Generic Educational Nomination for Internationals University Structures – Ontology - GENIUS-Ontology

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to present the results of the research and development of an Generic Ontology with terms nominations that would be applied to different Educational organizations. Design/methodology/approach – the research approach is qualitative, a applied research based on research and development. As Methodological type, it has a component of exploratory and documental research, had as field Research with specialist interviews. As technics and tools, it was used Internet for online research on universities organizational charts, open and unstructured interviews in the field research. In the development stage it was used two main software tools: OntoKEM e Protege ontology editor. The ontology development was applied to a real case - the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil – with a knowledge elicitation process by extensive interviews with a domain specialist. Findings – Although universities use different names the roles in academic organizations of high education as Universities do not differ significantly. In fact the work of find common nomination for the same role demanded a lot of discussion and, therefore, a lot of time. However the feasibility of direct application is very high. Practical implications and originality – As result, differently from what was available as domain ontology till then, now there is available online an ontology that may be used directly for virtually any University organization.