Supporting interoperability between web-based educational systems

Current opportunities for students to improve their knowledge in a certain domain (e.g. computer science) through interaction with computer-based educational environments are increasing. The large number of students using such systems and their different knowledge and goals motivate the use of technologies to provide personalized activities, resources, and content to the students. Such environments are called adaptive educational systems. However, current efforts in this direction fail on providing external resources, content, or even interaction with peers. Therefore, systems are needed that interoperate, collaborate and exchange content or reuse functionality, in order to support a richer set of educational functions and increase their effectiveness. The semantic Web technologies have been proposed to ensure interoperability between Web applications to support such requirements. In this paper is proposed a semantic Web-based approach to provide interoperability between (concept/ontology-based) educational environments. It is also described a case study that illustrates the interoperation of educational environments through the use of shared ontologies/knowledge.