System and Technology Advancements in Distance Learning

With the ever-increasing usage of distance learning programs in academia, the need for well-designed automated systems has become vital to the success of open and distance education. Practical solutions should be discovered and disseminated to meet the software needs of instructors, academic researchers, and software engineers. System and Technology Advancements in Distance Learning meets this need, outlining computational methods, algorithms, implemented prototype systems, and applications of open and distance learning. It is targeted toward academic researchers and engineers who work with distance learning programs and software systems, as well as general participants of distance education.

Fuhua Lin is a Professor and the Centre Chair of the School of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology, of Athabasca University, Canada. Dr. Lin has been conducting research in Computers in Education since 1986. He obtained his PhD in Virtual Reality from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1998. Prior to working in Athabasca University, Dr. Lin was an assistant research officer at the Institute for Information Technology (IIT) of the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada. Dr. Lin conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Calgary during 1998-1999.

Dr. Lin has garnered international recognition for his research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and agent-based educational systems. His current research interest is applying AI technology through constructing effective and efficient algorithms to address challenges that may exist in traditional educational systems and to enhance online and distance learning environments, e.g. incorporating intelligence into virtual worlds for e-learning to build engaging, personalized, and interactive social virtual learning environments for online learning. He is leading a research group, the Intelligent Educational Systems group, consisting of PhD students, MSc students, researchers, and international visiting scholars. As principal investigator, Dr. Lin has received various external research grants and awards.

Dr. Lin has more than 80 publications, including edited books, journal papers, book chapters, conference papers, and reviews. He is the editor of the book Designing Distributed Learning Environments with Intelligent Software Agents published by IGI Global and is co-editor of the book Intelligent and Adaptive Learning Systems: Technology Enhanced Support for Learners and Teachers. Dr. Lin is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Distance Education Technologies. He has served as an invited reviewer for many international journals.