit 123 uses the mathematical formula (Equation 1) shown in FIG. 10 to increase the educational effect of each individual dialogue schedule candidate, which becomes larger as the duration of the dialogue is longer and the duration of the dialogue is shorter. A value (individual educational effect value) is calculated (step 308 is repeated). The method for calculating the individual education effect value will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The dialogue design unit 123 performs the processing from step 301 to step 310 for all students, determines individual dialogue schedule candidates for the dialogue between each student and the instructor, and sets the individual education effect value for each individual dialogue schedule candidate. calculate.

  Next, the dialogue design unit 123 combines the individual dialogue schedule candidates determined in Steps 301 to 310, and determines the overall dialogue schedule candidates for the dialogue performed between the lecturer and each student (Step 311). The total number of combinations of the entire dialogue schedule candidates is C (1) × C (2) ×... C, where C (s) is the number of individual dialogue schedule candidates for a student s and S is the total number of students. (S) ×... × C (S).

  The dialogue design unit 123 calculates the overall educational effect value for all of the overall dialogue schedule candidates determined in step 311 (step 312). The educational effect value of the overall dialogue schedule candidate (overall educational effect value) is the sum of the individual educational effect values of the individual dialogue schedule candidates constituting the overall dialogue schedule candidate.

  The dialogue design unit 123 rearranges the overall dialogue schedule candidates determined in step 311 in descending order of the overall educational effect value (step 313).

  Then, the dialogue design unit 123 performs loop processing on the whole dialogue schedule candidates rearranged in step 313 in descending order of the overall education effect value (steps 314 to 316). In this loop processing, a non-overlapping schedule candidate in which the dialogue time zone does not overlap between the individual dialogue schedule candidates is selected from the entire dialogue schedule candidates determined in step 311, and the dialogue schedule is determined from the non-overlapping schedule candidates. It is a process to do.

  In this loop process, the dialogue design unit 123 inspects the overall dialogue schedule candidates rearranged in step 313 in descending order of the overall educational effect value, and performs dialogue between individual dialogue schedule candidates constituting the overall dialogue schedule candidates. It is checked whether the time zones overlap (time consistency) (step 315). If the instructor is scheduled to interact with multiple students during the same time period, the test result is NG.

  The dialog design unit 123 performs the inspection in the same step until a non-overlapping schedule candidate in which the check in step 313 is OK is found. When a non-overlapping schedule candidate whose test result is OK is found, the non-overlapping schedule candidate is determined as a dialogue schedule, and the contents (question ID, start time, etc.) are recorded in the dialogue plan DB 154 (step 317), The dialog scheduling 201 is terminated. Note that one of the overall dialogue schedule candidates determined in step 311 is a combination of the contents that the instructor does not interact with any student (for example, when all students are going to finish the lecture), so at least One overall dialogue schedule candidate will pass the examination of step 315.

  In step 306, it is also possible to adopt a simple method of limiting the dialogue between the processing target student and the lecturer to one or less times in the individual dialogue schedule candidates. In other words, if there is a question from the student to be processed, the student asks the student whether or not to answer the question, and if so, from the student's remaining time in the lecture, If there is no question, an individual dialogue schedule candidate is determined using a condition that whether or not a dialogue with the question from the instructor as a subject is performed once.

  In this case, the number of individual dialogue schedule candidates for a certain processing target student is whether or not to answer the question from the student, when to answer, or whether or not to talk about any of the instructor's questions. Assuming that the remaining time of the student's lecture is M minutes and is divided into M, and assuming that the number of instructor questions acquired is N, the number of individual conversation schedule candidates is (M + 1) or (N + 1) Become. The reason why (N + 1) is used instead of N is that there is a case in which a conversation based on a question from a lecturer is not performed. By using the above simple method, the time required for the calculation can be greatly shortened.

  FIG. 10 shows a formula (Equation 1) for calculating the individual education effect value.

Specifically, the number 1 is
The larger the dialogue time set in the individual dialogue schedule candidates constituting the entire dialogue schedule candidate and the larger the past dialogue time related to the student corresponding to the individual dialogue schedule candidate stored in the dialogue history DB 153, the larger the value. The output value of the conversation time evaluation function set to give,
For each student, that is, based on the output value of the tension function set to give a larger value as the conversation time set in the individual conversation schedule candidate is longer and the continuous non-interaction time is shorter. It is a calculation formula for obtaining an individual education effect value for each individual dialogue schedule candidate constituting the dialogue schedule candidate.

Specifically, the interaction time evaluation function corresponds to a function composed of a plurality of terms enclosed in braces (“{” and “}”) in Equation 1,
A term (first term) that gives a larger value for a student corresponding to the individual dialogue schedule candidate as the playback time of the recorded lecture recorded in the progress DB 155 is longer;
A term (second term and fourth brother) that gives a larger value as the past dialogue time recorded in the dialogue history DB 153 for the student corresponding to the individual dialogue schedule candidate is longer,
The term (3rd term and 5th brother) gives a larger value as the dialogue time set in the individual dialogue schedule candidate is longer. Note that since the value of the coefficient alpha (α) in the first term is very small, the output value of the entire dialogue time evaluation function is small when the playback time of the recorded lecture is long compared to the case where the dialogue time is long.

In the dialogue time evaluation function of Equation 1, alpha (α) is a coefficient representing the magnitude of the individual education effect value by the recorded lecture, and beta (β) and gamma (γ) are the individual education effect by the dialogue between the lecturer and the student. A coefficient representing the magnitude of the value. Compared with the recorded lecture, the lecturer's interaction with the student maintains the tension of the student, so the degree of understanding of the lecture increases and the individual education effect value increases. Therefore, beta and gamma are larger than alpha. In addition, the dialogue from students to the lecturer asks for more interest and the level of understanding of the lecture is higher than the dialogue from the lecturer to the student. Increases effect value. Therefore, beta is smaller than gamma. However, the longer the time interval between when a student asks a question and when the teacher answers, the less the student's interest, and the lesser the tension and the lesser the level of understanding of the lecture, the lower the individual education effect value. . Considering this point, for example, gamma is represented by a function as shown in FIG. 12A and a calculation formula shown in FIG. In FIG. 12, γ ₀ is a value indicating the magnitude of the individual education effect value when the instructor answers immediately after the student asks a question, t is the time from when the student asks the question until the instructor answers, t ₀ is the time until the individual education effect value is halved.

  Returning to FIG. 10, in the dialogue time evaluation function of Equation 1, V is the time when the recorded lecture is run, and is the value of the degree of progress in the progress status DB 155.

  Qm is the time during which the instructor asks the student a question (in the past) and can be obtained from the dialogue history DB 153.

  Qn ′ is a (future) dialogue time by a question from the instructor to the student, and is a value of a scheduled dialogue time in the dialogue plan DB 154.

  Am is the time during which (in the past) a dialogue was made by a student asking a question to the lecturer, and can be acquired from the dialogue history DB 153.

  A 'is the (future) dialogue time when the student asks the instructor a question, and is set to 5 minutes uniformly or predicted according to the question content (eg, data volume) from the student A value is used. If there is no question from the student, A ′ can be zero.

  c represents one of the individual dialogue schedule candidates.

  The tension function of Equation 1 corresponds to a function term of the average tension T in this embodiment. The average tension T is a value representing the average tension of the students in the lecture, the concept is shown in FIG. 11A, and the calculation formula is shown in FIG. 11B. In this embodiment, the degree of tension is 100% at the start of the lecture, and thereafter continues to decrease during the “listening” of the recorded lecture, and returns to 100% when talking with the lecturer. The slope k in the graph of FIG. 11A represents the speed at which the degree of tension decreases. The average tension T is an average value of the tension over the entire lecture, and is obtained by dividing the area of the shaded area in FIG. 11A by the time from the start to the end of the lecture. By using the average degree of tension in the calculation of the educational effect value, it is possible to calculate a more precise educational effect value that takes into account the tension of the students.

  In this embodiment, the value calculated by multiplying the output value of the dialogue time evaluation function and the output value of the tension function is the individual education effect value, but the output value of the dialogue time evaluation function and the tension function A value calculated by adding the output value (the sum of the output value of the dialogue time evaluation function and the output value of the tension function) can be adopted as the individual education effect value.

  The overall educational effect value is the total of the individual educational effect values calculated for each individual dialogue schedule candidate that constitutes the overall dialogue schedule candidate.

Further, the tension reduction rate k, the educational effect coefficients α, β, γ ₀ , t _0, etc., which are the coefficients of Equation ₁ , may be set to empirical values or statistical such as multiple regression analysis. You may use the experimental value estimated by the method. For example, by conducting an experimental lecture, conducting multiple regression analysis using explanatory variables as dialogue time, etc., and explained variables as the difference in score of understanding test before and after the lecture (= education effect), it is a parameter The coefficient can be estimated. Furthermore, when the above-described simplified method is used, the term of Qn ′ in Equation 1 is not a sum but a single term.

  FIG. 13 shows an example of a screen displayed on the display device of the student attendance terminal 140. Lecture materials are displayed in the upper left, and below that there are a lecture start button, a lecture stop button (leave button), and a lecture end button. The lecture stop button can be pressed only when “listening”. The lecture end button can be pressed at the end of the lecture. In the upper right is a lecturer image, below that is a dialogue history between the lecturer and the student, and below that is an area for inputting dialogue contents and a send button. The instructor's video may be the actual instructor's video, but it is possible to increase the student's tension by making it difficult to understand the switching between the recorded lecture and live dialogue, so it is possible to display the animation character's video desirable. In this screen, the conversation between the instructor and the student is shown in a text chat format, but it may be a voice conversation.

  FIG. 14 shows an example of a dialog mode screen displayed on the display device of the lecturer interaction terminal 110. Lecture materials are displayed on the upper left, and an area for displaying the name of a student currently in conversation, an area for displaying a conversation history, an area for inputting conversation contents, and a send button are displayed on the upper right. The lower part is an area for displaying instructions to the instructor. Since it is currently in the dialog mode, the elapsed time of the current dialog and the remaining time of the dialog are displayed. The remaining dialogue time is a time obtained by subtracting the elapsed time of the current dialogue from the expected dialogue time. In the lower right is a dialogue end button that the instructor presses when the dialogue is finished.

  FIG. 15 shows an example of a standby mode screen displayed on the display device of the instructor interactive terminal 110. The screen configuration is the same as in the example of FIG. 14, in which the lecture material is displayed on the upper left, and the name of the student to be interacted next is displayed on the upper right. In the area for displaying the dialogue history, questions to be presented to the student by the instructor are displayed (in the case of a dialogue based on the question from the student, the question from the student is displayed). The time until the start of the next dialogue is displayed in the area for displaying instructions to the instructor provided at the bottom.

  According to the present embodiment, by realizing an anti-synchronous lecture that combines a synchronous lecture and an asynchronous lecture, it is possible to provide sufficient opportunities for dialogue between the lecturer and the student, and the tension of each student to the lecture The degree of understanding (education effect) of each student's lecture content can be further enhanced. Thereby, it is possible to solve the problem that the dialogue between the lecturer and the student has not been sufficiently realized in both the conventional synchronous lecture and the asynchronous lecture.

  The semi-synchronous lecture of this embodiment is a lecture format that combines an asynchronous lecture using a recorded lecture and a synchronous lecture in which a live conversation is conducted between the lecturer and the student. This is done by letting students listen to the recorded lectures, and it is possible to switch to a live conversation in the middle of the lecture, with the question from the instructor to the student or the question from the student to the instructor. is there. In a semi-synchronous lecture, each student can start attending at any time during a designated lecture time period. A plurality of students can attend at the same time, but the progress of each student's lecture is not synchronized, and the lecture is performed in parallel.

  Semi-synchronous lectures have the following advantages.

(1) The point that students can easily ask questions to the instructor when they are confused about the contents of the lecture (2) The student feels nervous about the lecture by appropriately asking questions from the instructor (3) The students can take lectures at any time during the designated lecture hours and have less time constraints (4) Because it is only necessary to concentrate on the dialogue, it is possible to efficiently take care of multiple students.

  The problem with semi-synchronous distance learning is the scheduling of dialogue between the instructor and students. For example, it is desirable to answer questions received from students as soon as possible, but in order to maintain fairness in the content of instruction for each student, it is desirable to interact with all students as much as possible. There is a problem that it is not always optimal to answer immediately. Alternatively, when there are a large number of students, in order to interact with as many students as possible, it may be possible to prepare a question that can be solved in a short dialogue. In order to solve these problems, the lecture management server 120 of the present embodiment constitutes a distance education system by being communicably connected to the instructor interaction terminal 110 and the plurality of student attendance terminals 140, and a plurality of students When conducting lectures in parallel, it functions as a means to appropriately design the content and order of dialogue between the instructor and students.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the following modifications can be employed.

  In the dialog scheduling flowchart of FIG. 9, the overall educational effect values are calculated for all the overall interactive schedule candidates in step 312, sorted in order of the overall educational effect values in step 313, and then the dialogue time zone overlap in step 315. Although the situation is being examined, the examination may be performed first. That is, first, by examining the overlap situation of the dialogue time zone for each overall dialogue schedule candidate, only the non-overlapping schedule candidates are selected, and the overall educational effect value is calculated for each non-overlapping schedule candidate, and the largest educational effect value is obtained. A non-overlapping schedule candidate may be determined as a dialogue schedule.

  In the embodiment described above, the database and the screen are specifically described. For example, the progress of the lecture is expressed as a percentage instead of the elapsed time, and the timely change can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Is possible.

  In the embodiment described above, the lecture management server 120 is configured to perform conversation scheduling, and the instructor interactive terminal 110 and the student attendance terminal 140 communicate with each other via the lecture management server 120. In place of the communication unit 125 of the lecture management server 120, an input device (keyboard, mouse, etc.) for receiving data input from the lecturer and a data output device (display, speaker, printer, etc.) for outputting data to the lecturer are provided. However, a configuration in which the lecturer uses the lecture management server 120 as an instructor interactive terminal is also possible.

  Furthermore, the computer program (the remote education support program of the present invention) executed by the CPU in the lecture management server 120 may be stored in advance in a storage device in the server 120, or a removable storage medium or communication It may be introduced into the storage device via a medium (wired, wireless, optical or other network, or a carrier wave or digital signal on the network) when necessary.

  In the embodiment, each of the DBs 151 to 156 is provided in the lecture management server 120 (for example, provided in a storage unit such as a hard disk drive or a RAM). Either of the external types can be used. In addition, each of the DBs 151 to 156 may be provided in another device (such as another server) connected to the lecture management server 120 so as to be communicable.

The block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the distance education support system comprised using the distance education support apparatus of this invention Example of instructor question DB Example of student question DB Dialog history DB example Dialog plan DB example Progress DB example Flow chart showing the flow of processing by the dialogue design unit of the lecture management server A chart showing an example of a dialogue schedule for a dialogue between a teacher and a student Flow chart showing the flow of dialog scheduling by dialog design department The figure which shows the calculation formula of the individual education effect value of each student (each individual schedule candidate) The figure which shows the concept of the average tension degree T in (a), and shows the calculation formula of the average tension degree T in (b). In (a), the concept of the effect coefficient γ when the student interacts by asking questions to the lecturer is shown, and in (b), the formula for calculating the effect coefficient γ is shown. The figure which shows the example of the screen displayed on the display apparatus of the student's attendance terminal The figure which shows the example (interactive mode) of the screen displayed on the display device of the instructor's interactive terminal The figure which shows the example (standby mode) of the screen displayed on the display apparatus of the dialogue terminal for lecturers

Explanation of symbols

110: Instructor dialogue terminal 120: Lecture management server 140: Student attendance terminal 121: Lecture distribution unit 122: Student management unit 123: Dialog design unit 124: Dialogue management unit 125: Communication unit 151: Instructor question database 152: Student questions Database 153: Dialog history database 154: Dialog plan database 155: Progress database 156: Lecture content database

Claims (9)

A distance education support device for setting a lecture schedule between a lecturer and a student when a lecturer occupies a lecturer with respect to lecture data distributed to a student terminal,
A student management unit for managing the reproduction status of the lecture data for each student;
Regarding the question (hereinafter referred to as “instructor question”) issued by the instructor to the student during the reproduction of the lecture data, the question timing specified by the reproduction amount of the lecture data, and the expected instructor-student between the instructor and the student An instructor question table that stores the conversation time of
A student question table that stores, for each student, a question (hereinafter referred to as a “student question”) issued from the student to the instructor during reproduction of the lecture data;
A dialogue that is determined based on whether or not each lecturer asks the student about each student with reference to the reproduction status of the lecture data managed by the student management unit, the lecturer question table, and the student question table. If there is a student question from the student and whether or not the time is set, an individual dialogue schedule candidate is determined based on a combination of a predetermined dialogue time setting for answering the student question. Of the overall dialogue schedule candidates that combine the individual dialogue schedule candidates of the students, the longer the dialogue time and the shorter the continuous non-interaction time, the larger the overall dialogue schedule candidates that do not overlap the dialogue time period between individual dialogue schedule candidates. The overall educational effect value that is the value is obtained, and the overall schedule candidate that maximizes the overall educational effect value is scheduled for dialogue. And interactive schedule setting section that you want to set as,
A distance education support device comprising: The dialogue schedule setting unit
If we detect the end of the conversation,
When a student's attendance at a lecture using the lecture data is detected,
If we detect that a student has asked a question,
The distance learning support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conversation schedule is set in at least one of cases where a student leaving from a lecture using the lecture data is detected. The overall education effect value is a total of individual education effect values obtained for individual dialogue schedule candidates constituting the overall dialogue schedule candidate,
The individual education effect value is
The output value of the dialogue time evaluation function that gives a larger value as the dialogue time set in the individual dialogue schedule candidate is longer,
Individual dialogue schedule candidates that constitute the overall dialogue schedule candidate based on the output value of the tension function that gives a larger value as the dialogue time set in the individual dialogue schedule candidate is longer and the continuous non-interaction time is shorter The distance learning support device according to claim 1, wherein the distance education support device is calculated for each. Furthermore, each student is provided with a dialogue history table for storing the past dialogue time results between the lecturer and the student,
The distance learning support device according to claim 3, wherein the interaction time evaluation function is set to give a larger value as the past interaction time stored in the interaction history table is longer.   Further, in the case where the next scheduled dialogue is a dialogue performed using a lecturer question according to the dialogue schedule set by the dialogue schedule setting unit, the lecturer question is output so that the lecturer question can be presented to the student scheduled to talk with the lecturer. 5. If the next scheduled dialogue is a dialogue conducted using a student question, the dialogue management section outputs a student question so that the student question can be presented to a lecturer. The remote education support device described.   In the case where information related to student questions is stored in the student question table, the dialogue schedule setting unit has a lecturer's time zone for dialogue with the instructor using the student questions. The distance learning support device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the individual dialogue schedule candidates are determined so as to be ahead of a time zone for dialogue with a lecturer using a question.   Furthermore, when the lecture data delivery instruction is received from the student through the student terminal, a lecture delivery unit is provided that delivers the lecture data to the student terminal so that the lecture data can be reproduced in real time. 7. The distance learning support device according to any one of 6 above.   The distance learning support device according to claim 7, wherein the student management unit interrupts the distribution of the lecture data from the lecture distribution unit to the student terminal of the student while the lecturer and the student are interacting with each other. A distance education support method in a distance education support apparatus for setting a conversation schedule between a lecturer and a student when a student occupies and talks about lecture data distributed to a student terminal,
The distance learning support apparatus provides a lecture on a student management unit that manages the reproduction status of the lecture data for each student, and a question (hereinafter referred to as an “instructor question”) that is given to a student by the lecturer during reproduction of the lecture data. A question timing specified by the amount of data replayed, a lecturer question table storing the expected interaction time between the instructor and the student, and for each student, the lecturer from the student during the reproduction of the lecture data A student question table for storing questions (hereinafter referred to as “student questions”), and an interaction schedule setting unit for setting an interaction schedule between the students and the instructor,
A first step in which the dialogue schedule setting unit refers to the reproduction status of the lecture data for each student managed by the student management unit, the lecturer question table, and the student question table;
Whether the dialogue schedule setting unit has a dialogue time set for each student based on whether or not each student asks each instructor question, and when a student question is issued from the student, A second step of determining individual dialogue schedule candidates based on a combination of whether or not to set a predetermined dialogue time to be answered;
The dialogue schedule setting unit increases the dialogue time for the whole dialogue schedule candidates in which the dialogue time periods do not overlap among the individual dialogue schedule candidates among the whole dialogue schedule candidates combining the individual dialogue schedule candidates of each student. A third step for obtaining an overall educational effect value that becomes larger as the continuous non-interaction time is shorter;
A fourth step in which the dialogue schedule setting unit sets an overall schedule candidate that maximizes the overall educational effect value as a dialogue schedule;
A distance education support method comprising:

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