Synchronous support and monitoring in web‐based educational systems

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the design of a context‐aware service for synchronous support in web‐based educational systems.Design/methodology/approach – The proposed service supports synchronous interaction among tutors and students, based on their current context, thus increasing the communication channels, the reasoning and the exchanging of ideas.Findings – The proposed service introduced here gives additional value to distance learning educational systems, as it transforms the web from a medium primarily used for asynchronous communication into a synchronous one.Originality/value – As educational institutes move their content online and open universities support lessons through the internet, services like the proposed one are of general value.

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