MediaMime: after-the-fact authoring annotation system for an e-learning environment

Studies have shown that e-Learning is one of the fasted growing trends in higher education. This evolving trend can be classified with respect to the underlying structure and content of these environments. Of particular note is an e-Learning environment which is structured asynchronously and whose content is based solely on an electronic medium. In such environments, classes may never actually meet and the only form of delivery may be via an electronic lecture system. Given this environment, how do we maintain the benefits of the traditional classroom setting while still offering students the flexibility they may need in having the asynchronous environment in the first place? Furthermore, given an electronic-only delivery mechanism, how can both the student and the instructor tailor e-Learning content to suit their needs. We propose a flexible media-rich instructional method which: 1) facilitates collaboration in an asynchronous, electronic lecture environment and 2) supports the context-based, post-production augmentation and exchange of user-defined supplements which allows an author to refine and tailor e-Learning content.