I-MINDS: An Agent-Oriented Information System for Applications in Education

In this paper, we describe an Intelligent Multiagent Infrastructure for Distributed Systems in Education (or I-MINDS) framework that applies an agent-oriented information system to education purposes. Our design employs distributed computing principles (i.e., Java Object Passing Interface and the Distributed Shared Object model) to facilitate cooperation among agents, data gathering and information dissemination, making the infrastructure portable, expandable and secure. Our motivations are to help teachers teach better and students learn better. A teacher, with the help of a teacher agent, is able to address important questions, and survey the profile of each student (that is automatically maintained by the teacher agent). A student, with the help of a student agent, is able to collaborate with other students without having to form the buddies group him or herself. Thus, with the agents and a collaborative multiagent system, the I-MINDS framework is able to manage, process, and share information intelligently.