Ant colony models for a virtual educational environment based on a multi-agent system

We have designed a virtual learning environment where students interact through their computers and with the software agents in order to achieve a common educational goal. The Multi-Agent System (MAS) consisting of autonomous, cognitive and social agents communicating by messages is used to provide a group decision support system for the learning environment. Learning objects are distributed in a network and have different weights in function of their relevance to a specific educational goal. The relevance of a learning object can change in time; it is affected by students', agents' and teachers' evaluation. We have used an ant colony behavior model for the agents that play the role of a tutor and organizing the group-work activities for the students.