The architecture of a framework for building distributed learning environment

Distributed learning environments (DLEs) are being cited as solutions to the ambitious political goals of better education, wider access and lower costs. The paper outlines the architecture of the TAGS framework (C. Allison et al., 2000) for building DLEs. The main features that the architecture facilitates are strong support for group work, anytime/anywhere access, the input of real world data, event monitoring facilities, authentication, authorisation and protection, and the controlling of delay between user actions and system responses. These features have required the development of an expanded view of quality of service (QoS) parameters. The architecture has been refined over a number of years as the result of collaborative development between users and programmers. In particular, we have found that the bringing together of systems programmers, computer science researchers and subject-specific educationalists has allowed needs to be identified and addressed effectively. We believe that TAGS makes it possible for educationalists to easily build DLEs that meet their needs.