How does PALS work?

A PALS system is primarily comprised of two types of components deployed in a classroom. These components are the student stations and the instructor station. The student stations are responsbile for consuming content generated by a student device via a HDMI input. A HDMI capture dongle is installed on each student station to mirror locally the content that is received via the HDMI input. The station can also be used to broadcast content to larger displays or an instructor station. Additionally, each student station communicates to an instructor station on a regular interval, sending a screenshot of the content that is being displayed locally.

The instructor can view all of the screenshots generated by the student stations via a web portal and able to select a station and stream the student content to large LCD displays placed through the classroom. Both the student and instructor stations are based on Linux and FFMpeg is used for video processing and streaming. The following picture shows the structure of PALS system. Additional details on the architecture of PALS are contained in "Supporting Active Learning through Commodity and Open Source Solutions".

Student Station

Student stations are the main distributed component of the PALS system. For the study, small mini-ITX boards were used and placed in VESA mountable enclosures. These were mounted directly to the back of 23 " LCDs. Video capture is done via an external HDMI-to-USB capture dongle. Since the students do not need to interact directly with the student station, they are not deployed with keyboards or other non-video input devices. The student stations run a minimal variant of CentOS 7 and the system boots directly into a restricted user session. A background service is used to mirror video input from the HDMI-to-USB capture dongle to the monitor using ffplay (and other supporting software and kernel modules). Other background services are used to mirror the video input as an HTTP video stream via ffserver, to periodically send screenshots to the instructor station, and to collect diagnostic data. Success has also been had with older workstations retofitted to serve as student stations. The key component is the HDMI-to-USB capture dongle.

Classroom Display

The classroom displays are large LCDs that are either wallmounted or placed on wheeled carts. These display content from a student station as and when directed by the instructor station. Since the video encoding is performed on the student stations, a lightweight computing device such as a Rasbperry Pi can drive the display. The classroom display boots directly to a browser that connects to WebUI.

Instructor Station

The instructor station is the control center of a PALS classroom and hosts the WebUI. The instructor may attach a keyboard, mouse, and monitor/projector to the station and access the WebUI via local web browser, or they may connect remotely from a personal device. Through the WebUI, the classroom displays are directed to connect directly to student stations to stream content. Since the content does not pass through the instructor station, a lightweight computing device such as a Raspberry Pi can serve as the instructor station. The WebUI itself is a basic web app running on Node.js. Student stations advertise themselves by sending screenshots and some status metadata, which the server forwards to connected WebUI clients. Clients may browse and save screenshots as they arrive. They may also nominate to share the live video feed from one student station with the entire classroom. The WebUI operates on a mostly RESTful API, with websockets used to push update notifications from the server.

Building a PALS System

With PALS it is possible to implement the functionality of a traditional, active learning classroom at a fraction of the cost. This is due to the flexibity of the PALS system, its hardware requirements and its reliance on open-source, community licesed software. Software configuration on PALS components is accomplished through a combination of Puppet manifests and Bash scripts. These scripts are available by request by contacting Dr. Jesse Eickholt.

Components

Listed below are the components that were used to construct the PALS system used in the study. Note that by listing these components here we are neither endorsing these products nor making guarantees about their suitability for your particular context. Specifications for products may change over time and as a result end users should construct a prototype to verify suitability before purchasing components in quantity. Also remember that it may be possible to repurpose retired workstations or existing hardware. This would limit new hardware requirements to the HDMI-to-USB capture dongle.

Student Station

• Magewell USB Capture Device (P/N 32011)
• Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Motherboard w/ 8 GB RAM and 2.5 HDD
• M350 Enclosure with PicoPSU-80 and 60W adapter KIT
• M350 Display Brackets for Monitors/TVs
• LCD with VESA mount AND stand (e.g., Dell-E2316H)

Instructor Station

• Raspberry Pi 3 w/ 32GB SD card
• Enclosure
• USB power toggle

Installation Sequence for Student Station

Note that the following represent steps that can be taken to configure a PALS student station. These steps led to a configuration that was suitable to the classroom and IT setting used in the study. As always, the specifics will depend on your classroom and any local or institutional IT policies. When in doubt, contact your IT office. Please contact us via email for the Puppet manifests needed to complete configuration.

1. Install a minimal version of CentOS 7. Set the hostname as appropriate (e.g., PALS-1).

2. Update the system and reboot.

3. Install some tools helpful for installing and maintaining PALS.

4. Install X windows, MATE and the kernel development tools. The development tools are needed to compile and install a loopback video driver.

5. Install the Puppet repo.

6. Install Puppet Agent

7. Create a directory and unpack the puppet manifests.

8. Apply the manifests from /opt/PALS/puppet.

9. Open ports as needed or disable firewall if running on a private, PALS only network.

10. In order to install the video loopback device, disable SELinux. This can be done by editing the /etc/sysconfig/selinux file and setting SELINUXTYPE to permissive.

11. Reboot and then install the loopback device.

Next Steps

What's next? Once you have your PALS classroom up and running, please send us a photo so we can add your PALS equipped classroom to our digital display case! If you have questions about PALS, please consult our FAQs and contact us as needed. Our aim is to increase student access to active learning and active learning technology.