TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to interactive collaboration and handling of requests for clarification of doubts of students in an Advanced Digital Textbook, thereby solving the difficulty in collaboration between Faculty, Students and Parents.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modem Information Technology has dramatically improved our way of education in the last decade. Recent developments in the education system through the internet are advancing the digital revolution by making it possible to store and view the Paper Text Book in a digital format on a personal computer or any other communication devices like laptop computers, desktop computers, digital tablets, smart mobile phone devices, etc. It made irreversible changes in the education system. As a result, the digitized educational books are developed with multiple advantages for the readers.

With the advent of the modern learning management system, education online gained a lot of popularity. At present, several companies are developing “Interactive E-Books” with limited add-on features. In the online education system, the interactive relationship between the faculty and students is a challenging and demanding one. The interaction between the Faculty, Students, and Parents are not happening on a regular basis, which fails to support the delivery of an effective educational curriculum while using online or offline digital textbooks.

Interaction takes place mostly as a one and one basis between the faculty (Moderator/Teacher/Lecturer/Professor) and the students. It also takes place by skype calls between faculty and the student, which is also a one to one basis at a fixed time. A Skype conference call is also possible, which has its own limitations. Shy/fearful/nervous students will not interact in these kinds of conference calls.

Most of the learning management systems are concept-oriented, which fails to satisfy the academic learning of the subjects. Continuous tracking of every individual student by the faculty and their parents to know about their progress in the education and for clarifying the doubt on time has become a bit tiring task. Clarifying the doubts, explaining it clearly plays a prime place in the Faculty’s profession. It’s a tedious task to follow up with the students and clarifying their queries one by one. In a large number of cases, the students (might) have the same doubt to be clarified and in the present system, the faculty is burdened to answer the same questions (queries) again and again.

The digital technology has changed the way the students are issued textbooks. Textbooks are slowly not getting printed, but the students are being issued a digital textbook, which is large in PDF format, for the student to read. The advantages of the PDF format of the book are that the data consumed is very low and it is very easy to access from the Net, and it is accessible only for a limited period, formally till the end of the semester or the year.

In the existing Learning Management System and ‘Interactive E-Books’ Teachers clarify the doubt only to the student who raised the doubt, no other student or parent has the option to view or know regarding the related queries and the relevant explanation and also there is no option for the other students to know the views/suggestions to the particular question raised by student. The student getting in touch with the teacher through a call is the one to one conversation. It can’t be helpful for other students or parents to join in the conversation. Waiting for the next classroom/leaming session to get clarification for their doubts from the teacher are the old-fashioned and time-consuming way of clarifying the doubts.

Waiting and asking a doubt or clarification on the textbook content is the current method of collaboration in a class to get the doubt clarified by the students. Most of the time the students do not raise the doubt in the classroom as they are nervous, and they are afraid and hence they prefer to raise it personally with the teacher or with the tutor or their parents at home.

Growth in the students questioning skill has enhanced several higher cognitive level capacities, such as analytical skills, problem- solving skills, and creative thinking skills. There is no proper system available until now to sort out this prevalent issue.

Based on the foregoing, there is a dire need for an improved learning management system that is academic-oriented with proper interaction between the students, teachers, and parents, and having a user-friendly mechanism for addressing the challenges of the users by giving the option of user-friendly interaction/collaboration between the educational stakeholders in a very simplified graphical interface, as described in greater detail herein. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the disclosed embodiment and is not intended to be a full description.

It is therefore, an object of a disclosed embodiment is to provide a deep-rooted communication/interaction between the Faculties/Students/Parents to clarifying the queries, commenting on it and agree on it in the advanced digital textbook itself, which will improve the current scenario followed in the online learning management system. It helps the students to enhance their knowledge and engage with the subjects fully by getting properly clarified the various doubts the students have in the digital textbook/notes while learning.

Another object of a disclosed embodiment is to provide a digitized textbook/notes with an option to share the knowledge and ideas of the students, faculty, and parents in a collaborative user-friendly way.

Yet, another object of a disclosed embodiment is to provide an advanced collaborative digital textbook/notes with the option for any students to come forward and raise his doubt, which can be clarified in the collaborative format by the faculty or the other students and parents and has an option to share the knowledge and ideas of the students, faculty, and parents in a collaborative user friendly way.

Yet another object of a disclosed embodiment is to provide an option for the students to seek doubt clarification in each session of the advanced digital textbook making it easier to receive question or clarification of the matter in the advanced digital textbook/notes by the student and the doubts/clarification sought by a student need not be repeated, as the doubt/clarification sought by a student will be viewed instantly by all other students and parents and the other students instead of asking the same question, can comment and improve on the question or agree to the query raised. The parents can answer or comment or agree to the question raised by the students and also, they can raise the question.

Further, an object of a disclosed embodiment where the student/parent can add some attachments in the form of video, audio, images, document, etc, other students also to have an opportunity to learn on the same subject, by the research done by a student/parent to make learning more interesting by collaborative effort of all the stakeholders i.e., students/parents. The aspects and other objects and advantages can now be achieved as described herein. The digital book allows students to do multiple activities, it supports not only to learn the subject, but it also has an advanced facility to clarify their doubts for the particular session immediately or later by raising the questions in the clarify box. Each session may have a few customized clarify buttons. The platform allows the teacher/1 ectur er s to add the “clarify” button as per the necessity where the Teacher/Lecturer feels that students are in need of some clarification. By clicking the clarify button, the Students can post the clarification he needs from what he has read in the textbook, in the form of a question for an answer, clarification from the faculty or his co-student or parents of the student in his class.

The doubts can be clarified by the faculty and the fellow students or parents can share their view as a comment for the query raised and also can agree with other comments. Only the faculty can give the answer. The other students and parents can also comment by clicking the comment option. Anyone by clicking the comment option can comment on it and students have the option to agree to the comment written for the questions by clicking “agree”. The advanced digital textbook facilitates parents also to raise/clarify the doubts on behalf of the students. By this method of collaborative feature within a digital textbook, allows the educational stakeholder i.e., students, faculty, and parents to interact/collaborate effectively.

According to an aspect, an interactive method between a plurality of users (students, faculty, parents) using a virtually collaborated, multi-layered digital textbook/lecture notes/document has been disclosed, the method comprising the steps of storing, the digital textbook/lecture notes/document having a plurality of different content layers; providing an option to a first user (students), seeking clarification or raising doubt on a specified content after an online session completion or reading of a session or listening to a teaching or concept video related to a content layer of the digital textbook/lecture notes/document; receiving, a first user input, for clarification and explanation for a displayed content; displaying the user clarification and explanation sought, by the first user, for the specified content on a display of a first user device; providing an option to second users, (students, parents or guardian) to comment or agree and second user (faculty) to answer the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; receiving a second user input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; and displaying the second user (students, faculty, parents) input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer and the like) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user. According to another aspect, an interactive virtually collaborated, multi-layered digital document system for interaction between a plurality of users has been disclosed, the system comprises at least one user device communicably coupled to an application server and a file server, said system being configured to: store, the digital textbook/lecture notes/document having a plurality of different content layers; provide an option for a first user (students) seeking clarification or raising doubt on a specified content after an online session completion or reading the session or listening to the teaching or concept video related to a content layer of the digital textbook/lecture notes/document; receive, a first user input, for clarification and explanation for a displayed content; display the user clarification and explanation sought, by the first user, for the specified content on a display of a first user device; provide an option to second users, (students, parents or guardian) to comment or agree and second user (faculty) to answer the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; receive a second user input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; and display a second user (students, faculty, parents) input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer and the like) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user.

According to yet another aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the processor to carry out the instructions for: storing, the digital textbook/lecture notes/document having a plurality of different content layers; providing an option to a first user (students) seeking clarification or raising doubt on a specified content after an online session completion or reading of a session or listening to a teaching or concept video related to a content layer of the digital textbook/lecture notes/document; receiving, a first user input, for clarification and explanation for a displayed content; displaying the user clarification and explanation sought, by the first user, for the specified content on a display of a first user device; providing an option to the second users, (students, parents or guardian) to comment or agree and second user (faculty) to answer for the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; receiving a second user input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; displaying the second user (students, faculty, parents) input, from a second user device, as reply(comment, agree, answer and the like)to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user, wherein the second user (students, faculty, parents) replies to the clarification sought by the first user, with or without any document, image, audio or video attachments, wherein the first user and second user can interact (clarify, explain, reply, comment, answer) by text message, audio message, video message, attachments and the like, wherein the second user(faculty) only can answer to any one of the clarifications and explanation sought or replies given by any one of the plurality of users, wherein the option available only for the faculty to delete the comment, clarification or explanation raised by other users, wherein the option to edit and delete the clarification and explanation, comment, or answer by the respective users.

According to yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by the one or more processors of a system for recalling, editing and resending a message, the one or more programs including instructions for: storing, the digital textbook/lecture notes/document having a plurality of different content layers; providing an option to a first user (students) seeking clarification or raising doubt on a specified content after an online session completion or reading of a session or listening to a teaching or concept video related to a content layer of the digital textbook/lecture notes/document; receiving, a first user input, for clarification and explanation for a displayed content; displaying the user clarification and explanation sought, by the first user, for the specified content on a display of a first user device; providing an option to second users, (students, parents or guardian) to comment or agree and second user(faculty) to answer for the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; receiving a second user input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user; displaying a second user (students, faculty, parents) input, from a second user device, as reply (comment, agree, answer and the like) to the clarification and explanation sought by the first user, wherein the second user (students, faculty, parents) replies to the clarification sought by the first user, with or without any document, image, audio or video attachments, wherein the first user and second user can interact (clarify, explain, reply, comment, answer) by text message, audio message, video message, attachments and the like, wherein the second user(faculty) only can answer to any one of the clarifications and explanation sought or replies given by any one of the plurality of users, wherein the option available only for the faculty to delete the comment, clarification or explanation raised by other users, wherein the option to edit and delete the clarification and explanation, comment, or answer by the respective first user and second users. Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent in the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG.l illustrates a graphical representation of the student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document with the clarify button in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.2 illustrates a graphical representation of student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document where the student can clarify the doubt by raising the query and address to all the Students, Parents and Teachers in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.3 illustrates a graphical representation of the student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document where students posted the query in multi- stakeholder interaction sessions in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.4 illustrates a graphical representation of the student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document where the student has the option to edit the posted query by selecting the edit in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.5 illustrates a graphical representation of the student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document after rephrasing the query in a better way, the student again posted the rephrased query in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.6 illustrates a graphical representation of another student's view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document where one of the fellow Students about to comment on the query raised in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.7 illustrates a graphical representation of another student view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document that shows the interaction session page where a comment giving by the other student for the query raised in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. FIG.8 illustrates a graphical representation of another student's view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document that shows the interaction session page after posting the comment by the other student for the raised question in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.9 illustrates a graphical representation of faculty (Moderator / Teacher / Lecturer / Professor) view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document that shows the option for the faculty (Teacher to Answer, Agree or Comment on the query raised by the student in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.10 illustrates a graphical representation of faculty (Moderator /Teacher /Lecturer/ Professor) view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document shows the faculty (Moderator / Teacher / Lecturer / Professor) answering for the question raised by the student in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.11 illustrate a graphical representation of faculty (Moderator/Teacher/Lecturer/Professor) view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document shows the teacher is answering along with the attachment of the image for the question raised by the student in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.12 illustrates a graphical representation of faculty (Moderator/Teacher/Lecturer/ Professor) view of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document shows the faculty (Moderator /Teacher/Lecturer/Professor) posting the answer with the image attachment. The faculty can do some research and take extracts from Books or the internet and have them saved on their computer. Then by using the attach icon, they can access the data in the computer and transfer the data to the digital book interactive session in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.13 illustrate a graphical representation of faculty (Moderator /Teacher /Lecturer / Professor) view of the advanced digital textbook / digital document shows answer gets posted in the multi- stakeholder interaction session where the answer is given by the faculty (Moderator / Teacher / Lecturer / Professor) can be viewed by all the Students, Teacher and Parents in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.14 illustrates a graphical representation of parent view (father of the student) of the advanced digital textbook /digital document that shows the parent about to comment for the faculty answer in accordance with the disclosed embodiments. FIG.15 illustrates a graphical representation of parent view (father of the student) of the advanced digital textbook / digital document shows parent (Father) comment for the teacher answer and posting it in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.16 illustrates a graphical representation of parent view (father of the student) of the advanced digital textbook / digital document shows parent (Father) comment get posted on the interaction session page in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.17 illustrates a graphical representation of parent view (mother of the student) of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document shows parent (Mother) about to comment for the teacher answer in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.18 illustrates a graphical representation of parent view (mother of the student) of the advanced digital textbook/ digital document shows another parent (Mother) posting the comment on the interaction session page in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG.19 illustrates a graphical representation of the parent view (mother of the student) of the advanced digital textbook / digital document that shows the posted comment of the parent in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

FIG 20 illustrates a graphical representation of the flow diagram of the Multi- stakeholder collaboration in accordance with the disclosed embodiments.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope thereof. The embodiments now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which illustrative embodiments of the invention are shown. The embodiments disclosed herein can be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of different features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

While the invention is described herein as software including a user interface that provides the user with the ability to work device-independent within a network it is contemplated by the inventors that the invention may be implemented in various ways within the scope of the invention.

The present invention solves the difficulty in collaboration between Faculty, Students and Parents for doubt clarification within an advanced digital textbook/digital document and the conversation can be referred by everyone at any time. It also relates to the faculty handling the clarification part when the question was raised by the student/parents. This is an invention used in the Advanced Digital Textbook, which is accessed in digital devices like laptop computers, desktop computers, digital tablets, smart mobile phone devices, etc. The invention additionally relates to a user-friendly mechanism of other students and parents commenting to the doubts raised by a student, and by agreeing to the answer given by the fellow students or parents in a better manner, before the faculty clarifies the doubt raised by the student. The comment option can be used by any parent, to clarify the doubt raised by the student. Again, if the faculty answer the clarification raised by the student, the other students and parents can comment on the answer of the faculty, appreciate the answer or not agree to the answer or again request/ask for a clarification to the answer.

It helps the educators to advance the conversation towards building a rich digital learning experience. Advanced Digital Textbook simplifies the interaction with various materials, resources, and communication with experts beyond the classroom. And digital textbook content is always up-to-date and virtually with infinite videos, audios, documents supporting a wide variety of interests and topics which avoids the students from referring other websites and getting mislead or lost in the maze of information available.

Referring to FIG.l an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the student view of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 100. The folder 100 includes, (110) the profile picture of the Student, (120) the digital communication application link for communication between teachers, students and parents, (130) the Session No, (140) Unit No and Unit Name, (150) Subject Name, (160) part of the screen showing the textbook content, (170) shows the Clarify button, (180) shows the Videos.

Referring to FIG.2 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 200. The folder 200 includes (210) Multi-Stake Holder Interaction Box, (220) post icon to post the content like questions, answers, comments, etc (230) attachment icon to attach audio, video, images, media files, (240) the video icon to post the query in video format, (250) the audio icon to record the voice and post the query in a text format etc.

Referring to FIG.3 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 300. Folder 300 includes, (310) shows the posted question of the student, (320) the delete button to delete the posted question. (330) the edit button to edit the question posted.

Referring to FIG.4 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 400. The folder 400 includes, (410) shows tag edit, (420) shows student changes the question by clicking the link edit, (430) student reposting it by clicking the icon post.

Referring to FIG.5 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 500. Folder 500 includes, (510) the rephrased question gets displayed in the multi-stakeholder interaction session.

Referring to FIG.6 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 600. Folder 600 includes, (610) the profile picture of the student, (620) the comment button to comment on the question asked by another student.

Referring to FIG.7 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 700. Folder 700 includes, (710) the comment tag, (720) comment given by the fellow student for the question raised by the previous one, (730) Post icon to repost the student comment.

Referring to FIG.8 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 800. Folder 800 includes, (810) the comment to the question raised by the previous student get displayed in the multi- stakeholder interaction session.

Referring to FIG.9 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the teacher view of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 900. The folder 900 includes, (910) the profile picture of the teacher, (920) button delete, (930) button Comment to comment on the question or answer given by student or parent, (940) button Agree to agree for the answer given by other students or parents.

Referring to FIG.10 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the teacher view of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1000. The folder 1000 includes, (1010) the answer to the question raised by the student. (1020) the attachment icon to attach audio, video, images, media files, etc.

Referring to FIG.11 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the teacher view of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1100. The folder 1100 includes, (1110) the teacher attaching the related image along with the answer to the question raised by the student.

Referring to FIG.12 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1200. The folder 1200 includes, (1210) the comment tag, (1220) the post icon, (1230) the image attached with the answer.

Referring to FIG.13 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1300. The folder 1300 includes, (1310) the posted answer along with the image for the question raised by the student.

Referring to FIG.14 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1400. The folder 1400 includes, (1410) profile picture of the student, (1420) the button comment to post a comment for the answer given by the teacher.

Referring to FIG.15 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1500. The folder 1500 includes, (1510) the parent comment for the answer given by the teacher (asking for more clarification) and posting it.

Referring to FIG.16 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the parent (father of one of the students) view of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1600. The folder 1600 includes, (1610) the parent comment gets posted in the Multi- stakeholder interaction session.

Referring to FIG.17 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1700. The folder 1700 includes, (1710) parent (mother of one of the students) about to comment on the answer given by the teacher by clicking link Comment.

Referring to FIG.18 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1800. The folder 1800 includes, (1810) the comment tag, (1820) parent (mother of one of the students) comment on the answer given by the teacher by clicking link Comment and posting it by clicking post icon.

Referring to FIG.19 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the Advanced Digital Text Book/ digital document 1900. The folder 1900 includes, (1910) parent (mother of one of the students) comments get posted in the Multistakeholder interaction session.

Referring to FIG.20 an embodiment of the present invention illustrates graphical representation of the flow diagram of the Multi- stakeholder collaboration. In the Multistake holder collaboration the question or comment raised by the students can be answered or clarified by the faculty. The parent also can interact with both faculty and student by adding the comment or agreeing to the faculty answer or comment.

It will be appreciated those variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.