The ELEKTRA ontology model: A learner-centered approach to resource description

Abstract

There is little doubt that intelligent and adaptive educational technologies are capable of providing personalized learning experiences and improving learning success. Current challenges for research and development in this field concern, for example, the design of comprehensive data models for adaptive systems as well as the interoperability of systems and the re-usability of learning material across different systems. In the present work we introduce an ontology model, basically developed in the context of immersive digital games, which attempts to provide a solution to existing problems in resource description. On the one hand, comprehensive data models for adaptive systems are supported by separating static information from adaptive systems as far as possible. On the other hand, the ontology model offers a potential solution to precise and, above all, learner-centered resource description by separating latent competencies from observable performance (in learning objects or test items). © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.