Semantic Web Architecture and its Impact on E-learning Systems Development

Abstract

The Semantic Web is the next giant step of the current web technology. The use and application of the Semantic Web in E-learning has been explored with regard to two areas: 1) software that supports instructors to perform their tasks in flexible online educational settings, and 2) software that interprets the structure of distributed, self organized, and self-directed web-based learning. These two application areas and related tasks require a semantic representation of educational entities and pedagogical material, specifically the structure and the techniques of the teaching-learning process. In most E-learning systems users are able to manage and reuse learning contents according to their needs without any access problems. The main objectives of this study are: how can e-learning take advantage of Semantic Web technology, and how to integrate the Semantic Web technologies with e-learning systems, taking into consideration the standards and reusable learning objects (LO), and to show the advantages of improving the descriptions of content, context and structure of the learning material. The main goal of this article it to introduce an updated E-learning model based on the latest Semantic Web architectures.