A Web-based Platform for Developing Adaptive Learning Systems Based on Semantic Web and Web Services

Adaptive learning (AL) systems have long been one of the promising solutions to personalized learning. However, development of such a system costs a lot as it requires establishment and integration of a variety of knowledge resources, course adaptation mechanisms and inference methods to generate adaptive courses. To reduce the development cost of AL systems, this paper proposes a web-based platform to facilitate the development of AL systems by reusing knowledge resources and adaptation mechanisms based on Semantic Web and Web Service technologies. Specifically, the semantic web technology is used to promote sharing of knowledge resources, while the web service technology is used to promote sharing of adaptation mechanisms on the Internet. A prototype AL system was implemented to demonstrate the development process of AL systems upon this platform. Finally, a set of preliminary evaluation results show that the system performance is acceptable under light to middle traffics of requests, and those students are satisfied with the personalized learning support of the built AL system.