Integrating Ontologies into the Collaborative Authoring of Learning Objects Juan Manuel Dodero (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganes, Spain dodero@inf.uc3m.es) Paloma Díaz (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganes, Spain pdp@inf.uc3m.es) Ignacio Aedo (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganes, Spain aedo@ia.uc3m.es) Antonio Sarasa (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain asarasa@sip.ucm.es) Abstract: Authoring learning material is a multi-disciplinary undertaking where different people can play their role. Any support that can be provided for the collaboration of instructional designers, pedagogues, media designers, and students, among others, is welcome. In particular, metadata annotation of learning objects is an important task within the whole authoring process. This work presents the first resulting products and approaches from the MD2 project, consisting of a service-oriented framework and a tool to support the integrated, ontology-based collaborative annotation of learning objects. Keywords: Learning objects, metadata, ontologies, collaborative annotation Categories: K.3.1, K.3.2 1 Introduction Our current Society is constantly involved in a permanent evolution of knowledge and new educational models aim to provide solutions to its challenges. The constructivist visions of education [Jonassen, 1999] claim a participative role for the learner. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are key tools to support new educational models. But traditional LMS lack the required flexibility and adaptability to implement constructivist educational models. Any constructivist approach implies involving learners further in the instructional process. In particular, many different roles can participate in the creation of learning material [Polsani, 2003], including instructional designers, pedagogues, instructors, media designers and students. For this reason and due to its multidisciplinary nature, any support for collaborative participation is welcome. Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol. 11, no. 9 (2005), 1568-1576 submitted: 15/2/05, accepted: 30/6/05, appeared: 28/9/05 © J.UCS