An Ontology to Model e-portfolio and Social Relationship in Web 2.0 Informal Learning Environments

Abstract

Web 2.0 applications and the increasingly use of social networks have been creating new informal learning opportunities. Students interact and collaborate using new learning environments which are structurally different from traditional e-learning environments. In these informal unstructured learning contexts the boundaries between the learning contexts and social spheres disappear, and the definition of the students competences appears more and more important. In this paper we propose a semantic web approach in order to create the basis for a software platform to model learner profiles. In particular we propose to extend the FOAF ontology, used to describe people and their personal relationships, with an ontology related to the IMS Learning Portfolio used to model students' competencies. This ontology could be a fundamental layer for a new Web 2.0 learning environment in which students' informal learning activities carried out in social networks can be managed and evaluated.

Towards a common and semantic representation of e-portfolios

“…Nevertheless, the structure of e-portfolio as described by this ontology is specific to the context of integrated reflection and thus needs to be generalized to other contexts in order to support interoperability and data exchange. Taibi et al (2010) have proposed an ontology that tries to solve the problem of e-portfolios and social relationships modeling in informal learning contexts. In particular, this ontology reuses and extends concepts from the Friend Of A Fiend (FOAF) ontology (Brickley and Miller, 2010) in order to describe people and their relationships and from an ontology based on the IMS ePortfolio specification in order to describe their learning goals and competencies.…”

Semantic modeling of portfolio assessment in e-learning environment

“…In their paper, Taibi et al [18] use ontologies to model ePortfolios and social relations in informal learning environments. To do this, they extend the FOAF ontology, modeling interactions and collaborative work based on social networks.…”

ePortfolio System Design Based on Ontological Model of Self-Regulated Learning

“…In [12], the authors proposed a semantic web approach to model learner profiles. They proposed an ontology to model people, their relationships, and learning portfolio in order to model students' competencies.…”

“…The powers of ontology are the abilities to represent knowledge explicitly (concepts, properties, and constraints), to encode semantics (as relations, meta-data, and inferences), and to allow of a shared understanding of the represented formal knowledge between humans and machines [11]. Researches show that ontological approach is a potential approach for ePortfolio modeling [12], and SRL principles representation and sharing [13].…”