IDENTIFICATION OF ONTOLOGY BASED

LEARNING OBJECT USING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

H. Srimathi*, , S.K. Srivatsa**

*Senior Lecturer, SRM University, India
**Senior Professor, St. Joseph’ College of Engineering, India
harisrimathi@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT
The success of e-Learning course material [12,18] is based on the pedagogical
principles. Few of the principles are curriculum design with specific objectives,
consideration of different social groups, learner engagement, ease of use, and
ensure the acquisition of learning objectives with formative and summative
assessment. But due to over-focusing on technology and dissemination of content,
the educational pedagogy is less considered which insists on learner-centric
guidelines [1,13,14] for developing Learning Content Management System
(LCMS). The characteristics of semantic web is based on ontologies; which
enable the organization of learning materials around small pieces of semantically
enriched learning objects (LO). The research aims on ontology based approach of
identifying such learning objects; which combines educational pedagogy and
information technology through Instructional Design (ID).

Keywords: LCMS, Semantic Web, Ontology, Protégé, OWL, .

1 INTRODUCTION example and set of rules for dynamically generating

personalized associations.
The evolution in the field of Information
Technology made a frequent revision on 2 APPLICATION OF ID PRINCIPLES
implementation of eLearning with the new
innovations. The technology should be chosen which Instructional Design (ID) is defined as a
promises the promotion of personalization, systematic development of instructional content
distribution, creation and reusability of LO [10,15]. using learning and instructional theories to ensure the
XML is the most promising technology [16] to quality of education [12, 19]. It motivates self-paced
employ the specific parts of learning objects for the learning among students. The major classes to be
adaptation of the user centric cognitive styles with integrated through ID in the fields of Education
XSLT style sheets following the rule-based design Pedagogy and Information Technology are presented
pattern approach. However there is a lack of formal in Fig. 1.
semantics inherent in XML to achieve semantic
interoperability [4,5]. OWL (web ontology language),
the semantic web technologies are promising
solution to give an explicit definition of
conceptualization of a specified domain and
assembling learning objects [2,17,20]. The ontology
integrated with the learner profile generates better
results in an e-Learning LCMS System [8] and could
be used in combination with multi-agent
technologies for deriving personalized learning paths.
The identification of LO in eLearning systems is
developed using Protégé; which is an open source
software that provides an extensible infrastructure
and allows the easy construction of domain ontology.
Figure 1: Conceptual Class representation
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2
The simple structure of LCMS in Fig. 2 can be
describes the application of ID; Section 3 describes
made interactive with the chosen learning activities.
This insists the suitable mapping of Education
Pedagogy and Information Technology through one
of the simplest ID model ADDIE (Analysis, Design,
Develop, Implement and Evaluate) and generated in
Fig. 3 using OntoViz tool. It is useful to enhance the
lesson content with additional learning objects to
promote positive learning experience by learners.
The phases of ADDIE are processed iteratively to
define the “Instructional Design Template” for the
course content preparation.
The learning style is carefully mapped with other
classes in Fig. 4. It is true from the observation that
the revised conceptual model of LCMS (Fig. 5)
expanded with the identified learning activities in the Figure 2: Structure of LCMS
instructional process aimed on a “Learner-centric”
approach. However, elearning is still facing a The defined LCMS structure promotes only the
problem of “one-size-fits-all” philosophy, a resulting static learning; does not change according to
cognitive overload, and the lack of personalization. learners’ models. The whole lesson or course runs as
single file in the form of flash tutorial; mpeg movie
or in specified file format and considered as a single
Learning Object (LO).

Figure 3: ADDIE maps Education Pedagogy and Information Technology

 Figure 4: Learning Style mapped with other components
Figure 5: Learner-centric LCMS Conceptual Model
The well-formed structure of Elearning with the
multimedia design will be heightened when it is
dynamically personalized to individual learners. The
learners learning experience will be natural / “on the
fly” based on their learning experience [11]. The
dynamic learning insists the construction of dynamic
LO from loosely-bound content objects and has the
flexibility to allow for run-time content organizing.
Then it is possible to include examples/illustrations
based on learners’ profile. Some of the issues [3] to
be addressed on achieving such a personalized
learning are: How to integrate specific parts of a
learning object, rather than learning object as a
whole?; How to personalize content of same learning
object according to learners’ models ?; and so on.
The key characteristic of Semantic Web architecture
promises a powerful approach to satisfy the
Elearning requirements. Learning material is
semantically annotated and combined according to
learner preference [6]. The process is based on
semantic querying and navigation through learning
materials, enabled by the ontological background [7].
3 DYNAMIC LO
The personalization of learning system should be
made to support individual learner. There will be an
initial assessment made to identify the learner’s
category and stored in learner’s profile as shown in
Table 1. The profile formed on first time login, and
based on the query answered by the learner can be
dynamically changed over a period of time; because
of continuous monitoring and updated. The first
stage of learner profile concerns the learning domain,
where all the learners are default identified as
Behavior learner. The learning style of media
presentation is considered in the next stage. The third
stage highlights the learner skill set. It is identified
and updated dynamically based on different
assessment (prerequisite, self-check exercise,
criterion-referenced exercises, Assignment) at
various levels. The stages of semantic decisions are
assessed with more emphasis on learning theory and
skill matrix.
The dynamic content page is constructed with
the set of minimum LO for different kind of learners
as given in Fig. 6 with the code snippet displayed in
Fig 7. More additional examples should be added
dynamically for learners with low skill based on
learner performance and feedback [9]. The sample
reasoning rules in Table 2, to reason over the
distributed information sources. The personalized
navigation of dynamic page can be achieved with
web services by invoking the web method. The
pedagogical semantic agents will be used to gather
information of learner profile and group the related Table 2: Reasoning Rules
learning objects. The dynamic activation of web link
is achieved in .Net platform using web services. The Learner Bundled Learning Objects
code snippet of “Activateurl” method is shown in Fig. Type
Behavior  has LO1 and LO2 and LO3 and LO4 and
8. The overall framework of sequencing learner LO5 and LO6 and LO7
adaptation is derived in Fig. 9. Cognitive  has Behavior and LO6a
Constructive  has Cognitive and LO6b
Table 1: The learning Characteristics of Learner

Attribute Value
Beh: Behavior
Learning [Learning Objective, Prerequisite, Content,
Domain Example, Hands On, Self Check Exercise,
Summary]
Cog: Cognitive
[View and Build, Apply and Learn, Case
Study, Group Discussion, Criterion Ref.
Exercise, Lab Exercises]
Con: Constructive:
[Do it Yourself, Explore It, Role Play,
Simulation, Research]
Media Preference
Learning A:Audio, V:Video, T:Text, P:Picture
style M:Animation
Low, Medium, High
Skill Matrix Figure 7: Code snippet of learning sequence

Figure 8: Code snippet of ActivateURL web method

Figure 6: Learning Objects Based on Learner

: l e a r n e r p r o fi l e : a d a p t a t io n e n g in e : le a rn in g o b je c t

: L e a rn e r
1 : U p d a t e le a rn e r C h a ra c t e ris t ic s
2: R e q u e s t t o L e a rn

3 : O b t a in L e a rn e r M o d e l

4: F o rm a A d a p t a t io n R u l e

5: R e t r i e ve L e a r n i n g O b j e c t
6: R e s p o n s e t o le a r n e r

Figure 9: Sequence of Personalization (UML Diagram)

4 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a conceptual framework of
integrating education pedagogy and information
technology through ID model is adapted. The
primary aim of this study is to minimize the drop-out
rate of elearning and promote the personalization.
Further investigations will concentrate on
multidimensional learning profile, and reasoning
rules for more complex situations.
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