Building Interoperable Learning Objects Using Reduced Learning Object Metadata

Abstract

The new e-learning generation depends on Semantic Web technology to produce learning objects. As the production of these components is very costly, they should be produced and registered once, and reused and adapted in the same context or in other contexts as often as possible. To produce those components, developers should use learning standards to describe these objects in order to support interoperability. IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) is the most dominant standard for describing learning objects, in which 76 different elements are used to describe the different aspects of e-learning. Nonetheless, it will still be time consuming to build these learning objects. This paper introduces a model for building Global Interoperable Learning Objects (GILO) for the e-learning community. This is achieved by using a reduced set of the LOM elements, and giving a unique global ID to the learning object. This will enable software agents to query these learning object repositories, to automatically deliver the required material to the e-learning consumer.