using owl to represent metadata of multimedia learning objects
The continuous development of the information and communication technologies makes possible the use of new strategies to support learning processes. In addition, there is an increasingly large number of worldwide available content, which could be used as learning materials. However, in spite of offering an inexhaustible source for search processes, this large number of content makes difficult to find a specific material, appropriated to a particular need. So, the work presented in this paper aims at providing a formal and more comprehensive description of the content embedded in Multimedia Learning Objects (MLOs) through complementary groups of metadata with focus in educational and multimedia properties. Thus, parts of the LOM and MPEG-7 metadata standards, both of them represented in OWL, were used in an architecture of multimedia LO description. This paper argues that through these standards it is possible to describe MLOs in a more appropriate way, increasing the retrieval effectiveness of users' searches and improving the reuse potential of these materials. Moreover, through OWL it is possible to build conceptual links between different multimedia resources as well as perform inference tasks and automatically discovering relationships between them. A prototype and a case study present the functionality of the proposed architecture.
metadata standards methodology multimedia learning objects description authoring tools