Learning and Semantic Web
G. Santhosh Kumar
Dept. Of Computer Science
Cochin UniversityPage 2

What is Semantic Web?
?
Components of Semantic Web
?
Ontology
?
E-Learning @ Semantic Web
?
Advantages
?
Semantic Applications
AgendaPage 3

Size of the web
Size of the web
Y
The Indexed Web contains at least
45.33 billion pages
(Thursday, 07
February, 2008).
?
numbers of pages indexed by Google,
Windows Live Search (Msn Search),
Yahoo Search and Ask
?
Actual Size of the Web is higher than
this!Page 4

Types of Search Engines
Types of Search Engines
?
Keyword or Robot based
Google (google.com)
Alta Vista (altavista.com)
Fast (alltheweb.com)
Wisenut (wisenut.com)
?
Directory Based
Yahoo (yahoo.com)
About (about.com )
Looksmart (looksmart.com)Page 5

Types of Search Engines
Types of Search Engines
(cont..)
(cont..)
?
Meta Index Based
Dogpile (dogpile.com)
Metacrawler (metacrawlerindex.html)
Surfwax (surfwax.com)
Hotbot (hotbot.com)Page 6

e-Learning Resources
e-Learning Resources
?
Text
?
Graphics
?
Audio
?
Video
?
Reusable Objects (SCO Model)
Scenario: I want to design a new
course, but from already existing
materials from the webPage 7

What is lacking?
Content Vs Context
?
Human Readable Vs
Machine ReadablePage 8

Semantic Web
Semantic Web
(Tim Berners-Lee )
(Tim Berners-Lee )
?
Semantic Web technologies help
separate meanings from data,
document content, or application code,
using technologies based on open
standards
?
If a computer understands the
semantics of a document, it doesn't just
interpret the series of characters that
make up that document: it understands
the document's meaning.Page 9

Semantic Web
Semantic Web
?
You can think of the Semantic Web as
an efficient way to represent data on
the World Wide Web, or as a database
that is globally linked, in a manner
understandable by machines, to the
content of documents on the WebPage 10

Components of Semantic
Components of Semantic
Web
WebPage 11

How to give meaning?
How to give meaning?
?
Semantic technologies represent
meaning using ontologies and provide
reasoning through the relationships,
rules, logic, and conditions represented
in those ontologies
an ontology is a data model that represents a set of
concepts within a domain and the relationships between
those concepts. It is used to reason about the objects
within that domain Page 12

Ontology
OntologyPage 13

Benefits of Using Semantic Web
Benefits of Using Semantic Web
as a technology for e-learing
as a technology for e-learing
?
Delivery
?
Responsiveness
?
Access
?
Symmetry
?
Modality
?
Authority
?
Personalization
?
AdaptivityPage 14

Delivery of Content
Delivery of Content
?
E-Learning: Pull “ Student determines
agenda
?
Semantic Web: Knowledge items
(learning materials) are distributed on
the web, but they are linked to
commonly agreed ontologie(s). This
enables construction of a user-specific
course, by semantic querying for topics
of interest.Page 15

Responsiveness
Responsiveness
w
E-Learning: Reactionary “ Responds to problem
at hand
?
Semantic Web: Software agents on the
Semantic Web may use commonly agreed
service language, which enables co-ordination
between agents and proactive delivery of
learning materials in the context of actual
problems. The vision is that each user has his
own personalized agent that communicates
with other agents.Page 16

Access
Access
?
E-Learning:
Non-linear “ Allows direct access
to knowledge in whatever sequence makes
sense to the situation at hand
?
Semantic Web:
User can describe situation
at hand (goal of learning, previous
knowledge,...) and perform semantic querying
for the suitable learning material. The user
profile is also accounted for. Access to
knowledge can be expanded by semantically
defined navigation.Page 17

Symmetry
Symmetry
E-Learning:
Symmetric “ Learning occurs as an
integrated activity
?
Semantic Web:
The Semantic Web (semantic
intranet) offers the potential to become an integration
platform for all business processes in an organization,
including learning activities.Page 18

Modality
Modality
/
E-Learning:
Continuous “ Learning runs in
parallel and never stops
?
Semantic Web:
Active delivery of
information (based on personalized agents)
creates a dynamic learning environment.Page 19

Authority
Authority
E-Learning:
Distributed “ Content
comes from the interaction of the
participants and the educators
?
Semantic Web:
The Semantic Web
will be as decentralized as possible.
This enables an effective co-operative
content managementPage 20

Personalization
Personalization
E-Learning:
Personalized “ Content is determined by
the individual userâ„¢s needs and aims to satisfy the needs
of every user
?
Semantic Web:
A user (using personalized agent)
searches for learning material customized for her/his
needs. The ontology is the page link between user needs and
characteristics of the learning materialPage 21

Adaptivity
Adaptivity
?
E-Learning:
Dynamic “ Content changes constantly
through user input, experiences, new practices, business
rules and heuristics
?
Semantic Web:
The Semantic Web enables the use
of knowledge provided in various forms, by semantical
annotation of content. Distributed nature of the
Semantic Web enables continuous improvement of
learning materials.Page 22

Semantic Apps
Semantic Apps
SPOCK : people search
http://spock
?
Freebase : Open, Shared database of
the worlds knowledge
http://freebase
Y
Powerset : Natural Language Search
http://powerset
q
Twine: Learns about you and creates
a semantic graph
http://twine
Hakia :
Natural Language SearchPage 23

References
References
Semantic Web : Scientific American (Dec
2007)
?
E-Learning based on the Semantic Web ,
Ljiljana Stojanovic, Steffen Staab, Rudi Studer(2002)
?
Ontologies and the Semantic Web for
E-learning,
Demetrios G Sampson , Miltiadis D.
Lytras (2004)
?
Semantic Web Meta-data for E-Learning ,
Mikael Nilsson, Matthias Palmér (2002)
?
Design of a Semantic Web-based
Brokerage Architecture for the E-
learning Domain , Juan M. Santos, Luis
Anido (2005)
?
An Ontology-Oriented approach on E-
learning , Miltiadis D. Lytras, Athanasia
Pouloudi(2005)Page 24

Conclusion
Conclusion
?
Making content machine-
understandable is the primary thing we
have to achieve.
?
E-learning can extract all the potentials
of semantic webPage 25

References
References
?
E-LEARNING BASED ON CONTEXT
ORIENTED SEMANTIC WEB,
MUNA S.
HATEM, HAIDER A. RAMADAN (2005)
?
Semantic Resource Management
for the Web: An E-Learning
Application,
Julien Tane, Christoph Schmitz
(2004)Page 26

Thank You
Thank You
for your attention!
for your attention!