Educational Information Systems Creation Web Service and Agent based Development

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Educational Information Systems Creation Web
Service and Agent based Development

• Enn Õunapuu
• Tallinn Technical University
• enn_at_cc.ttu.ee
• 372 050 97720

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Content

• Introduction
• Software component
• BIT component
• Web service
• Message, state, contract, policies
• Service agent
• System architecture
• Educational standards

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Introduction
This presentation describes a solution to the
educational systems creation a architecture and
methodology of educational system creation based
on web services and service agents
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Software component
A software component is a unit of composition
with contractually specified interfaces and
context dependencies only. A software component
can be deployed independently and is subject to
composition by third parties
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BIT component

• A BIT component is a component with one or more
  test interfaces that increase the testability of
  the component. Inspiration to BIT components
  comes from complex integrated electronic circuits
  that often have tests built in to make them
  testable.

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Web service

• Software services are discrete units of
  application logic that expose message-based
  interfaces suitable for being accessed across a
  network.

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Message, state, contract, policies

• In the service model presented here, the service
  is defined purely by the messages it will accept
  and produce, including the sequencing
  requirements for those messages.
• Service-to-service communication follows a
  contract, and by making this contract explicit it
  is possible to change one service implementation
  without compromising the interaction.
• Services need to be managed and secured. A policy
  consists of a set of rules, and each rule applies
  to an aspect of the run-time behavior
• Services manage state this state is the very
  reason for their existence. Services guard this
  state and they ensure through their business
  logic that it is kept consistent and accurate.

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Agent definition
An agent is a computer system capable of flexible
autonomous action in a dynamic, unpredictable and
open environment. Agent technologies and
approaches have the potential to greatly impact
the lives and work of all of us and, accordingly,
this area is one of the most dynamic and exciting
in computer science today.
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Agents can be defined to be autonomous,
problem-solving computational entities capable of
effective operation in dynamic and open
environments. Agents are often deployed in
environments in which they interact, and maybe
cooperate, with other agents (including both
people and software) that have possibly
conflicting aims. Such environments are known as
multi-agent systems. Agents can be distinguished
from objects (in the sense of object-oriented
software) in that they are autonomous entities
capable of exercising choice over their actions
and interactions. Agents cannot, therefore, be
directly invoked like objects. However, they may
be constructed using object technology.
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• " An agent is a computational entity which -
• acts on behalf of other entities in an autonomous
  fashion
• performs its actions with some level of
  proactivity and/or reactiveness
• exhibits some level of the key attributes of
  learning, co-operation and mobility".

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Phase 1 Current (c. 20002002) Multi-agent
systems in current deployment are typically
designed by one design team for one corporate
environment, with participating agents sharing
common high-level goals in a single domain. These
systems may be characterised as closed. The
communications languages and interaction
protocols are typically in-house protocols, and
are defined by the design team prior to any agent
interactions. Systems are usually only scalable
under controlled, or simulated, conditions.
Design approaches tend to be ad hoc, inspired by
the agent paradigm rather than using any specific
methodologies. An example of the systems
developed in this phase are those for the
management of utility networks.
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Phase 2 Near-Term Future (c. 20032005) In the
next phase of development, systems will
increasingly be designed to cross corporate
boundaries, so that the participating agents have
fewer goals in common, although their
interactions will still concern a common domain.
However, despite this diversity, all
participating agents are designed by the same
team designing the system and will share common
domain knowledge. Increasingly, standard agent
communications languages, such as FIPA ACL, are
used, but interaction protocols remain
non-standard. These systems are able to handle
large numbers of agents in pre-determined
environments, such as those of Grid applications
and Agentcities. Development of these systems
will increasingly use topdown methodologies, such
as the AUML and GAIA methodologies, or middle-out
methodologies supporting applications based on
service-oriented architectures. Example systems
developed in this phase include those to enable
automated scheduling coordination between
different departments of the same company,
closed-user groups of manufacturing suppliers
engaged in electronic procurement activities, or
network-centric operations.
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Phase 3 Medium-Term Future (c. 20062008) In the
third phase, multi-agent systems will permit
participation by heterogeneous agents, designed
by different designers or teams. Any agent will
be able to participate in these systems, provided
their (observable) behaviour conforms to
publicly-stated requirements and standards.
However, these open systems will typically be
specific to particular application domains, such
as B2B eCommerce or Bioinformatics. The languages
and protocols used in these systems will be
agreed and standardised, perhaps being drawn from
public libraries of alternative protocols. These
libraries will likely differ by domain.
Ontologies, in particular, will be important to
master this semantic heterogeneity..
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(c. 2009 onwards) Truly open and fully-scalable
agent systems Agents learn appropriate
protocols and behaviour upon entry to system
Languages, protocols, and behaviours emerge from
actual agent interactions. Evolving
organisational structure with multiple, dynamic,
interacting organisations. Self-modifying agent
communications languages.
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Service agent

• A service agent is a service that helps you work
  with other services. Often supplied by the
  provider of the target service, the agent runs
  topologically close to the application consuming
  the service. It helps both to prepare requests to
  a service and to interpret responses from the
  service.

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System architecture
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Educational standards

• The standards play important role in new vision
  to the education systems and proposed
  architecture. The IMS Global Learning Consortium,
  headquartered in Burlington Massachusetts, is a
  specification authoring organization comprised of
  distributed computer learning system vendors,
  publishers, digital content vendors, government
  agencies, universities, schools, training
  organizations, and other interested parties.

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• Thank You!!!