如何应对网上短时学习需求高峰——学习成本节约策略研究

对多数开放大学来说,事实上,在许多大学中,总是会出现这样的情况,所有学生要在同一段时间内集中完成一些网上学习活动。这些活动通常造成学生在一定时间内蜂拥上网。由于学生较好的上网时间选择有限,网上学习拥挤高峰情况就会变得很糟。在通常情况下,只有那些最早上网的学生才能获得最佳在线学习机会。在马来西亚开放大学,当学生确认开设科目和占用网络槽口选择会面时间表的时候,往往就会出现网上使用高峰。大多数学生都会尽早赶去上网以确保能在时间安排表中获得网上会面的机会。那些可以利用的信息技术资源与功能,诸如互联网带宽和服务器等无法应付这些短时网络需求高峰。除非这些需求高峰得到满足,否则网络服务的速度将会迅速变慢,最终导致网络使用者排长队等候网络服务。假如可以提供超额的网络容量,要是可能的话,以确保这些短时需求高峰得到满足,那就不可能有成本效应。因为在大多数时间里,这些网络资源都没有得到充分利用。本论文着重探讨一些具有成本效应的方法以应对和满足短时网络高峰的需求。

Coping with Short-Term Sustained Peak Demands-Several Cost-Effective Strategies

For most open universities, in fact for most universities, there will arise occasions when some online activities will have to be completed by all students in a very short time interval. These occasions usually result in a great rush to get online as quickly as possible; the rush is often made worst by the limited good choices on offer such that usually only the earliest can get the best. Choosing and confirming elective subjects, when only a limited number for each are offered, on a first-come-first-served basis is an example. At the Open University Malaysia the rush occurs when confirming offered subjects and choosing face-to-face meeting timetable. Most students rushed to be earliest to ensure choice slots in the timetable are obtained. Available I.T. resources such as Internet bandwidth and servers cannot cope with these short-term sustained peak demands. Unless these peak demands are met, however, online services will slow down drastically resulting in long queues of users waiting to be served. Providing excess capacity, if at all possible, to ensure these short duration peak demands can be met would not be cost-effective since most of the time these resources are not utilised. This paper will look at some cost-effective approaches to meeting these short-term peak demands.