A learner oriented ontology to make effective learning management systems

An ontology has been proposed in this paper, which arranges metadata, and defines the relationships of metadata on learning objects belong to academic courses and user profiles. This ontology has been incorporated with proposed architecture, as a critical part of this architecture what consists of a set of components which synergizes to achieve a higher usability to the learner. The ontology is utilized for effective retrieval of learning content, customizing Learning Management Systems (LMS), and an integrating learning content to reuse them. It has been specified in Ontology Inference Language (OIL) and in Resource Description Framework (RDF) for exchange of ontology. The ontology and user profile management components have been introduced into a typical open sourced LMS. Proposed ontology maps user preferences with learning content in searching learning object and amalgamates them to build new course objects. Hence it increases the learner-orientation and usability of e-learning systems.