Applying Competence Prerequisite Structures for eLearning and Skill Management Cord Hockemeyer (University of Graz, Austria Cord.Hockemeyer@uni-graz.at) Owen Conlan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Owen.Conlan@cs.tcd.ie) Vincent Wade (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Vincent.Wade@cs.tcd.ie) Dietrich Albert (University of Graz, Austria Dietrich.Albert@uni-graz.at) Abstract: Several approaches for formalising prerequisite structures on skills or competencies based on the psychological theory of knowledge space have been suggested and applied for adaptive eLearning. In this paper, we will discuss how these structures may be applied in skill management in a broader sense. After introducing some formal structures for prerequisite relationships between competencies, we will briefly present an example of an adaptive eLearning system based on this approach (APeLS). Several other aspects of the system which promise to be useful for advanced skill management are discussed. In the final part of this paper, we will discuss such broader applications of the model with respect to personal as well as to organisational skill management. Keywords: Skill management, eLearning, Personalised hypermedia Categories: J.4, K.4.3, H.5.4 1 Introduction Several approaches for structuring a domain of knowledge through prerequisites between skills (or competencies) within this domain have been developed on the basis of the theory of knowledge spaces [Doignon and Falmagne (1985)], [Doignon and Falmagne (1999)], [Albert and Lukas (1999)]. While the original aim of these approaches lay in testing knowledge, the focus has changed in recent years to applying these structures for teaching knowledge in personalised hypertext systems [Albert and Hockemeyer (1997)], [Conlan et al. (2002a)]. These (and other) personalised eLearning systems based on knowledge space theory share two limitations: (i) personalisation is limited in these systems to personalisation toward the learner’s current knowledge and (ii) the support in learning and personal knowledge management is limited to singular learning processes Journal of Universal Computer Science, vol. 9, no. 12 (2003), 1428-1436 submitted: 29/8/03, accepted: 18/9/03, appeared: 28/12/03  J.UCS