Intelligent web-based experiment management system using multi-agent concept

Many web-based online learning systems focus more on textual and/or image based content delivery without including experiment systems, or if included they are usually operated under pre-defined conditions, such as fixed scenarios and pre-determined delivery orders. These limitations hinder personalized learning and collaboration between students and discourage student engagement. To circumvent these limitations, an Intelligent Web-based Experiment Management System (IWEMS) using multi-agent concept is presented. In the system, three kinds of software agents are used: (i) Student-Agent, responsible for assessing the knowledge levels of students. A fuzzy set based algorithm is used and the results are plotted through a dynamic polar chart; (ii) Teacher-Agent, responsible for tracking experiment progress of each student and recommending personalized the next-to-do experiment to him or her; and (iii) Co-Agent, responsible for group formation based on similar knowledge levels to facilitate collaborative learning between students. A prototype of this system is developed using a Java Agent Development Framework(JADE), where a client/server architecture and a MySQL database are used. It demonstrates the validity of the design and effectiveness of this system's functionality, achieves the personalization recommendation of next-to-do experiment and collaborative learning environment.