01443nas a2200193 4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260000900043653000800052653003100060653001800091653000800109653002300117100002000140245005700160300001000217490000700227520101500234 2004 d c200410aEKS10aExtensible knowledge space10alearning tool10aLMS10aweb-based learning1 aWasana Ngaogate00aEKS: Open-source Web-based Distributed Learning Tool a87-990 v143 a

Depending on the variety of servers in a university, servers are located in different faculties and/or departments. The computer system administrators maintain the servers separately and each server may contain different specialised software in order to serve academic staffs' and students' needs. However, it is possible that they want to use some special software in other servers. Therefore, all servers should be able to communicate to each other. Users interact with the system via web browsers using a simple computer. Using current free technologies, the EKS (Extensible Knowledge Space) tool is designed and implemented based on a distributed system as a pilot prototype of a doctoral student thesis. EKS monitors students' learning from the online teaching material, feeding back to the teacher essential information that can in turn be used to continuously upgrade or extend the knowledge space. The final system will be able to serve students' needs at the right time with the right material.