19^th International CODATA Conference
Category: e-Learning

The Hypermedia Learning Object System – Exploiting Learning Objects In A Semantic Educational Web

Michael Engelhardt (engelh@fhtw-berlin.de)
Arne Hildebrand (hilde@fhtw-berlin.de)
Andreas Kárpáti (karpati@fhtw-berlin.de)
Torsten Rack (rack@fhtw-berlin.de)
Ivette Schmidt (schmidti@fhtw-berlin.de)
Thomas C. Schmidt (schmidt@fhtw-berlin.de)
Mathias Werlitz (werlitz@fhtw-berlin.de)
Computer Centre, FHTW Berlin, Germany

While eLearning systems become more and more popular in daily education, available applications lack opportunities to structure, annotate and manage their contents, as well as their interactive components in a high-level fashion. General efforts to improve these deficits are taken by initiatives to define rich meta data sets and a semantic web layer.

In the present paper we discuss aspects and opportunities of gaining structuring and interactivity schemes from semantic notions of components along the Hypermedia Learning Objects System (HyLOs) our prototypical implementation of an eLearning content management system. A transition from standard educational annotation to semantic statements of hyperlinks is discussed. Further on we introduce the concept of semantic link contexts as an approach to manage a coherent rhetoric of linking. A practical implementation is introduced, as well.

Furthermore we will discuss the opportunities and benefits from using eLearning Objects (eLOs) as a base entity for both meta data and content. HyLOs is based on a cellular eLO information model encapsulating meta data conforming to the LOM standard. Content management is provisioned on this semantic meta data level and allows for dynamically adaptable access structures and reuse of cellular information. Context aware multifunctional links, based on the semantic linking scheme, permit a systematic navigation depending on the learners and didactic needs, thereby exploring the capabilities of the semantic web.

HyLOs is built upon the more general Media Information Repository (MIR) and the MIR adaptive context linking environment (MIRaCLE), its linking extension. MIR is an open system supporting the standard XML, CORBA and JNDI. HyLOs benefits from manageable information structures, sophisticated access logic and high-level authoring tools like the eLO editor responsible for the semi-manual creation of meta data and WYSIWYG like content editing allowing for rapid distributed content development.