Semantic Web Metadata for e-Learning - Some Architectural Guidelines

Meta-data is the fundamental building block of the Semantic Web. However, the meta-data concept is too loosely defined to provide architectural guidelines for its use. This paper analyzes important uses of meta-data in the e-learning domain, from a pedagogical and philosophical point of view, and abstracts from them a set of fundamental architectural requirements for Semantic Web meta-data. It also describes some flexible generic techniques for working with meta-data, following these requirements. Finally, the paper describes a Semantic Web-based e-learning architecture based in these requirements and techniques currently under development at the Knowledge Management Research Group at CID (Centre for user oriented IT Design) at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. This architecture builds on Edutella, a peer-to-peer meta-data exchange network, and a technique called conceptual modeling using the Conzilla concept browser, a new kind of knowledge management tool for conceptual navigation and exploration. The architecture provides an inquiry-based e-learning system that fits into the Semantic Web philosophy, and is based on a pedagogical framework called the knowledge manifold.