resource manager for distance education systems goran kimovski vladimir trajkovik danco davcev...

Resource Manager for Distance Education Systems

Goran KimovskiVladimir TrajkovikDanco Davcev

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Skopje, Macedonia

THE WHOLE PICTURE

ADMINISTRATIONMODULES

STUDENT SERVICEMODULES

ACTIVITIES MODULES

STUDENT &COURSESDATA

COURSES

LIBRARY

TESTING

FORUM

MAIL

COURSECREATION LAB WORK

RESOURCEMANAGMENT

PROJ ECTWORK

Introduction

The general idea of the Resource Management system is to enable sharing of many different resources between as many users as possible.

The idea of the resource is not limited to some laboratory equipment. It can be some software application or some interface to data stored in a remote database for example.

Principles

object-oriented approachthe object communication is

standardizedstationary agents as entities that

work on different tasks in the systemall communication protocols within

Resource Manager are defined using XML

Logical Model:The architecture of the RM

server logdatabase

resourcedefinitionsdatabase

optional

run onrequest

optional

(real)resource

(real)resource…

resource simulation(Simulation Agent)

resource simulation(Simulation Agent)…

communicatinginterface

(CommunicationAgent)

communicatinginterface

(CommunicationAgent)

…

resource server(Resource Selector

Agent)

Resource Manager server (Server Agent)

resource view<display interface>

(View Agent)

resource view<display interface>

(View Agent)…

resource protocol II (RPII)

RM applet(Container Agent)

web-based userinterface

RM applet(Container Agent)…

web-based userinterface…

resource server(Resource Selector

Agent)…run onrequest

resourcedefinitionsdatabase

server logdatabase

resource protocol I (RPI)

Resource Manager Model: Class diagram

resource protocol I (RPI): do action get results

ViewAgent

Applet

Panel

ContainerAgent

<<Interface>> IViewAgent

ListBox

Button

TextField

Choice

View Classes

CommunicationAgent

<<Interface>> ICommunicationAgent

SimulationAgent

<<Interface>> ISimulationAgent

Implemented using DCOM

Resource Communication &

Simulation Classes

Server Classes

Thread

ServerAgent

ResourceSelectorAgent

Run on connection

request

resource protocol II (RPII): list all resources ask for specific resource

connect

run for specific resource

(real) resource

drive

Resource Manager Model:Collaboration diagram

9:run()10:getResults()

8:request()11:response()


4:manageRequest()


5:accept()3:connect()

14:notify()2:manageAction()

1:action() :ContainerAgent

:ViewAgent

:ServerAgent

:CommunicationAgent

:ResourceSelectorAgent

:SimulationAgent

:resource

XML defined protocol View Agent Resource Selector Agent

<CONNECT/> <ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/> <ACKNOWLEDGE> <ID>vlClient35</ID> <CODE>VLAB</CODE> </ACKNOWLEDGE>

<ACCEPTED> <ID>vlClient35</ID> <CODE>BALV</CODE> </ACCEPTED>

<RESOURCE> <ID>vlResource_Chem_Robot</ID> </RESOURCE>

<RESOURCE> <ID>vlResource_Chem_Robot</ID> <AVAILABLE>YES</AVAILABLE> </RESOURCE>

<REQUEST> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <COUNT>1</COUNT> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM> <TYPE>STRING</TYPE> <NAME>Direction</NAME> <VALUE>LEFT</VALUE> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> </REQUEST> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <RESPONSE> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <COUNT>3</COUNT> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM> <TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>x</NAME> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM> <TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>y</NAME> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM> <TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>z</NAME> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> </RESPONSE>

View Agent Resource Selector Agent <RESPONSE> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ERROR>

<NUMBER>0</NUMBER> <DESCRIPTION> No error. </DESCRIPTION> </ERROR>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <COUNT>1</COUNT> <CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM>

<TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>x</NAME> <VALUE>135</VALUE> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM>

<TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>y</NAME> <VALUE>23</VALUE> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> <ITEM>

<TYPE>NUMBER</TYPE> <NAME>z</NAME> <VALUE>-35</VALUE> </ITEM>

<CONTINUE>YES</CONTINUE> </RESPONSE> <DISCONNECT> <ID>vlClient35</ID> <CODE>BALV</CODE> </DISCONNECT>

<DISCONNECTED> <ID>vlClient35</ID> <CODE>VLAB</CODE> </DISCONNECTED>

Implementation

(real) resource

Web Browser

Web Page

Container Agent

Resource def.

Web Server

Resource Selector Agent

Web Server

Web site

Server Agent

View Agent

Server log

Resource Host

Communication Agent

Simulation Agent

The main components of the RM service

RM is implemented in Windows environment. All agents are developed in Java, with exception of Resource Simulation Agents, which are based on DCOM technology.

Implementation:Resource Manager in action

resource: Robot Car

resource: XML Validator

http://odl-skopje.etf.ukim.edu.mk/vlab/

Experimental Results

We involved end users (students) in functionality testing and used feedback from them to add all requested functionality

We involved 38 users from Macedonia and Italy in the usability and education efficiency analysis.

In general, users are satisfied with the RM usability

Conclusion

We extended the concept of distance education with adding a new service, that we call Resource Manager

By combining object-oriented design and definitions of common interfaces for the different types of agents for different types of resources, we designed extensible system, in which resources are added in an easy way.

resource manager for distance education systems goran kimovski vladimir trajkovik danco davcev...

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