Remote On-Screen Support and Cooperation with Open Sporce Components in e-Learning

In many learning situations it is essential to offer support for the students by an instructor directly at the computer screens of the students like in a computer lab. To provide this support in remote e-learning situations, the teacher needs a real-time view of the contents of the students computer screen from remote. in this paper we discuss a solution for providing real-time remote on-screen student support with distance-learning via internet connections in a safe and secure manner. Our "virtual classroom" consists of open source components only and workson most operating systems independently of the underlying learning software used. We enhance this solution with a prototype of a common desktop, that is suitable for small work groupsto work together on a common computer screen in real time, which is useful e.g. for small student groups working togetherfrom remote. The common desktop systemalso works independently of the software used on the screen and can be operated with any client computer. In practice, these solutions are accompanied by commuication systems like chat or voice-chat, to achieve a system for real-time remote teaching and real-time remote cooperation.