Implementing the CROP Reference Architecture: The CROP Learning Object Editor

Concept, Resource, Order, Product (CROP) is a reference architecture for adaptive Learning Objects owned by Semantic Learning Services developed by the second author. According to CROP, composite Objects are essentially recursive, and adaptively is an emergent property of Learning Service communication and collaboration. CROP is formally represented as an OWL ontology consisting of the framework's concepts and its definitions. In this paper we present a free, open-source, javabased graphical editor that populates CROP ontology with instances of Learning Objects at runtime through a (guided) graph-like interface. While developing this tool we proceeded to some adjustments on CROP ontology and further clarifications on the architecture. Our ultimate vision is to design Semantic Learning Domains where repositories of such ontologies exist and Services collaborate for delivering adaptive Objects to custom Learners’ needs.