Ontology for e-learning: a case study

The development of adaptable and intelligent educational systems is widely considered one of the great challenges in scientific research. Among key elements for building advanced training systems an important role is played by methodologies chosen for knowledge representation. In this scenario, the introduction of ontology formalism can improve the quality of formative process, allowing the introduction of ontology formalism can improve the quality of formative process, allowing the introduction of new and effective services. Ontology can lead to important improvements in the definition of courses knowledge domain, in the generation of adapted learning path and in the assessment phase. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial discussion of the role of ontology in the context of e-Learning. It seeks to discuss the improvements related to the introduction of ontology formalism in the e-Learning field and to show a novel algorithm for ontology building through the use of Bayesian networks. Finally, it aims to illustrate its application in the assessment process and some experimental results