An Integrated Framework for Distributed Learning Environments

Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on the use of computer-based education and training as a means of widening and improving the skills base in society at large. The widespread success of the web as an interactive distribution medium has made it a natural choice for the delivery of training materials. Although there are now a plethora of educational resources on the web, they mostly suffer from a lack of integration. This paper is concerned with the need for integrated distributed learning environments which address both the traditional pedagogic needs of tutors and students, and at the same time meet systems architecture requirements such as low response times and high availability. A framework is described which provides strong support for group working, generic management facilities and hooks for integrating subject-specific resources. In contrast to other approaches the framework also addresses system-level need; far integrated concurrency control in both local and distributed scenarios.