A Concept Map Generator for Visualizing Group Knowledge Formation and Supporting e-Learning Processes on Knowledge Portals

A Concept Map Generator for Visualizing Group Knowledge Formation and Supporting E-Learning Processes on Knowledge Portals Design of the next-generation Internet-based services has been an active research topic, which aims at realizing a social activity that generates and distributes Web contents. The development of a knowledge portal is an implementation that integrates knowledge management techniques and can facilitate scientific collaboration. A knowledge portal site allows research teammates to create and share their knowledge objects. The portal therefore grows in an unplanned and unpredictable fashion. In our previous work, we have developed a visualization tool to display the sitemap of a knowledge portal and observe the concept map of group knowledge for the two reasons: (a) knowledge objects are represented in webpages but a sitemap cannot be prepared to give an outline of the contents in advance; and (b) the developed knowledge objects are associated with conceptual elements defined within the ontology of the knowledge portal. The practice platform we chose to generate the Site-And-Concept (SAC) map was a locally developed knowledge portal, dubbed Open Computational Problem Solving (OpenCPS, http://www.opencps.org). Nevertheless, the knowledge relations inside the OpenCPS were recorded by other hard-coded objects according to rigorous mathematical proofs. Development of the SAC map generator is thus comparatively easy and may limit the practice value in general. This two-year project is aimed to develop concept map supported e-learning environments on knowledge portals. In the first year, we attempt to develop a new map generator that can construct the group knowledge concept map automatically on basis of common referenced bibliography and web content over the Internet; therefore, the application value for use can be extended to various research domains. In the second year, we will further use this map generator as a mediate tool to produce SCORM-compliant course packages with supports of sequencing and navigation. By doing this, the course assets can be well organized and the “cognitive disconnection problem” in the integration of knowledge management and e-learning processes can be properly settled.

Project ID:PB9907-13163
External Project ID:NSC99-2628-E182-051