KR20020021461A - Scheduling System and Methods for the Course Registration of Remote Internet Education - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A system and method for scheduling registration of remote education are provided to offer a stable service to a user and to secure the financial benefit and the highest system working ration of a provider by serving the optimized scheduling way. CONSTITUTION: A registration schedule input part(1) is a module for a student to sign up a new subject. A schedule logic part(2) is a module for checking, blocking, and scheduling registration columns. An arrow of a connection schedule table(3) means the period until the user is decreased. The schedule logic part manages the registration schedule on the basis of the sum of persons per column of the connection schedule table. In conclusion, a server system can limit the number of the user and provides more stable service to the user.

Description

Scheduling System and Methods for the Course Registration of Remote Internet Education

The present invention is to provide a stable service to the user by limiting and adjusting the maximum number of concurrent users in the multimedia-oriented distance education service, and at the same time to contribute to the revenue generation by accepting the maximum number of people in the service provider. This can be done by controlling the duration of each course and the time of the course in relation to the load of the server system during the course registration schedule.

In the current Internet distance education service, either a multicasting method or a unicasting method is used. In multicasting, the load on the server is relatively minor, but mechanisms for paying user verification, such as identifiers and passwords, are technically impossible. As a result, unicasting is inevitable even for the high load on the server.

If a general internet connection is a bulletin board or simple information search, the user will be connected for a relatively short time and then disconnected.However, in the distance learning service using unicasting, once a user connects for a relatively long time until the end of the lecture This should be maintained. Therefore, as a server, a lot of load is applied in terms of communication bandwidth and application service, and if the system does not support this properly, the user must bear the quality degradation of the multimedia information such as image quality and voice.

In consideration of this point, the present invention presupposes that the maximum number of simultaneous users is limited for each time zone and the learners are accepted only within the range. The maximum number of concurrent users is determined to provide enough stable services to individual participants considering the size of files used in the course, the performance of the entire server system, the communication bandwidth supported by the server, and the system overhead.

The prior art in this field is without the concept of predicting the maximum number of concurrent users in the server system and the limitations of the communication bandwidth, data collection for the connection number and access time and correlation analysis based thereon. It is true that relatively many users have been exposed to poor service by unconditionally accepting many users as paid members. In other words, if a paid member is able to connect at any time, the communication line and the system are frequently interrupted or overloaded, and thus the user is not connected, disconnected from the connected state, or media such as voice or video during the connection. There has been a deterioration in the quality of service, such as the fact that data is received at random instead of continuously.

In the present invention based on the maximum number of concurrent users determined as described above, the present invention manages the course registration according to the course period and the time period of the course, and provides a stable service to the user by providing an optimized scheduling method to meet the course schedule desired by the user. For educators, revenues are guaranteed through maximum system uptime and the right number of users.

The main purpose of the present invention is to increase the profitability of the distance education company by presenting an optimized scheduling method in the course registration for distance education. Technically, the present invention relates to a method of assigning individual enrollees at a predetermined time period and a predetermined time period, and to create a schedule for enrolling courses optimized to maximize system usage.

Figure 1 is a schedule registration schedule for distance learning

In order to achieve the above object, the components and the construction process for the course registration schedule of the present invention are as shown in FIG. 1;

As a prerequisite of the present invention, the maximum number of concurrent users is assumed. In other words, it is assumed that the server system of a given distance education company can simultaneously accommodate the number of users simultaneously and limit the number of users connected in all time periods within this range and provide stable bandwidth service to each user. .

The course schedule input unit 1 of FIG. 1 is a module for receiving input from a person who wants to take a new course. Input data such as the student's personal information, the desired course, and the desired course schedule are accepted by this module. Course schedule The most important thing in the input unit 1 is the course schedule. Unlike the conventional distance learning site, the course schedule is restricted in the present invention. That is, instead of allowing frequent access 24 hours a day, a certain time zone is set and the course is allowed only within that time zone. By doing so, the maximum number of users can be limited in each time zone, and as a result, a stable service can be provided to users.

In the schedule input unit 1, the user is required to provide two inputs in addition to the course registration course. You must enter the course timeline with the desired start date for when you will start the course. The time zone can be determined by the distance education company investigating the user's requirements. For example, if a course can be taken continuously for about 3 hours a day, 8 course hours can be set for 24 hours a day using 3 hours as a unit. If necessary, you can set up a time zone by adding extra time to the student to access and wait for the start of the course or to review after the course.

In fact, as a server system, the multimedia information for lectures can be exported 24 hours a day, but the user is controlled to watch only the registered time zone. Accordingly, the present invention includes a method in which a student who attempts to access at a time other than the time zone registered for each subject is unable to connect, and the student who is continuously accessing the time slot is blocked from accessing the course. Specifically, it reads the corresponding time zone for each student by searching the course registration database and compares it with the current time at the specified time point to the software module that disconnects the network session or stops the application service if necessary. It is composed by.

The schedule logic unit 2 is a module that is responsible for scheduling based on the course enrollment subject and the desired course time period inputted from the course schedule input unit 1, including checking and blocking the enrolled course. In practice, the operation of the schedule logic section 2 is performed based on the data of the connection schedule 3 stored in the file or the database 4.

The left column of the connection number table 3 lists the types of streams. In other words, S1, ..., Sm means m courses available. T1, ..., and Tn for each subject indicate the time zone. In addition, D1, D2, ... indicated by the upper row of the connection staff table 3 mean a date. As a result, each cell of the access number table (3) refers to all members who are currently enrolled in the course by the subject, the date, and the corresponding time.

For example, if a total of a person is assigned to the S1 course in the T1 time zone on the day of D24, the cell contains the number a as shown in the chart. For distance education providers, service prices can be differentiated over time, which is the way to maximize the system's efficiency by distributing users from the system's point of view.

The arrows indicated in the corresponding time zones of the connection schedule 3 indicate the period until the number of users decreases. For example, a T1 time zone user of the S1 program means that at least one user will be reduced on day D27. Therefore, if the lecture service of the subject can be conducted on D27 and D28, it does not mean that the lecture service of the subject is stopped.

The schedule logic unit 2 manages the course registration schedule based on the total data of the number of persons in each column of the connection table 3. From the server's point of view, there is no difference in overall load whether the user watches the S1 course or the S2 course during the T1 time zone. Therefore, in the course registration schedule, the total amount restriction is applied based on the sum of each cell value of the corresponding column.

If there is a course registration, the system provided by the present invention asks a desired course, a desired time period, and a desired course date, and each information is mapped to the corresponding S, T, and D. The applicant's desired course will be considered fixed and the first available date will be determined for each desired time slot. For example, suppose a subscriber uses the S1 program for several weeks starting at D24 in the T1 time zone. At this time, the optimization algorithm applied by the constant logic unit 2 is as follows;

Optimization algorithm

I. For all subjects in column D24 of the access schedule (3), add all the cell values of the time zone. For example, in the current connection schedule 3, the corresponding cell values are a, b, c, d and thus a + b + c + d is the current total booked on D24. If this value is less than the maximum number of concurrent users, use is allowed, but if it is greater than or equal to it, use is not allowed. When Umax is the maximum number of concurrent users that a server system can support, this constraint is expressed as a formula;

Umax ≥ a + b + c + d

II. Conversely, if this value is greater than or equal to the maximum number of concurrent users, the subscriber must wait for the start date. In this case, the optimization algorithm can calculate the earliest date available after D24. From a server system, even if there are fewer users in other subjects, you can use that time zone. For example, considering that the number of users of the S2 subject is decreasing first in the e cell of the access schedule (3), it is determined whether the above formula is satisfied by summing the corresponding cell values including the course applicant himself / herself on D26.

III. If this value does not satisfy the above formula, it is determined whether the formula is satisfied in order for the next date and the next date. The simplest method is to start with the student's desired date and calculate the satisfaction on a daily basis. Indeed, the system of the present invention controls the number of attendees every day consistently below the maximum number of concurrent users, so that even a single student can leave the course. Taking the current connection schedule 3 as an example, since the students are taken out in the order of the cells e, f, and g, the possible start dates are D26, D27, D28 and the like. In the course schedule output unit 5, the course applicant may provide some choices closest to the desired date.

Extending the application of such an optimization algorithm, it is possible to provide a course start date for various time periods. This is because different start times change the course start date. Therefore, when the user cannot start the course on the desired date at a certain time, the user can start the course on the desired date at another time. In the course schedule output unit 5, the course start date and the course available time zone are displayed using an appropriate screen interface.

The present invention provides an optimized course registration scheduling system and technique under the premise of controlling the maximum number of concurrent users in the Internet distance education service. This is possible by controlling the maximum number of concurrent users by time zone in consideration of the fact that the lecture place is a constraint in the field education, while the load of the server is the key in the distance education. The optimization algorithm of the present invention enables the remote education service provider to generate a profit by providing a stabilized service while accommodating a maximum number of participants by maximizing system performance.

Claims (2)

In the operating method of the Internet education enrollment system comprising an input unit for receiving data from a user, a central processing unit, a database for storing the input data, and a display unit for displaying the processed information, Presenting data of the database to the user for each course and time period; Receiving a course, course time, and course start date from a user; Calculating a total number of enrollees for the corresponding day and the corresponding time zone of the database based on the input start date and time zone; Determining whether (the preset maximum number of concurrent users-1) is greater than the total number of enrolled students; And If the (maximum number of concurrent users-1) is greater than or equal to the total number of students, the user's input is updated in the database, and (the preset maximum number of concurrent users-1) is the total number of students. If less, requesting re-entry, Operation method of the Internet education enrollment system to limit the maximum number of attendees at each time during the course enrollment phase. The method of claim 1, If the (Preset Maximum Number of Simultaneous Joiners-1) is less than the total number of students enrolled, the database is searched based on the courses and time zones entered by the user and the (Preset Maximum Number of Simultaneous Joiners-1) And presenting to the user a date that is greater than or equal to the total number of enrollees.