A Pervasive Computing Platform for Individualized Higher Education

Advances in database management, distributed computing, computational intelligence, and especially pervasive systems, provide fertile ground for radical changes in pedagogy. We propose a pervasive educational platform that builds on these technologies to facilitate customization of courses and degree programs to the needs, interests, and backgrounds of individual students. Computer-based teaching tools are coupled with remote access to course content to present the same information in different ways, to accommodate differences in learning styles; encourage active, rather than passive learning; allow self-pacing, privacy, and flexibility; and ensure efficient utilization of resources. In this platform, an educational system, e.g., an undergraduate degree program in computer science, is viewed as a collection of three communities; the student community, the degree (or program) community, and the instructor/advisor community. In each community, the members are represented by software agents. Each agent carries sufficient intelligence and knowledge to allow communication and negotiation among agents. The platform aims to achieve a virtual one-to-one student/faculty ratio for the purposes of mentoring, advising, guiding, and educating students.