Semantic Web and E-Learning

Upon discussing the possibilities of the semantic web I was intrigued on finding out more what the possibilities would be if the semantic web would be incorporated into an online learning scenario. I wished to find the effects semantic web might have, will it improve the learning experience? Or distract the learning experience? Or maybe just not have any particular major impact on the learning environment?

I tried reading and comparing some journals and online articles I found to find out more on this issue. Here are some interesting points I read about.

Roger Schank, one of the main helpers who founded the Learning Center at Carnegie Mellon University, came up with a new methodology design which eliminates the need of classes, lectures, tests and even programs. This involves the creation of a story in which the student has to live for a specific period, namely the Story-Centered Curriculum(SCC). The reasoning behind this curriculum is that students learn new skills effectively when the students is faced with different kinds of situations, where one has to decide what he/she needs to know and to do and also when helping others with a difficulty. Schank uses the ideology that “Effective learners come to understand when, why, and how they should use skills and knowledge” and this can be achieved as students are presented with “key just-in-time lessons” when faced with a situation and what is being learn has a high impact on the student making it probably easier and more likely to remember the information when needed. This concept enhance the teaching experience just like the Semantic Web has the potential to give a new dimension to the online learning experience as it provides the user personalised content. Having said this, the content will be of use and of higher quality to the online learner and thus can lead to the increase of development of skills and knowledge. “The potential of the Semantic Web could actually revolutionize the learning experience.”

The Semantic Web can thus be useful because at the end of it all, e-learning is not only about providing students with access to learning resources “ anytime, anywhere, via a repository of learning resources, but is also concerned with supporting such features as the personal definition of learning goals, and the synchronous and asynchronous communication, and collaboration, between learners and between learners and instructors” this can be highlight achieved through the system of Semantic Web and the ontology it uses. With the shift in the education paradigm, students are no longer “passive vessels ready to be filled with knowledge” but are active agents in the construction of their own knowledge and this can be enhance by not only limiting the experience to an environment of communication and sharing of content but to actual challenge the learner to adapt and find knowledge and one such manner is by providing and adequate e-learning environment which is enhanced by the Semantic Web’s power. “As e-Learning stretches across many subject areas, there is

a need to resolve semantic spaces between pedagogical and psychological learning theories, models, and

principles to make them identifiable for computer-based systems, whilst constructing teaching models where the educator, the system, and the learner evolve together. “

Vladan Devedzic who surveys important aspects of Web Intelligence (WI) in the context of AIED research discusses how WI broadens the learning experience as it can keep the content in the course up to date with the most recent content from the web whilst presenting it the material according to the learner model. “Automatic discovery, invocation, and composition of educational Web services can free the learner from many time-consuming activities that often disrupt the learning process itself.”

It is the new-generation Web that makes possible to express information in a precise, machine-interpretable form, ready for software agents to process, share, and reuse it, as well as to understand what the terms describing the data mean. It enables Web-based applications to interoperate both on the syntactic and semantic level (Hendler, 2001).

Apart from focusing on just the learning experience, semantic concepts can also be applied to learn administrations which could be beneficial to both the learner and the institution. This could be done by keeping the student and teacher management system’s information up to date with other administration systems for example updating the data about student attendance when a student makes an appointment at the medical center, without requiring and direct communication from the student. It’s not limited to just attendance but also to medical information about a student or about the staff or maybe the student’s classroom management ad behaviour which can be viewed by the student’s parents.

The major obstacle which is of utmost importance is the insurance of data security with the implementation and running of such systems. It must be ensured that elaborated methods of encryptions are employed to safeguard the intelligent systems to distinguish between the secure data and fake data and also verify the provider and rightful owner of the data. In fact “Lawmakers and government agencies have an influential part to play in promoting security.” Thus educaational organizations should ideally keep data secure while addressing issues around open access.

No wonder that it is anticipated that Ontologies and Semantic Web technologies will influence the next generation of elearning systems and applications.

References :

Moreale, E., & Vargas-Vera, M. (2004). Semantic Services in e-Learning: an Argumentation Case Study. Educational Technology & Society, 7 (4), 112-128.

Devedžić, V. (2004). Web Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence in Education. Educational Technology & Society, 7 (4), 29-39

Daly, C. (2009, April 9). The Semantic Web and E-learning . Retrieved December 2010, from eLearn Magazine: http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=77-1

Hend S. Al-Khalifa, H. C. (n.d.). The Evolution of Metadata from Standards to Semantics .

Lora Aroyo, D. D. (n.d.). The New Challenges for E-learning: The Educational Semantic Web.