Research of cooperative long-distance education model based on

pervasive computing

Chaozhen Guo', Rongguang Ye2 ,Yan Li3Department ofComputer Science and Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou,Fujian, 350002,PR

ChinaIguocz@,fzu. edu. cn, guocz@263. net

2yrgject w163. com3adeng79@tom. com

Abstract

This article is set in the teaching and research ofcooperative long-distance education of graduatestudent, it have researched the characteristic of thecooperative long-distance education in the environmentof pervasive computing, introducing the cooperativelong-distance education model based on pervasivecomputing, show the architecture of cooperativelong-distance education system based on pervasivecomputing, introducing the cooperative education andresearch in a "mobile discussion", it means that a

project group of a subject will not be limited at a

certain place when they are discussing. This article alsointroduces how to use Agent technology into thedevelopment ofthe cooperative long-distance educationsystem based on pervasive computing. This system takethe cooperative long-distance education ofthe graduatecourse "new database technology" as an example,actualize a cooperative long-distance education andresearch system. This article introduce the idea thathow to actualize the graduate cooperativelong-distance education system based on the pervasivecomputing.

Keywords: cooperative long-distance educationpervasive computing JADE architecture

1. Introduction

Education is a social activity, have the feature ofcolony, distributing, interactivity. As the fast developingand widely application of the information technology,long-distance education have converted from mainlyradio and television and secondly self study to themodem long-distance education which take multimediatechnology mainly and combine individual study withinteractive collective study.

But now there are some common problems in thelong-distance education systems based on WWW,summed up in the following:(1) The system mainly take undergraduate students as

object, mainly show the teaching and studymaterial, it is lack of real interaction betweenlearners and between learner and teacher;

(2) The system only consider the theory teaching, butnot the practice part, can not implement the realteaching aim;

(3) Can not give the real teaching and studying scene;

(4) The system haven't intelligence, lace of teachingtactics, can not teaching according to the students'aptitude;

(5) Because of the speed of transmission in the internetcan not satisfy the require of the transmission ofthe real time video, audio and the internet real timeinteraction and so on;

Particularly under the traditional model of desktopcomputing, computer is dominant, user must use thecomputer initiatively to get the computing andinformation service, user must deal with various detailof the computing task to get the result. Pervasivecomputing is a kind of computing which emphasize thatblend to the environment. Under the model of pervasivecomputing, user can get the information and deal with itanytime, anywhere and anyway[1]. In the time ofpervasive computing, because of the interactivechannels of the computing resource, the internetconnect and men and computing services existeverywhere, so we can introducing some new serviceswhich can not carry out in the time of desktopcomputing. Cooperative education and research group

can discussion in a "mobile discussion" anytime andanywhere, it means that the discussion of a projectgroup will not be limited at a certain place, but can

discuss with various kinds of hand equipment or

interactive interspaces. We can note the afflatus flashinto our brains or something we undergo (e.g. a class, a

meeting) quickly and expediently anytime andanywhere, and make searches quickly later accordingthe time, place, attendee and scene. [1][2]

Aim at the common problem in the long-distanceeducation system based on WWW, this article take thegraduate student as educate object, researches thecooperative long-distance education and researchsystem model based on pervasive computingenvironment, we give undivided attention to improvethe innovation, study initiative of the students, andresearch, and make students and teachers not beinglimited by time and interspaces, can study and

1-4244-0971-3/07/$25.00 ©)2007 IEEE.

communicate both synchronization athe education and research. We alcertain reference to the researlong-distance education system.

In the second part of this articfeature of the net cooperative long-and research. The third part shoNlong-distance education systempervasive computing, the forthintegration technique of multi Agentand J2EE, show the architecturlong-distance education system in pienvironment. The fifth part introducthe cooperative long-distance educ;system which take the cooperaeducation of the graduate courstechnology" as an example, and givand expectation.

2.The characteristicslong-distance educationenvironment

2.1 The characteristics o:education[3]

The several essential elementseducation:.(1) Distribution in space

Teachers and students are in a

geographical location. They shoulspace, distinguished from the tradeducation.(2) Communication

The communication between tealno longer depends on the face-to-use the special media andcommunicate with each ot]communication no longer only inway.

(3) Arbitrary in timeThe time of study should be scl

to the students , so as to implemereducation.(4) Function in organization of tea

Resources and plans providorganization, supporting servicesmanagement work are not interven((5) Guarantee in circles of practic(

Education is the combinatiorpractice, limitations in one of thelead to the failure in education. Thdemand of education environmentof people.

Thus, it could be seen tlelements contained in current long-

nd asynchronies in[so hope that givech of the new

le, we discuss the-distance educationw the cooperativemodel based onpart research the

system (organization management, distributionmanagement, interaction ways, cooperative work, circleof practice) are keys to whether a network long-distanceeducation system is successful or not.

2.2 The characteristics of network long-distancecooperative teaching research based onpervasive environment

develop technique In the mode of pervasive computing, users can^e of cooperative obtain and process data anytime and anywhere. The2rvasive computing mode of pervasive computing is very suitable fore the realization of network long-distance teaching. Because study is aation and research process of improving personal knowledge in the processtive long-distance of interacting with specific environment. Knowledge is,e "new database obtained not through the teacher, but through the helpre the new thought of others (including teacher and partner), using

necessary study materials in specific social background.That is, the gain of knowledge lies in personal ability of

of Cscw the students themselves when they are trying to buildin pervasive the opinion of knowledge, but not in their ability of

memory and reciting the content that the teacher haspresented, especially the teaching of graduate student. It

f long-distance can be reduced to the points as follows:(1) Concentrate on learners, because learners are theanticipants of study activity. They are the builders of

for long-distance knowledge. Teachers merely help and motivate them.Emphasize the importance of "context" to theconstruction of meaning. Considering that study is

separated state in always related to a specific situation, learners useJ be distributed in experience in their intrinsic knowledge structure tolitional centralized digest the newly-learned knowledge in actual situation.

(2) Emphasize the important sense of "cooperativelearning" in the construction of meaning. Interaction of

chers and students learners and their surroundings play a key role in the-face way, we can sense of knowledge.

technology to (3) Emphasize the design of the learning environmenther. Also the and think that the environment is the place wherevolve in the oral learners communicate with each other freely.

(4) Emphasize the use of all kinds of resources tosupport study.

heduled accordingit the real lifelong 3. Cooperative long-distance education

model based on pervasive computingiching[ed by teaching Cooperative long-distance education model basedand other related on pervasive computing can be divided into foured. components according to function: the interaction

of theory and component, the cooperative education processingwof aspects will component, the pervasive computing supported

stwo aspects will component and the Database, as shown in Fig. 1.

forisalotheuvation The interaction component is responsible for thecommunications between users and system, andprovides a "Mobile discussion" way to carry on the

-distatne essential cooperative teaching and study, that is, a project group'sdiscussion may not limit to a fixed place, but the project

group's members can be contacted through hand-heldequipment and the project group can participate ininteractive discussion whenever and wherever. Thecooperative education processing component is theimplementation layer of platform's functions, itconnects the interaction component and the Database,and it includes several subsystems that may besummarized as: the cooperative teaching subsystem, thecooperative researching subsystem, the teaching andresearching forum subsystem and the studying andresearching assessment subsystem. The pervasivecomputing supported component includes apperceivesystem, network connections, users and computingservice interactive channel support and so on. TheDatabase is the resources storehouse of cooperativeeducation, including teaching material database,teaching strategy database, teaching programmingdatabase, user model database, group informationdatabase and so on.

EducasationProePssingComponetiit

develop a robustness, extensible, componentializedmulti-Agent system under J2EE developmentenvironment is very tempting.

In order to integrate JADE with the J2EE platform,the following two methods may be adopted. First, usethe application server which supports JADE andconforms to the J2EE standard. For example, usesHUIPU Company's HPAS. Second, add the JADEdevelopment environment into the existing J2EEapplication server, thus realizes the JADE integration,for example, add the JADE development frame intoBEA company's Weblogic application server.

Although it may be efficient and can realize theintegration of design development and execution byusing special JADE application server, it'll cost more,and the maintenance personnel should need extratraining, while integrating JADE with generalapplication server will cost much little than the former.This system will use this proposal to realize thecooperative long-distance education platform; itsintegration architecture is shown in Fig.2.

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Fig. 1 Cooperative long-distance education model basedon pervasive computing

4. Architecture of cooperative long-distanceeducation system based on pervasivecomputing

4.1 J2EE and JADE Integration model [4] [5]

As a result of not pay much attention to thenetwork environment's robustness, extensible in thedesign of JADE, therefore, with the networkapplication developing into large-scale,componentialized and extensible, JADE alreadycould not meet the needs even under mere a simplenetwork environment. Therefore, in order toovercome the above insufficiency, and make thegreatest use of the advantage of JADE in Agentdevelopment, using JADE development frame to

O&MON Sygt

Fig.2 Integration architecture of JADE and J2EE

4.2 Architecture of cooperative long-distanceeducation system based on pervasive computing

Uses JADE and the J2EE integration system todevelop cooperative long-distance education platform,its integration architecture is shown in Fig.3, using theB/S pattern. The client's main tasks are: students'long-distance study, online test, join the cooperationresearch team, enter the forum and so on. The client'susers mainly include three kinds: students, teachers andsystem managers.

The server includes Presentation Layer, BusinessLayer and Database System Layer. The Business Layeris responsible for all business processes of system,realized by each Agents[6][7] , student Agent andteacher Agent are automatic created when the two kinds

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of users login, while task Agent exists as a proxy, whenuser Agent needs to complete some task, cooperationAgent decomposes the task and dispatchescorresponding task Agent to complete the sub-task.Cooperation Agent is mainly responsible for thecooperative manipulations in the cooperative learningenvironment. The components that are created in users'equipments under pervasive environment must connectto the Agent platform through wired or wirelessnetwork.

Daiase and Operationi SystemiLayer

C(ursr mainagemewnt agent h .~t~u~n~nn

Agent of inteligetit Agent, o intdimgtnt Agenitofdlngwith rvswarchingmaking test paptKrs answering the qUfestion Lti IIILnS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~activi'ties

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C lin La,erFig.3 Cooperative long-distance education system

architecture based on pervasive computing

The multi-Agent architecture classifies as follows:(1) User Agent

The user Agent is the proxy of the student (andstudent group), teacher, manager these three kind ofpersonnel's activities in the cooperative long-distanceeducation platform. They are automatic created whenusers login, and the Agent's life time is the user'son-line time.Student agent

All student agent are equal, they obey certainresource-sharing strategies and social rules, through aseries of interaction between them and intelligent senseto its surroundings, they make decisions, judgments,and inferences based on their own knowledge, andfinally, reach their goals.

The functions of student agent contain:(a) Build and manage information of students

based on their registration.(b) Manage the information of learning and can

arrange their study plans dynamically.(c) Manage and maintain each student's study

goal.

(d) Judge study development, whether they reachtheir plan, and whether they comprehend theirknowledge.

(e) Apply for test. If some students want to jointhe team and do some researches, studentagent must have this function.

(f) Manage the process of students' research.(g) Manage and maintain the goal of research.(h) Judge the process , finished component of

students' research. And each students'contribution.

Teacher agentAll agents of teacher obey certain

resource-sharing strategies and social rules, through aseries of interaction between them and intelligent senseto its surroundings, they make decisions, judgments,and inferences based on their own knowledge, andfinally, reach their goals. Teacher agent is therepresentative of the teacher and does the work ateacher used to do, like:

(a) Organize the material for lecture.(b) Manage the whole study plan.(c) Maintain, organize and manage excises.(d) Generate papers.(e) Check for the test application.(f) Query, guide and judge the works of

cooperative researches of groups.(g) Score analysis.

Administrator agentAdministrator agent is the representative of the

administrator and does the same works as anadministrator does. It's the maintainer of the system.The main tasks of administrator agent can becategorized into three parts. First, maintain informationof every user. Administrator can insert, delete theinformation and change the password of a teacher.Second, check and maintain the logs provided by thesystem itself in order to trace the process of teachingand studying to make the management easier. Third,manage the courses' information and the public notices.(2) Task agentTask agent is assigned by the cooperation agent and dospecial task. It can apply to so many tasks like teaching,managing study evaluation, excises maintenance. Thelifecycle of agent is relatively short, it will be cancelledby cooperation agent when the task is finished or failed.

Usually, when certain user agent submits a task, thesystem will give it to the cooperation agent, and thenthe agent will factor and dispatch the task and call thecorresponding agents of task. These agents are:Course management agent: it can settle propermanagement strategies by the courses information.Plan agent : it can make some plans based on courseinformation. For example: studying plan, researchingplan of groups.Studying assessment agent: it can evaluate each

student based on the information in the studyingdatabase.

Agent of intelligent making test papers: It canquantify subjects based on teacher's requirement, andcount the numbers and indexes to form a paper, inaddition, when the papers are finished, it can judge theresult automatically.

Agent of intelligent answering the question: thecooperation agent will call the agent of intelligentanswering the question to answer the question the userasked. It can search for proper answers in the basicquestion collection. If the answer could not be found, itwill save it and wait the teacher agent to reply.

Agent of dealing with researching activities: It is therepresentative of a group and is expected to settle thetasks as follows:(a) Managing each member in the group, includingdivision, assignment and repair.Settling the task plan of the group dynamically.(c)Evaluating the result of each group.(d)Providing a "mobile discuss" way for cooperativeresearches. The discussion can not be bound to certainfixed place, instead, it enable us to communicate everytime and every where by the mobile devices.(3) Agent supported by pervasive computingCooperation agent

The function of cooperation agent is to managethe agents to work cooperatively and constructor theproper agent to deal with different mutual studying task.It is generated automatically as soon as the server isbooted. When it's activated, it will keep active andrespond to user agents' request immediately.

Cooperation agent cares for the massage sending,task dividing, matching and managing. When certainagent wants to join the cooperative process, the onlything it needs to do is to send a massage to cooperationagent to register its name, physical location, its ownresources, current status, the way to communicate,services available or needed instead of interact withother agents directly. Cooperation agent assigns the taskto the corresponding agent based on the tasks situation,build connections for them and control themdecentralized and the agents taking part in the processbuild true name communication by its guide. If thecooperators are not exist at the same time, it will due tocooperation agent to control and save mutualinformation and send it to the cooperator to finishasynchronous operation when it's on line.Cooperative Agent

The purpose of designing cooperative agent ismainly to complete the cooperative operation incooperative environment. Cooperative work amonggroup members is the essential element ofimplementing of goal graduate student teaching. In theprocess of the cooperation of the group, the members ofthe group get the aim, everyone does the research witheach other by the method of talking, discussion,

Cooperative agent is responsible for the harmony,cooperation examination and elimination and theconsistency of information among agents. The agentaccesses the DB by ODBC, and ensures the consistencyof the data between cooperative members bymaintaining a cooperative information library which isshared globally.Moving discussion supporting agent

Design Moving discussion supporting agent,supply teaching and research by the way of "Movingdiscussion". The discussion need not to be constraint ina certain place, and can contact with the members of thetask by facilities on hand and can join the interactionany time in any place.

5 Conclusion

This article analyzed the existing problems ofnetwork long-distance education system. A cooperativelong-distance education model based on pervasivecomputing was discussed, and a cooperativelong-distance education system's architecture based on

multi-Agent and the integration of JADE with J2EEwas presented. Devoted to increase the originality in thepost-graduate education, the initiative and the researchduring students' study, thus in the process of teachingand research, students and teachers would not belimited by time and space, and can study andcommunicate in either synchronous or asynchronousway. Taking the graduate students curriculum of (NewTechnology In Database )) as a background, a

cooperative long-distance education platform for (NewTechnology In Database)) was developed, as shown inFig.5. But the realization of "Mobile discussion" stillrequires further research, and we will carry on theresearch of long-distance education transparentplatform as well.

Fig 4 (New Technology In Database)) Education Platform

diagnosis and so on.

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