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Mobile Computing at Acadia University

October 13, 1998. Mobile Computing at Acadia University. Tomasz Müldner Jodrey School of Computer Science Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada. Contents. Electronic campus at Acadia University Related software projects: Automated Courseware Management Environment Shared Workspace

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Mobile Computing at Acadia University

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  1. October 13, 1998 Mobile Computing at Acadia University Tomasz Müldner Jodrey School of Computer Science Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada

  2. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  3. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  4. Acadia University

  5. Acadia University:Overview • Acadia University was born in 1838 • It is small (< 4,000 students) • Concentrates on undergraduate programs • In 1996, partnership with IBM formed • All faculty members and students get an IBM laptop

  6. Acadia University:Electronic Classrooms • All classrooms will have: • instructor’s console • network connection for every student • Two kinds of classrooms: lecture and studio

  7. Acadia University:Electronic Classrooms

  8. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  9. Related Software:ACME ACME (AITT) provides a single place for: • course-related information: • course outline • office hours • discussion groups • on line testing • upload and download of notes

  10. Related Software:ACME

  11. Related Software:ACME

  12. Related Software:ACME, Sample Experience

  13. Related Software:Implementation of ACME • Server-based, CGI scripts written in Perl • Dynamic HTML pages • JavaScript for visual enhancements • Standard file system for persistence

  14. Related Software:Discussion of ACME • Popular: used in many courses • Does not require any installation (Web browser) • Tends to overload a Web server • Support for pull, no support for push • Does not provide collaborative facilities • Does not automate various tasks • No support for disconnected operations

  15. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  16. Related Software:Shared Workspace, SW Provides support for: • asynchronous exchange of information • synchronous collaboration in electronic (virtual) classrooms

  17. Related Software:SW: Exchange of Information • Asynchronous sharing of homogenous, centralized information systems, IS • Each IS consists of classifications and information • Every SW can fetch and provide

  18. Related Software:SW: Example Repository

  19. Related Software:SW: Collaboration • Support for collaborative editing with a single controller and multiple ghosts • Various floor control policies • Chat room for “raising a hand”

  20. Related Software:SW: Collaboration

  21. Related Software:SW: Implementation • Every SW is a server and a client • Client/Server implementation using Java and RMI • JSDT implementation of shared editing

  22. Related Software:SW: Discussion • Limited support for collaborative editing • Inefficient updates of ghosts • No support for filtering, locating, automatic organization, or alerting • Each IS is centralized rather than distributed • No support for disconnected operations

  23. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  24. Related Software: DMS Functionality • Electronic maintenance of assignments • Management of distributed information resources: • assignment descriptions • assignment solutions • marks

  25. Related Software: DMS Functionality • Instructor submits assignment descriptions • Student downloads assignments and uploads solutions • Marker downloads solutions, and marks them off-line using specialized marking software; then uploads results • Student gets a notification

  26. Related Software: DMS Student

  27. Related Software: DMS Marker

  28. Related Software: DMS Implementation • DMS consists of a central server and set of “users”: Students, Markers, Instructors • A user may need to download its application and run it locally. DMS will package the application and deploy it to the user

  29. Related Software: DMS Implementation • Shared resources and the software that controls access to them resides at a server site • Java and CORBA are used (for language independence and speed) • Java Applets are used for the user-side client (for (re)deployment)

  30. Related Software: DMS Discussion • Centralized server creates a bottleneck • Very limited support for push • For marking each assignment, a marker has to develop an ad-hoc marking strategy

  31. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  32. Related Software:Jersey (Tomek, Giles, Nicholl) • MOO/MUD (Multi-User-Dialogs) based systems real world emulation (spatial) • Users, places, objects • Navigation, communication • Creating, modifying, transporting objects • Run-time customizability, expendability

  33. Related Software:Jersey: Implementation • Client/server written in VisualAge Smalltalk • Communication with the user by Smalltalk messages (extended with the list of messages) • “Agents” used to automate user queries, automatically capture events, etc.

  34. Related Software:Jersey: Discussion • Spatial rather than functional organization • Traditional client/server • Agents are really daemons

  35. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  36. Related commercial software • Outlook Express: • Scheduling • Email Rules

  37. Contents • Electronic campus at Acadia University • Related software projects: • Automated Courseware Management Environment • Shared Workspace • Distributed Marking System • Jersey • Other related commercial software • Mobile agents vision

  38. Mobile Agent Vision “...There is a growing danger that agents will be a deception and an empty promise...” Benn Schneiderman

  39. Mobile Agent Vision “...agent technologies are most useful when presenting a simpler abstraction of the environment to the user…” Cybenko and Brewington

  40. Mobile Agent Vision:Justification • Rapid (re)deployment of applications • Automated work • Ability to find and filter information • Support for push • Customized views of information • Support for disconnected operations • Active network load balancing

  41. Mobile Agent Vision:Student Registration Assumptions: • Student registers in five courses • When arrives, receives a laptop • Upon first connection to the network, five course agents arrive at her/his laptop

  42. Mobile Agent VisionCourse Agent • Each course agent represents a single course • The user interacts with the course agent through an activity-based user interface • Standardized interfaces can be customized (through wizards or an agent shell)

  43. Translators Agent Mobile Agent VisionActivity-based Interface Contact Instructor Read Notes Get Marks

  44. Translators Agent Mobile Agent VisionActivity-based Interface Contact Instructor Do Assignment 1 Read Notes Get Marks

  45. Assignment 1 on Translators Mobile Agent VisionAssignment Agent Read Do Submit Get similar

  46. Assignment 1 on Translators: John Doe Mobile Agent VisionMarker Agent View Execute Mark

  47. Mobile Agent VisionDiscussion • Agent bureaucracy provides a functional organization (course related agents, etc.) • Agents come built-in; can be further customized (explicitly, or implicitly: adaptive agents)

  48. Mobile Agent VisionCollaborative Work • Two modes of operation: • serial; here the agent moves to the next group member and brings updates. Group members may be on- or off-line

  49. Mobile Agent VisionCollaborative Work • Concurrent: • two modes of reintegration of data: • merging • versioning

  50. Mobile Agent VisionOn Line Testing • A test agent can be broadcast to the test group • Each test agent can control the test, mark it, and then store results somewhere • The test agent may be “customized” to remember past inputs, etc.

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