Hypermedia Learning Objects System - On the Way to a Semantic Educational Web

TL;DR

Hylos is an online learning system that utilizes semantic metadata and adaptive links to enhance content management and navigation, aiming to advance the development of a semantic educational web.

Contribution

Introduction of Hylos, a semantic web-based eLearning system with a cellular ELO model, dynamic access, and context-aware navigation built on MIR and MIRaCLE frameworks.

Findings

Supports rich metadata conforming to LOM standard

Enables dynamic, context-aware navigation for learners

Provides high-level authoring tools for content creation

Abstract

While eLearning systems become more and more popular in daily education, available applications lack opportunities to structure, annotate and manage their contents in a high-level fashion. General efforts to improve these deficits are taken by initiatives to define rich meta data sets and a semanticWeb layer. In the present paper we introduce Hylos, an online learning system. Hylos is based on a cellular eLearning Object (ELO) information model encapsulating meta data conforming to the LOM standard. Content management is provisioned on this semantic meta data level and allows for variable, dynamically adaptable access structures. Context aware multifunctional links permit a systematic navigation depending on the learners and didactic needs, thereby exploring the capabilities of the semantic web. Hylos is built upon the more general Multimedia Information Repository (MIR) and the MIR adaptive context linking environment (MIRaCLE), its linking extension. MIR is an open system supporting the standards XML, Corba and JNDI. Hylos benefits from manageable information structures, sophisticated access logic and high-level authoring tools like the ELO editor responsible for the semi-manual creation of meta data and WYSIWYG like content editing.