Review the following concepts to ensure that you are prepared to implement LearnLinc in your organization. Specifically, you need to know about:
• Concurrent User License Model
• Client/Server Architecture
• LearnLinc Bandwidth Use
• Firewall Considerations
In addition, review the following checklist to ensure your deployment efforts are complete.
A Checklist for Deploying LearnLinc
Use the following list as a general guide to your LearnLinc implementation.
• Assemble a team to implement LearnLinc. We suggest a Project Manager, IS Support Person, LearnLinc administrator, Content author, and Instructor.(Chapter 2, page 26)
• Ensure that your server and client computers meet the LearnLinc system requirements.
(Chapter 2, page 16)
• Choose a pilot class to convert from your existing training curriculum.(Chapter 2, page 30)
• Complete and return your LearnLinc License Key fax-back form at least one business day before you plan to install your LearnLinc server. The License Key fax back form can be found in your LearnLinc product package.
• Install the LearnLinc server and supporting software. (Chapter 4, page 43)
• Enable your LearnLinc license keys. (Chapter 4, page 52)
• Install the LearnLinc classroom software on at least two client computers. (Chapter 4, page 68).
• Test the LearnLinc Virtual Campus and LearnLinc Virtual Classroom. (Chapter 5, page 73)
• Convert the content from that class to an online format. (Chapter 8, page 151)
• Create a course, class, and resources in the Virtual Campus for your pilot course. (Courses see Chapter 9, page 185) (Classes see Chapter 10, page 213) (Resources see Chapter 11, page 37)
• Make the Virtual Campus available to your pilot students and instructor by giving them the its web address. (Chapter 2, page 31)
• Distribute the documents “Your first LearnLinc class” (memo.doc) and “Installing the LearnLinc classroom software” (install.doc) to your pilot students. (Both documents can be found on the LearnLinc Server and Client CDs) (Chapter 2, page 31)
• Test with each pilot student to ensure their classroom software has been installed successfully, and they can connect to the LearnLinc server.
• Rehearse the pilot class with your team. Ensure that at least two members of the team can conduct the class.
• Conduct your first online class. (Chapter 15, page 37) Concurrent User License Model
When your organization purchased LearnLinc, they purchased a certain number of concurrent licences. The number of concurrent licenses is the total number of users who can be in LearnLinc classes at one time. There are several different types of LearnLinc licences. “Data Only” licences cover the basic virtual classroom. These licences allow you to join a class, use the whiteboard and all other classroom tools except conferencing. Internet Audio, Multicast Audio, Indeo Multicast Video, H.323 Multicast Video, and Streaming Video licences control how you communicate with the class–by enabling you to use either audio or video conferencing during class. Your organization may have purchased licences for one or more types of conferencing.
Conferencing licences are also concurrent, but are independent of data only licences. For example, if you have 100 data only licences, and 50 Internet audio conferencing licences, you can have 100 users attending classes at the same time, but only 50 of them can use Internet audio conferencing. Generally, all the users in one class will use the same conferencing type.
In this example, you might have one class of 50 users that uses Internet audio conferencing.
The remaining 50 might use another LearnLinc conferencing option, or a third party solution such as phone bridging.
The person in your organization who purchases LearnLinc determines how many data and conferencing licenses you have.
• If you have not installed the LearnLinc server, check with that person, or find the invoice that was shipped with your LearnLinc package.
• If you have installed the LearnLinc server and license keys, you can check the number of licences purchased, the number in use, and the number of classrooms in use by pointing your web browser to “http://servername/ll/ll.dll/ServerInfo” (no quotes), where
servername is the name of your LearnLinc server.
Client/Server Architecture
LearnLinc uses a client/server architecture to connect users in virtual classrooms. In a client/
server architecture, many computers in different locations (clients) can share information through a central computer (the server). The clients never send data directly to one another, they always send it to the server, which then forwards it to its intended recipients.
For your LearnLinc environment to work, all of your client computers must be able to reach your server computer. You can achieve this by connecting both the LearnLinc server and LearnLinc client computers to your LAN or intranet. Alternately, you can connect the server and clients to the Internet.
LearnLinc Bandwidth Use
When two or more users are in a LearnLinc class, they use a certain amount of bandwidth to connect to the server, and send data back and forth across it. If they are on your intranet, they are using some of the available bandwidth on your network. If they are on the Internet, they are using some of the bandwidth on your organization’s Internet connection, or the available bandwidth through a modem connection.
You must ensure that however your users connect to your LearnLinc server, they have enough bandwidth to participate in class. You can do so by working with your IS department to determine how much bandwidth is available on your network for LearnLinc traffic, or if your organization’s Internet connection is large enough to accommodate an average number of LearnLinc users in class, along with other Internet traffic. If your users are connecting to the
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Bandwidth is a measure of the amount of data transmitted or received per unit of time, usu-ally measured in seconds.Bandwidth is proportional to the complexity of the data that is being transmitted. For example, it takes more band-width to download a photo-graph in one second than it takes to download a page of text in one second. Large sound or video files require even more bandwidth to download.
Internet via modem, you can ensure that they connect at an average speed as outlined in the LearnLinc system requirements.
If you have a set amount of bandwidth available on your network for LearnLinc classes, let everyone who will have the ability to schedule classes know about that limit. Determine how many users you can have in classes in a given time period, based on available bandwidth and licences, and make everyone aware of the maximum number of users to avoid scheduling classes when there will not be enough bandwidth, or enough licences, available to ensure reliable class participation for everyone.
For detailed information on bandwidth use during class, please see “Bandwidth” on page 217.
Firewall Considerations
LearnLinc 4.5 does not require any changes to your firewall settings. However, if you are using Internet audio, you may wish to open one UDP port on your firewall to improve LearnLinc’s bandwidth usage, depending on the type of proxy server than you are using.
• If you are not using a proxy server, or you have a winsock proxy you do not need to open any firewall ports to achieve optimal bandwidth usage. You can expect to use
approximately 8.5 kbps per client for audio data.
• If you are using a proxy server that supports “keep alive”, you do not need to open any firewall ports to achieve acceptable bandwidth usage. You can expect to use approximately 11.8 kbps per client for audio data. To determine whether or not your proxy server supports keep alive visit your LearnLinc Server troubleshooting page at http://servername/
virtualdirectory/troubleshooting.asp, where servername is the name of your LearnLinc server and virtualdirectory is the name of the virtual directory in which your Virtual Campus is stored.
• If you are using a proxy server that does not have a winsock proxy or keep alive, you will use bandwidth much more efficiently if you open one outbound UDP port on your firewall.
If you do not open the port, you can expect to use approximately 19 kbps per client for audio data. If you open the UDP port, you can expect to use 12 kbps per client for audio data.
If you decide to open a UDP port on your firewall for audio data, we recommend opening port 11730. This is the default port that all clients are configured to use for UDP traffic. If you choose to use another port, you must instruct all your users to configure their classroom software to use that port. For detailed directions on configuring the classroom software, please see “Configuring the Classroom Software to Work with Web Proxies and Firewalls” on page 70.
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Keep alive enables a client computer to maintain a TCP connection to the server com-puter for an entire class, rather than having to re-establish a TCP connection every time it sends data. Using keep alive is more bandwidth efficient, but is not available on all proxy servers. Consult your proxy server documentation for more information.Ensure That all Necessary Hardware and Software Is in Place for LearnLinc In some organizations, hardware and software purchase requisitions and orders may take several weeks. Review the LearnLinc system requirements as soon as possible to ensure that you have, or can acquire, all the necessary hardware and software for the LearnLinc server and all the client computers on schedule.