An overview of agent technology and its application to subject management

Agent software is an emerging technology that has its roots firmly in AI research. With the recent proliferation of ‘agent’ applications in areas such as e-commerce and Internet marketing, much of the application of agents can now said to be in the domain of Information Systems. One of the possible applications of agent technology is that of web-based courseware, and in particular, subject management software. However, there is much confusion over just exactly what an agent is. This paper provides an overview of agent software and in particular that of autonomous agents. The application of autonomous agents to educational courseware and its benefits are discussed, and a project is described which is using autonomous agents to aid in webbased subject management tasks.