=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-280/paper-11
|storemode=property
|title=An ontology based Web Annotation System to create new learning practices
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-280/p09.pdf
|volume=Vol-280
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/PiomboBDA07
}}
==An ontology based Web Annotation System to create new learning practices==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-280/p09.pdf
An ontology based Web Annotation System to create
new learning practices
Christophe Piombo1, Hadj Batatia1, Pascal Dayre1, Alain Ayache1
1
IRIT-ENSEEIHT, Computer Science, 2 rue Charles Camichel,
31071 Toulouse, France
{piombo, batatia, dayre, ayache}@enseeiht.fr
Abstract. Web2.0 is a conceptual framework that aims at enhancing the World
Wide Web with semantic and social functionnalities. For this framework to
fully develop, there is a need for concrete applications in different domains.
This paper presents an effort to instanciate the Web2.0 concepts in a
teaching/leanring context. An ontology based collaborative multimedia
annotation tool that features pedagogical functionnalities is presented. An
original approach to design software based on ontologies is used. A pedagogical
scenario, from the KPLAB European project, that makes use of the tool to train
medical staff to handle pediatric surgical operations is presented.
Keywords: Web2.0, Annotation, social software, ontology.
1 Introduction
Web2.0 considers two dimensions into the World Wide Web: the semantic Web and
social Web. The semantic Web goal is to provide machine readable Web intelligence
that would come from hyperlinked vocabularies, enabling Web authors to explicitly
define their words and concepts. The idea allows software agents to make smart
inferences that go beyond the simple linguistic analysis [1] using formal standard
representation like RDF, RDFS and OWL. The semantic Web is based on the use of
ontologies. Ontology is basically a description of the key concepts in a given domain
including the rules, properties and relationships between concepts. The social Web is
the name given to the part of online activities requiring collaborative user
participation. In this context, the tools which offer a cooperative content generation
are called social software. These tools have in common an egalitarian social structure;
they aggregate all user contributions into shared representations of collective belief
[2].
Social software has been used to support traditional classes [3]. For instance,
lecture notes in Wiki form allow students to modify, extend, question or seek
clarification on the information presented. But without a simple interface [4] or an
explicit guidance, this kind of annotation can be too loose for learners who lack, by
nature, confidence in their knowledge. Due to this, some educational social software
embody pedagogical frameworks providing structures that help the learner [5].
In this paper, we first review some research contributions that aim to support
learning using Web2.0 annotation. Second, we present the proposed annotation tool,
entitled WASYS, which uses ontologies to guide the user in the annotation activity.
Finally, we describe a pedagogical scenario that used WASYS, in which multi-
disciplinary learners annotate a video that shows a simulated pediatric surgical
operation. This empirical case is being investigated in the context of the KP-LAB
European project [6].
2 Related work
This section reviews few research efforts that focussed on the application of social
and semantic software in teaching/learning. The most popular tools and cases that use
annotation for the purpose of learning are briefly presented.
2.1 Web2.0: learning with social software
The new generation of social software like blogs and wikis, or technological
approaches such as collaborative filtering/recommender systems, shared tagging and
social navigation become popular in online learning [7]. However, the roots of social
software in this context can be traced back to the early nineties [8]. Collaborative
filters have long been used for learning and social navigation techniques have been
applied in various educational contexts [5].
The PROLEARN network of excellence has recognized the obvious trend to use
social software in professional learning. It sketched some key requirements for a new
type of platforms called “Collaborative adaptive learning platforms” (CALP). One of
the ideas is to connect people through content. In order to allow efficient exchange
between connected people, the system must have semantic capabilities based on the
use of ontologies. SITIO [9], a Social Semantic Recommendation Platform, features
such functionnalities. This type of structured exchange offers formal reasoning and
inference strategies to classify and relate information.
2.2 Annotation based learning
In the context of this paper, annotation refers to comments, notes, explanations or
external remarks that can be attached to a document or a selected part of a document
without modifying it. Annotating collaboratively is of great interest to the educational,
professional and scientific communities.
FilmEd is a prototype application developed by the Australian GrangeNet
broadband research network, which combines videoconferencing over access grid
nodes with collaborative, real-time sharing of an application that enables annotation
of video content between multiple groups at remote locations [10]. This application
allows a user to define their hierarchical segmentation of the video based on a basic
XML file. However, it doesn’t use any formal description or domain ontology, and
does not allow the definition of pedagogical scenari for an annotation activity.
OntoElan [11] solves this problem allowing the use of ontologies to annotate
videos. But this application doesn’t propose a collaborative and structured annotation
session useful in a learning context. ConAnnotator [12] features the possibility of
collaborative annotation based on the use of OWL ontologies, but has no pedagogical
functionnalities.
In [13], authors have evaluated the impact of a shared document annotation tool in
collaborative learning. They observed hiegher learning outcomes and better
performance. However, they found that visually oriented students produce higher
level annotations compared to students that have different perceptive styles.
SMARTNotes [14] is a collaborative web annotation tool which allows learners and
their tutor to collaborate around HTML course document. It uses a model of
annotation based on an RDF description which characterizes only the annotation
semantics (Highlighting, Consign, Conversation and Indication). It has no possiblity
to annotate continuous media and the tool doesn’t support the definition of a
structured pedagogical scenario. MemoNote [15] is a personal semantic annotation
tool dedicated to teachers. It provides a personal memory that contains all personal
annotations made on documents during various teaching activities (preparing a lesson,
delevery, marking exams …). For this purpose, MemoNote annotation functionalities
are context-sensitive, and can particularly adapt to the pedagogical context of the
annotation (domain, teaching level …). No sharing, collaboration or group
possibilities are supported.
3 WASYS : Web Annotation SYStem
WASYS is a system that allows the creation and visualisation of annotations related
to a content item. The tool adapts to the user application context. This adaptation is
based on the use of ontologies to define the type of content item (i.e. video, audio,
text …), the granularity of the content item fragments (i.e. page, image, timestamp
…) and the concepts of the business domain (i.e. actors’ activity in a scene, actors’
decision, actors’ behaviour, object in the scene, paragraph in a text, word in a text …).
It is a Web annotation system that implements the social and semantic concepts of
Web2.0.
Annotating manually consists of observing a content item and adding semantic
data. The set of data to be used is formally described using one or multiple ontologies.
Practically, WASYS offers three types of annotation. A structural annotation to
simply break down the content item into fragments. An informal annotation to
associate free text with fragments and formal annotation which consists of marking
fragments with instances of the semantic data. In this last case, we use also an
graphical style ontology to adapt the representation of the semantic data in the user’s
view (Fig. 1).
WASYS manages two types of users. The first type of user is an instructor who has
the responsibility to create and configure the annotation scenario. A scenario breaks
down into annotation sessions (or episodes). Several ontologies can be used during
one session. A scenario describes the content items, the ontologies, the users and their
roles, the permissions assigned to the users and other parameters used during the
annotation activity. The instructor can annotate a content item. In this case,
annotations consist in identifying relevant fragments in the content. It’s possible to
attach questions or information to each fragment. Instructors can also navigate into
the content item to visualize statistics about the participants’ annotations.
WASYS
Annotation Services
Structural
Content Item
View Informal and Fragment
Adaptation Ontology
Formal
Graphical Style Domain
Ontology Ontology
Fig. 1. conceptual view of WASYS.
Participants are the second type of user of the system. They use the annotation tool
in the context of a scenario set up by an instructor. Participants annotate the content
based on one or several ontologies chosen by the instructor. The annotation can be
done in several sessions; an annotation session can take few minutes or several days.
A participant can also visualize their annotations beside those made by instructors or
other participants. An annotation session can be collaborative. In this case,
participants create synchronously annotations.
4 Pedagogical scenario
WASYS uses different ontologies related to a specific application domain. For
example, we defined an ontology in which we manipulate concepts, properties and
restrictions accordingly to requirements defined in a pedagogical scenario run at
Karolinska Institute. This scenario consists of involving multi-disciplinary
practionners into a simulated pediatric operation. Participants are offered to
participate in realistic activities, to reflect on these, to get feedback from instructors,
to discuss the events, and to observe the team activities on video. The simulation is
filmed. Each individual participant reviews the video and annotates the events
according to a description given by the instructors. Participants gather then to relflect
collectively on the operation by comparing their annotations and getting feedback
from instructors. The object of the learning activity is to train skills, learn more about
neonatal resuscitation, and learn more about teamwork rules and mechanisms. We
consider, here, only the annotation related to teamwork.
The content item is a video that has a name, a description and an author, in addition
to the date and the place the movie has been filmed. A single type of fragment is used.
It consists of a sequence of images defined by the number of the first image and the
number of last image. The concepts used during the annotation are events observable
in the movie scene. An annotation is described by the name of the author and some
other information related to the role of the author (instructor or participant) (Fig. 2).
Participant Instructor
Concepts Annotation Concepts Annotation
Fig. 2. Events to annotate by participants and instructor for the pediatric use case.
For this case, we use three distinct OWL ontologies to adapt the domain model:
• The content item vocabulary,
• The fragment vocabulary,
• The annotation concept vocabulary.
These three ontologies are used to generate dynamically the java classes of the
domain model when an annotation session is started. The presentation tier on the
client side offers an adapted view to annotate the content item with a certain fragment
granularity and a limited and structured contextual concept vocabulary for the
scenario defined by an instructor.
5 Conclusion
This paper presented an application of the Web2.0 concepts in teaching/learning. We
described the specification and design of a multimedia annotation tool. This tool
allows instructors to set up a pedagogical scenario based on annotating a shared
content item. Annotation can be informal or formal based on one or several OWL
ontologies describing the application domain. The tool allows collaborative
synchronous creation of annotations and reflective activity by visualizing the
annotations of a group.
The system has been designed based on 3-tier architecture (presentation, domain
and persistence layers). Ontologies have been used at each of these layers to adapt the
tool to the application domain. On the presentation layer, ontologies are used to adapt
the graphical views. On the domain (or business) layer, ontologies are used to create
dynamically classes that represent the domain model. On the persistent layer,
ontologies are used to index and structure the storage of annotations.
The system has been applied in a real setting to train multi-disciplinary medical
staff in pediatric surgery and teamwork. Results under continuous investigation show
interesting results for boundary crossing and reflective learning.
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