SWA-KMDLS: An Enhanced e-Learning Management System Using Semantic Web and Knowledge Management Technology Ahmad Kamil Mahmood, Noreen Izza Arshad, Ahmad Izuddin Zainal Abidin Computer and Information Sciences Department Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS {kamilmh, noreenizza, izuddin_z}@petronas. com.my
Ahmad Mukhlason Information System Department Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember ahmad.
[email protected]
Abstract
trend that has also been discussed in the same breath with e-business and e-commerce area. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD, www.astd.org) noted that e-Learning has represented an increasing percentage in the training and education industry. A recent study by International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that in 2007 the worldwide e-Learning market reached $15.9 billion and was predicted to continue growing [1]. However, the early promise of e-Learning yet to be fully realized. eLearning, for many years, has been no more than a handout which is published online, coupled with simple multiple-choice quizzes [2]. Users' feedback are rather disappointing and e-Learning investments lack of intangible result in organizations [3]. The Semantic Web (SW) promises advancement in the intelligent e-Learning system design and development by enabling more appropriate representation for the learners, in term of learning goals, learning materials, contexts of usage, as well as more efficient access and navigation to the learning resources. The SW and SW technologies offer us a new approach to managing information and processes; the fundamental principle of which is the creation and use of semantic metadata. At its simplest, the results can be clustered by meaning instead of a search providing a linear list of results. Knowledge Management (KM), which is an approach to capture, organizes and store the knowledge instead of information within an organization, on the other hand, has been developed within the business context. The recent interest in organizational knowledge has prompted the use of KM in order to process and manage the knowledge to the organization's benefit. SW couple with KM has significantly enhanced functionality through an integrated combination of a substantial portion of the information and communication tools and systems.
In knowledge economy age in which knowledge have become the most precious resource, e-Learning is used to not only acquire knowledge but also to maintain competitiveness and advantages for individuals or organizations. However, the early promise of e-Learning has not beenfully realized. In most of its implementation, it is not more than a handout being published online. This paper aims to exploit the Semantic Web (SW), Knowledge Management (KM) technology two emerging and promising technology to enhance the existing eLearning Management System (LMS). An Ontology approach that is the backbone of SW and KM is introduced for developing (semi-) automatic ontological knowledge base construction system (SAOKBCS) and automated question answering system (Aquas) in the proposed e-Learning system. The experiment conducted has shown that the SAOKBCS can extract concept that is the main component of Ontology from text learning object with precision of 86.67%, thus saving the expert time and effort to build Ontology manually. Additionally the experiment on Aquas has shown that more than 80% of users are satisfied with answers provided by the system. The expert locator framework can also improve the performance ofAquas in thefuture use.
1. Introduction In this era of knowledge economy in which knowledge have become the most precious resource, eLearning makes more sense than ever before as a media that is used not only to acquire knowledge but also maintain competitiveness and advantages for individuals or organizations. e-Leaming has become a
978-1-4244-5700-7/10/$26.00 ©2009 IEEE
335
The fundamental objective of this paper is to investigate the use ofSW and KM technology in easing the limitations in the legacy e-Learning system in which e-Learning is viewed separately from KM and developed in SW-unaware environment toward SWaware KM driven e-Learning management system (SWA-KMDLS).
2. SWA-KMDLS Framework The distinctive point of the proposed SWA-KMDLS compared with the existing legacy LMS consist of three folds. The first fold is the Ontological approach for Learning Object (LO) management by developing "(Semi-) Automatic Ontological Knowledge Base Construction System" (abbreviated SAOKBCS) that is depicted by figure 1.
ti
l!! c=r: ---'L-....:... Uplo.dLM.
1
~
Figure 3 - Onto-Aquas Framework Finally, the last fold is the "Expertise Finding and Mapping Locator" framework to encourage knowledge sharing in e-Learning environment that is depicted by figure 4.
:. . - ~ ~..~-®
=:::.
" - '
............
Perso rW
Re port
h o m l! p a ~
•
I
Mediating l a ....
D 3.tJ.ba JI!
t;m l, I, • • • II
I OWL da ta bas e
I ...
~ nowledg~ nto log iC"'v ~ ~ :;;> "".::; ,
