| Distributed, self-organized learning networks for lifelong learning to which multiple providers contribute resources require new techniques to determine where learners can be positioned in these networks. Positioning requires mapping characteristics of the learner onto characteristics of learning materials and curricula. Considering the nature of the network envisaged, maintaining data on these characteristics and ensuring their integrity are important and complex tasks. In this project positioning is based on an abstract semantic domain model generated from the data contained in the learning network with the use of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). LSA allows us to generate a common semantic framework for characteristics of the learner, learning materials and curricula. The project addresses several topics in the use of LSA for positioning that were identified in earlier work. |
