Autonomic Computing is a promising new concept in system development. It aims to (i) increase reliability by designing systems to be self-protecting and self-healing; and (ii) increase autonomy and performance by enabling systems to adapt to changing circumstances, using self-configuring and self-optimizing mechanisms. This paper discusses the type of system architecture needed to support such objectives.

The authors of this paper are based at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Darryl Charles specialises in computational intelligence for games and virtual worlds. Michael McNeill is interested in graphics algorithms and interaction within the same context. Therese Charles is currently completing her PhD studies in the area of game based learning, under the supervision of Dave Bustard and Michaela Black, who have an interest in innovative approaches to e-learning and teaching in general. AbstractIt is generally accepted that informative and timely feedback is important to a student's learning experience within higher education. In the study of commercial digital games it has also become increasingly understood that games are particularly good at providing effective feedback of this form to gameplayers. We discuss recent game based learning research that attempts to harness the motivating qualities of digital games to inform the design of educational technology. Results from this research demonstrate student participation and performance can be improved by providing Game-Based Feedback (GBF) to students. The GBF approach awards points to students for the successful completion of tasks throughout a course of study. Points and achievements accumulated over time builds a profile that provides a student with a potentially powerful representation of their educational identity. In this paper, we argue that virtual worlds are particularly suitable for this form of GBF and can further enhance a student's understanding of their educational standing. We outline a Virtual Learning Landscape (VLL) design that is embedded within a multi-user virtual environment, where educational feedback is supplied to students via their avatar and a virtual world's landscape. The core structural principles of the proposed VLL are explained and several examples of the use of the VLL are provided to illustrate the system. IntroductionIn comparison to secondary school, university can be a complex learning experience for students. In particular, students find that they have much more responsibility for their own learning. Degree courses have fewer timetabled classes and class sizes are often significantly larger. Typically, attendance, while encouraged, is not compulsory, and contact time with teachers is much less than they are used to. It may be argued that to be successful on a degree, a student needs to learn how to learn within the university context. They must understand that learning within a university is about understanding the processes and systems that help them build skills and knowledge. It is about forming good learning habits: good attendance, preparing for class, reflection, good communication with peers and teachers, reading around a topic, consistent work ethics, knowing who to go when in trouble, and other implicit institutional expectations. From a university teaching perspective, the focus is naturally placed on the communication of compul-

Autonomic Computing is emerging as a significant new approach to the design of computing systems. Its goal is the development of systems that are selfconfiguring, self-healing, self-protecting and selfoptimizing. Dependability is a long-standing desirable property of all computer-based systems. The purpose of this paper is to consider how Autonomic Computing can provide a framework for dependability.

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