Cooperative agent-supported learning with WeLearn

Distance education sometimes suffers from the problem that the environment is powerful, but also complicated to learn and to use. This detracts from the learning process and poses an initial barrier against acceptance. Also, groupwork is one of the problem areas in DE, as this usually means geographic distribution and asynchronicity, which both impede cooperation. We propose the integration of intelligent agents into learning platforms to ameliorate some of these problems by automating routine tasks and creating added value by themselves (e.g. providing new navigational paths, offering personalized simple coaching, facilitating contact between learners). These agents cannot and should not replace coaches, but rather ease their tasks and help learners find others and cooperate with them. The importance of metadata for agent integration is also touched briefly accompanied by a discussion of the applicability of agent-oriented engineering for online learning platforms.