Publikationen

While it is agreed that semantic enrichment of resources would lead to better search results, at present the low coverage of resources on the web with semantic information presents a major hurdle in realizing the vision of search on the Semantic Web. To address this problem, this chapter investigates how to improve retrieval performance in settings where resources are sparsely annotated with semantic information. Techniques from soft computing are employed to find relevant material that was not originally annotated with the concepts used in a query. The authors present an associative retrieval model for the Semantic Web and evaluate if and to which extent the use of associative retrieval techniques increases retrieval performance. In addition, the authors present recent work on adapting the network structure based on relevance feedback by the user to further improve retrieval effectiveness. The evaluation of new retrieval paradigms - such as retrieval based on technology for the Semantic Web - presents an additional challenge since no off-the-shelf test corpora exist. Hence, this chapter gives a detailed description of the approach taken to evaluate the information retrieval service the authors have built.

One of the success factors of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is to provide theappropriate content to the users, both suitable for the topics they are currently working on, andtheir experience level in these topics. Our main contributions in this paper are (i) overcomingthe problem of sparse content annotation by using a network based recommendation approachcalled Associative Network, which exploits the user context as input; (ii) using snippets for notonly highlighting relevant parts of documents, but also serving as a basic concept enabling theWIL system to handle text-based and audiovisual content the same way; and (iii) using the WebTool for Ontology Evaluation (WTE) toolkit for finding the best default semantic similaritymeasure of the Associative Network for new domains. The approach presented is employed inthe software platform APOSDLE, which is designed to enable knowledge workers to learn atwork.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest a way to support work-integrated learning forknowledge work, which poses a great challenge for current research and practice.Design/methodology/approach – The authors first suggest a workplace learning context model, whichhas been derived by analyzing knowledge work and the knowledge sources used by knowledgeworkers. The authors then focus on the part of the context that specifies competencies by applying thecompetence performance approach, a formal framework developed in cognitive psychology. From theformal framework, a methodology is then derived of how to model competence and performance in theworkplace. The methodology is tested in a case study for the learning domain of requirementsengineering.Findings – The Workplace Learning Context Model specifies an integrative view on knowledge workers’work environment by connecting learning, work and knowledge spaces. The competence performanceapproach suggests that human competencies be formalized with a strong connection to workplaceperformance (i.e. the tasks performed by the knowledge worker). As a result, competency diagnosisand competency gap analysis can be embedded into the normal working tasks and learninginterventions can be offered accordingly. The results of the case study indicate that experts weregenerally in moderate to high agreement when assigning competencies to tasks.Research limitations/implications – The model needs to be evaluated with regard to the learningoutcomes in order to test whether the learning interventions offered benefit the user. Also, the validityand efficiency of competency diagnosis need to be compared to other standard practices incompetency management.Practical implications – Use of competence performance structures within organizational settings hasthe potential to more closely relate the diagnosis of competency needs to actual work tasks, and toembed it into work processes.Originality/value – The paper connects the latest research in cognitive psychology and in thebehavioural sciences with a formal approach that makes it appropriate for integration intotechnology-enhanced learning environments.Keywords Competences, Learning, Workplace learning, Knowledge managementPaper type Research paper

Modern businesses operate in a rapidly changing environment.Continuous learning is an essential ingredient in order to stay competitivein such environments. The APOSDLE system utilizes semanticweb technologies to create a generic system for supporting knowledgeworkers in different domains to learnwork. Since APOSDLE relies onthree interconnected semantic models to achieve this goal, the questionon how to efficiently create high-quality semantic models has become oneof the major research challenges. On the basis of two concrete examplesnamelydeployment of such a learning system at EADS, a large corporation,and deployment at ISN, a network of SMEs-we report in detail theissues a company has to face, when it wants to deploy a modern learningenvironment relying on semantic web technology.

This contribution introduces the concept of work-integrated learning which distinguishes itself from traditional e-Learning in that it provides learning support (i) during work task execution and tightly contextualized to the work context,(ii) within the work environment, and (iii) utilizes knowledge artefacts available within the organizational memory for learning. We argue that in order to achieve this highly flexible learning support we need to turn to" scruffy" methods (such as associative retrieval, genetic algorithms, Bayesian and other probabilistic methods) which can provide good results in the presence of uncertainty and the absence of fine-granular models. Hybrid approaches to user context determination, user profile management, and learning material identification are discussed and first results are reported.

The paper suggests a way to support work-integrated learning for knowledge workwhich poses a great challenge for current research and practice. We first present a WorkplaceLearning Context Model which has been derived by analyzing knowledge work and the knowledgesources used by knowledge workers. The model specifies an integrative view on knowledgeworkers’ work environment by connecting learning, work and knowledge spaces. We then focuson the part of the context which specifies learning goals and their interrelations to task and domainmodels. Our purpose is to support learning needs analysis which is based on a comparison of tasksperformed in the past to those tasks to be tackled in the future. A first implementation in theAPOSDLE project is presented including the models generated for five real world applications andthe software prototype. We close with an outlook on future work.

Evaluation of information retrieval systems is a critical aspect of information retrieval research. New retrieval paradigms, as retrieval in the Semantic Web, present an additional challenge for system evaluation as no off-the-shelf test corpora for evaluation exist. This paper describes the approach taken to evaluate an information retrieval system built for the Semantic Desktop and demonstrates how standard measures from information retrieval research are employed for evaluation.

In this contribution we present a tool for annotating documents, which are used for workintegratedlearning, with concepts from an ontology. To allow for annotating directly whilecreating or editing an ontology, the tool was realized as a plug-in for the ontology editor Protégé.Annotating documents with semantic metadata is a laborious task, most of the time knowledgerepresentations are created independently from the resources that should be annotated andadditionally in most work environments a high number of documents exist. To increase theefficiency of the person annotating, in our tool the process of assigning concepts to text-documentsis supported by automatic text-classification.

This contribution introduces the so-called Workplace Learning Contextas essential conceptualisation supporting self-directed learning experiencesdirectly at the workplace. The Workplace Learning Context is to be analysedand exploited for retrieving ‘learning’ material that best-possibly matches witha knowledge worker’s current learning needs. In doing so, several different‘flavours’ of work-integrated learning can be realised including task learning,competency-gap based support and domain-related support. The WorkplaceLearning Context Model, which is also outlined in this contribution, forms thetechnical representation of the Workplace Learning Context.