SNML-InterEDU – Educational materials for teachers and students

An important aspect of this project is to provide easy access to materials and facilitate the searching, compiling and re-use of information that can also be rated and discussed by users. Based on a knowledge model, the project seeks to create a system offering the following features:

• Single point of access: Different kinds of contents and services (e.g. work sheets, video materials, learning management systems,…) can be accessed via one standard, simple interface to facilitate teacher and student interaction as well as the interconnection of various contents.
• Intelligent searching: Based on the knowledge model, the platform should offer users an “intelligent” search engine. For instance, when searching for “images of birds”, this kind of intelligent search would also bring up images of ducks although they might not necessarily be tagged with the word “bird”.
• Intelligent navigation: Intelligent navigation offers users an improved way of accessing contents. For instance, many educational materials are relevant to more than one single topic (e.g. mathematics) and require classification systems that go beyond classic folder structures. Based on the knowledge model or user behavior statistics, the system should also come up with additional content suggestions that might also be relevant for the search.
• User-generated content: Select users should have the opportunity to publish and share their own content. The platform’s knowledge model can be fed by the users by allocating contents to certain topics or adjusting the knowledge model to current developments in certain fields of information.
• Rating system: The platform will offer the possibility to comment on certain contents (e.g. field of application, suggestions for improvement,…) and rate them according to certain criteria (e.g. in-class usage, structure, complexity,…).