Conclusions

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We have discussed an integrated approach to designing and developing adaptive distributed learning environments. The main objectives are to reduce the complexity of the development of distributed learning environments and to reduce the workloads of users (educators and learners) with personalized assistance in the environments where various resources are widely distributed, heterogonous, and ever-changing.

Web Services technology provides a new way to integrate existing systems or applications, and the ability to access data in a heterogeneous environment. In Web Services technology, rather than building large, closed systems, the focus is on flexible architectures that provide interoperability of components and learning content, and that rely on open standards for information exchange and component integration.

To reduce the information workload of educators and provide assistance to learners, distributed learning environments require that software not merely respond to requests for information but intelligently adapt and actively seek ways to support learners and educators. To take advantages of these two technologies, we advocate integrating agents and Web services into distributed learning systems.

For future work, we will address the semantics integration and knowledge management when using the approach proposed in this chapter.

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