A semantic web is a web environment in which users and computer agents interact semantically. Users need to put their queries exactly as they want; its goal is to make accurate content available. When the machine is capable of answering all questions, it will provide the precise answer as well as a list of hyperlinks. In the semantic web, ontologies serve as a data model for describing the concepts and relationships that exist between them. In this the content is annotated with meta tags to provide useful meaning and allow humans and machines to collaborate. This chapter describes the semantic web and how it can be useful in the case of e-learning. It gives the architecture of a semantic-based conceptual e-learning portal and highlights the importance of ontology in the field of education. Description logic is an integral part of the generation of well-formed datasets. This chapter integrates DL to ontologies.
TopIntroduction
The semantic web is a development of the existing web that includes ways of facilitating application interoperation and interconnectivity. The web has a vast amount of data, but computers are incapable of decoding its meaning and retrieving relevant information from it, let alone making helpful judgments based on it. By incorporating meta-tags into the web of data, the semantic web solves these problems (Sizov, 2007).
This allows software specialists to decipher the definition of information on the web and get useful information from it. Ontologies handle the embedding of meta-tags.
The ability of the semantic web to obtain information by analysing the meaning of the term provided in the search parameters is its most significant advantage. This enables the recovery of relevant data and the elimination of extraneous facts. Because of the semantic web, this is possible. Users can uncover dependencies between tagged content by utilising reasoned rules and governing tools, often known as ontologies, which provide logic and structure to the information that is contained in semantic web pages. Several ontologies, such as ‘Edu Onto’ and ‘Onto Edu’ (Santos et al., 2006), have already been established to support the academic institution’s LMS and other functions (IEEE, 2011). These Ontologies: although semantic web ontologies assist pedagogical agents in quickly finding and retrieving material stored on the web, they are not required. It enables students to efficiently store, retrieve, and access relevant information on the internet.
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In contrast to keyword-based search sources, they provide effective research by combining information from various and relevant sources using meta-tags.
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Assist in the generation of new learning material by semantically tagging existing resources, allowing for the creation of new learning from them.
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Assist in the development of personal learning networks (PLN).
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Personal educational administration assistance.
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Semantic web ontologies aid in the semantic description of institutional courses and degrees, making educational components available across institutions.
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Students will be able to acquire courses and experiences from multiple schools on the same platform if course descriptions use semantically enabled tags.
The benefits of the semantic web and ontologies in the education area are clearly stated, but the reliability of information acquired from these ontologies is a critical issue that must be addressed (Huang & Fox, 2005). We'll talk about how to deal with this problem using provenance claims in the next section.
TopSemantic Web Overview
Computers cannot process the massive amounts of data on the internet, nor can they make efficient decisions based on it. The World Wide Web's quick development and use have made it simple to exchange knowledge and work with others. On the other hand, the internet has a wealth of information resources. This makes it more difficult to efficiently locate and receive information on the internet. Keywords are commonly used to retrieve information from the internet. Because of this most data is unstructured so typical data mining approaches are ineffective (Sktas et al., 2013). The semantic approach will be effective for returning the structured data.
The semantic web can be described as follows-
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Semantics = meaning (derived from the Greek word).
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It allows machines to understand data.
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Provides ease of sharing and mixing data.
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Extends the ‘World Wide Web rather than replacing it.
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The various layers of the semantic web like RDF, OWL, etc. provide for means to understand the meaning of data and derive logical conclusions from them there by facilitating better web search.