Alert driven communications management for distance learning

The distance learning programs in The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) span not only Hong Kong but also many cities over a large area in China. To improve and monitor the quality of communications among students, tutors, and staff a communications management infrastructure that can handle requests and messages (refer to as alerts) in a timely manner is desperately needed. In this paper, we propose a sophisticated alert management system (AMS) for effective communications management in distance learning. We develop a model for specifying alerts, in which alerts are coupled with communication tasks and a set of parameters are captured for their routing and urgency requirements. Further, alerts also serve as a mechanism for integrating process and data. The AMS matches the specialties of tutors and staff to receive an alert, based on the alert specification. If the alert message is not acknowledged or handled by the deadline, the alert will be re-routed via other channels. We outline our implementation framework with Web services for communications among education partners and mobile devices for students and educators.