Design and Development of a Multi-Agent E-Learning System

In this paper the authors present the design and software development of an E-learning system based on a multi-agent MAS architecture. The multi-agent architecture is established on the client-server model. The MAS architecture is combined with the Dynamic Content Manager DCM model of E-learning developed at Bergen University College, Norway. The authors first present the quality requirements of the system before they describe the architectural decisions taken. They then evaluate and discuss the benefits of using a multi-agent architecture. Finally, the MAS architecture is compared with a pure service-oriented architecture SOA to observe that a MAS architecture has a lot of the same qualities as this architecture, in addition to some new ones.