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In this paper an application of software agents is described, aimed at supporting students working on team projects in the online situation. Online teamwork is problematical for a number of reasons, such as getting acquainted with team members, communications between members and knowing what progress has been made on the project. Software agents have the ability to monitor progress and offer advice by operating in the background to act autonomously when the need arises. An agent prototype has been developed to perform a limited set of functions to support students, and the results of a trial carried out using teams working on projects are discussed.
Janice Whatley (Wed,) studied this question.