Ontology-Based Design of the Learner’s Knowledge Domain in Electrical Engineering

Abstract

This research addresses some personalization aspects of education in electrical engineering. Its goal is to help students and educators evaluate the complexity of the disciplines they have chosen for studying and optimize the order of the learned courses and topics. A new instrument, namely, an educational thesaurus, is presented and its assembling procedure is shown. The offered educational thesauri implemented in the labs and integrated in the exercises have become smart platforms suitable for design and management of the students’ individual knowledge domains. The ontology-based Web manuals in Electronics and Power Electronics for the Bachelor study cycle have been introduced. An example of ontology graph to be applied within the Master study cycle has been developed and explained in the paper. According to the authors’ investigation, the decrease of stress caused by the new educational environment and achievement of success in learning were observed thanks to the individual knowledge domain organization proposed in this study.

Keywords

• distance learning
• education courses
• engineering education
• engineering students
• learning management systems
• ontology
• thesauri