A Microservice Approach for Near Real-Time Collaborative 3D Objects Annotation on the Web

Abstract

Web-based collaborative learning environments enable groups of learners to negotiate meaning around shared digital artefacts, e.g. by annotating them collaboratively. This particularly applies for complex digital artefacts such as multimedia or 3D objects and is mostly achieved by using metadata description standards, understandable to both user and machines for queries, context detection and retrieving relevant details. However, current approaches lack the ability to rapidly prototype courses by using lightweight Web technologies on the server and the browser side. In this paper, we present a customizable and lightweight approach for designing and performing Web-based collaborative courses using 3D Objects in the medical domain. These artefacts and the annotations are shared using near real-time updates between learners and tutors. In principle, we solve the problem of different annotation standards that can be used in the same environment by providing an API for using simple contextualized annotations. The evaluations and collected user feedback show that our collaborative browser-based approach simplifies access to digital artefacts and enables more collaboration.