Grid-based Environment, Distance Learning Management Studies

With the development of distance education, the contradiction between its scale and quality becomes increasingly serious. Distance learning management can play an important role in quality assurance of distance education. The focus on the improvement of education quality, made learning management become the front edge research field of distance education. The distance learning management referred to resource sharing and cooperative work that take placed between/in a number of organizations by large scale of peoples, such as students, teachers and administrators. However, the existing LMS still couldn't support such kinds of large-scale resource sharing and cooperation. "Grid" computing has emerged as an important new field, distinguished from conventional distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications. The Grid can provide a new technology solution for distance learning management. Consequently, the study of distance learning management based on Grid Computing environments is valuable not only in theory but also in practice.From the learning perspective, this paper mainly focuses on the issues of distance educational management, proposed a theory framework for distance learning management. Within this framework, we introduced Grid Computing as an effective means of facilitating the sharing of distributed heterogeneous resources, enabling collaboration in large scale environments. In the meantime, we have chosen workflow as the core technology which facilitated learning management. With consideration of Grid environments, we investigated the application of Grid Workflow technology in learning management, especially Grid Workflow management system architecture and key technologies to implement this system.Based on systematic analyzed management theory, distance educational administration theory and the current status of related research fields, with a view to the nature of distance learning, the paper demonstrated the paradigm shift in modern distance educational administration which is from educational management to learn management and service. Study concludes that : distance learning through the effective management of the process, provide students with a quality learning support services, thereby promoting student learning and development is the nature of the distance learning management; Learners, learning processes and learning management services are the three core elements of distance learning. Depending on the three elements' intrinsic relationship, we proposed a theoretical model of distance learning management - "learners - process-services" (LPS). The model erected a bridge between the idea of distance learning service and the service-oriented architecture, so it could provide a theoretical guidance to the design and development of Learning Management System which based on service-oriented architecture.Using Grid Computing as a technical solution which tackled issues of sharing of distributed heterogeneous resources, enabling collaboration in large scale environments which distance learning management must be faced, we proposes a architecture of Learning Management System based on grid. The architecture was flexible educational platform architecture for e-Learning, which defined the key services for learning management application. For its' extensibility, this architecture was able to interlinked and interoperated...