Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Query Manager agent receives user service requests via the Connection agent, and may
communicate with various services. Once it has passed the request on to the services, all
service content is passed back to the Query Manager via the Content Adaptation agent. The
Profile Processor agent parses and validates received profiles (XML files) and creates a
Document Object Model (DOM) tree [W3C,2010]. Using this DOM tree the XML information
may be operated on, to discern the information most pertinent to the adaptation of service
content. The Content Adaptation agent receives requests-responses from the services,
queries the Profile Processor agent regarding the required context, and then either selects a
pre-packaged service content package which closely meets the requirements of the mobile
device, or applies a full transformation to the service content to meet the constraints of the
operating environment of the device.
The tasks undertaken by the Content Adaptation agent, the Scenario Manager agent and the
Profile Processor agent, enable the system to dynamically adapt to changing service
environments, even during a particular service session. Once the connection to a particular
service has been initialized and the service content adapted to the requisite format, the
Connection agent facilitates the transfer of the information to the user mobile device.
4. Fixed eLearning node
The fixed nodes of the DeLC are implemented as education portals, which provides
personalized educational services and teaching material. A standardized portal architecture
is described in this section, which is used as generic framework for implementation of
particular education portals for university and secondary school. The architecture has been
extended by intelligent components (agents, called assistants) in order to enhance the
flexibility, reactivity and pro-activeness of the portals.
4.1 Education portal architecture
The architecture of the educational portal is service-oriented and multi-layered, consisting of
three logical layers (Figure 6): user interface, e-services and digital libraries.
The user interface supports the connection between the users and the portal. Through it the
users can register in the system and create their own personalized educational environment.
The user interface visualizes and provides access for the user to services, depending on their
role, assigned during the registration.
Two kinds of e-services are located in the middle layer - system services and eLearning
services. The system services, called 'engines', are transparent for the users and their basic
purpose is to assist in the processing of the eLearning services. Using the information,
contained in the meta-objects, they can effectively support the activation, execution and
finalization of the eLearning services. In the current portal architecture the next engines are
implemented:
SCORM Engine;
Exams Engine;
Events and Remainders Engine;
Integration Engine;
User Profiling.
