Alexandria Digital Library Project

Concept-based Learning Spaces

Apply domain-specific KOS principles for
organizing collections/services for given
applications

Terence R. Smith,
Marcia L. Zeng, and
Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Project Team
University of California, Santa Barbara
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Outline
❏ 1. Viewing an example
❏ 2. Explaining the concept model
❏ 3. Discussing: why a strongly-structured model

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 2

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Science learning spaces: Concept KOS

❏ Concepts of science as basic knowledge granules
 Sets of concepts form bases for scientific representation
 DL and KOS technology can support organization of science
learning materials in terms of concepts
– Collections of models of science concepts (knowledge base)
– Collections of learning objects (LO) cataloged with concepts
– Collections of instructional materials organized by concepts
❏ Organize learning materials as “trajectory through
concept space”
 Lecture, lab, self-paced materials
 Services for creating/editing/displaying such materials

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 3

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Application to learning environments

❏ Application
 Introductory physical geography (F2002, S2003)
❏ Collections created
 Knowledge base (KB) of strongly structured concepts
 Structured lectures and labs
 Learning objects cataloged by ADN metadata (+ concepts)
❏ Services created
 For concepts
– Web-based concept input tool
– Graphic and text-based display tools
 For instructional materials
– Web-based “lecture composer”
– “Conceptualization” graphing tool
 For learning objects
– Metadata input tool

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 4

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Learning environment display (lecture mode)

❏ The lecture is presented on three projection screens, showing the

 Concept window (left)
 Lecture window (center)
 Object window (right)

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 5

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Current instructional material window

❏ The left-hand
frame displays
the structure of
the lecture

❏ The right-
hand frame
displays the
content of the
lecture

❏ ADL icons
(globe image)
attached to a
concept link to
a display of
concept
properties in
the concept
window
Other icons attached to a concept link to a display of concept
examples in the illustration window
Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 6
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

View of learning material by concepts

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 7

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 8

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Learning environment display (lecture mode)

❏ The lecture is presented on three projection screens, showing the

 Concept window (left)
 Lecture window (center)
 Object window (right)

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 9

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Current instructional material window

❏ The left-hand
frame displays
the structure of
the lecture

❏ The right-
hand frame
displays the
content of the
lecture

❏ ADL icons
(globe image)
attached to a
concept link to
a display of
concept
properties in
the concept
window
Other icons attached to a concept link to a display of concept
examples in the illustration window
Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 10
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Item in concept knowledge base

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 11

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Outline
❏ 1. Viewing an example
❏ 2. Explaining the concept model
❏ 3. Discussing: why a strongly-structured model

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 12

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Model of science concepts

❏ Representing a concept involves more than terms
 Objective, information-rich, scientific representations
– e.g., for concepts of heat diffusion, DNA, drainage basin, …
 Associated semantics
– e.g., relating to measurement, recognition,…
 Many interrelationships
– e.g., hierarchical, causative, property,…
❏ Models of science concepts
 Already exist for chemistry (ASA), materials (NIST),…
 Generalize such models for this application
❏ Structure items in concept KB using model
 Original design
 Current structure as seen from the lecture

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 13

c o n c e p t u a l m o d e l - f r a m e w o r k

ID
Preferred
Terms
Nonpreferred
Des cri ptions

TypeOfConc ep t

Cl ass OfPhenomen a
Con ce ptM ode l FieldsOfStudy
Knowl ed geD oma in
Topics
Hi st ori calOri gins

Ex am ples

Rel at io nships
classification of concepts

typ e of con ce pt
observations

syntactic (linguistic) measures

logical analysis
abst ract
mathematical examples

identification/ topics
characterization
concepts
representation
met ho dol og ical models
understanding

application questions/answers
communication problems/solutions
hypotheses/evaluations
measurable
conc ret e recognizable predictions/tests
interpreted abstract statements/deviations
applications/evaluations
facts/validations
classification of p h e n o m e n a

cl ass of ph en omena
ob ject

mat eri al

proc ess

for m

ev ent

stat e

… …
c o n c e p t u a l m o d e l – r e l a t i o n s h i p s

Rel at io nship CotainedIn

s SetMembership Contains
Hie rar chi cal IsPartOf
Partitive
HasParts

Scie nti ficUse Applications ExplicitFull

HasRepresentation ExplicitPartial
Re pre se ntati on ImplicitFull
PartiallyRepresents ImplicitPartial

Defining AbstractSyntacti
Opera tio c
n Methodological

Prop erty HasProperty

PropertyOf

Co Re late d
CausedBy
Caus a
l Causes
other
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Current Model of science concepts

 ID
 TYPE and FACET
 CONTEXT (KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN)
 TERM(S) (P/NP)
 DESCRIPTION(S)
 HISTORICAL ORIGIN(S) As displayed
 EXAMPLE(S) in the
lecture mode
 HIERARCHICAL RELATIONS
 DEFINING OPERATIONS
 SCIENTIFIC REPRESENTATION(S)
– Scientific classifications
– Data/Graphical/Mathematical/Computational reps
 PROPERTIES
 CAUSAL RELATIONS
 CO-RELATIONS
 APPLICATION(S)
Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 18
 Apply KOS principles to domain-specific applications
ADL Model Traditional KOS Other Semantic Tools

ID
TYPE and FACET Faceted analysis
DOMAIN CONTEXT Classification Codes
TERM(S) (P/NP) Descriptors, entry terms
DESCRIPTION(S) Scope notes
HISTORICAL ORIGIN(S)
EXAMPLE(S) Instances
HIERARCHICAL RELATIONS Hierarchical relations (BT/NT)
DEFINING OPERATIONS
CONCEPTUALIZATION Concept map, semantic
network
SCIENTIFIC
REPRESENTATION(S)
Scientific classifications
Data/Graphical/Mathema
tical/Computational reps Slot-instance, attribute-value
PROPERTIES
Associated relations (RT/RT)
CAUSAL RELATIONS
Associated relations (RT/RT)
CO-RELATIONS
Associated relations (RT/RT)
APPLICATION(S)
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Outline
❏ 1. Viewing an example
❏ 2. Explaining the concept model
❏ 3. Discussing: why a strongly-structured model

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 20


Types of structured models
• Term lists
• Classification and KOS
categorization schemes
• Relationship groups
• Metadata content
standards
• General knowledge
representation languages
They typically take the
form of structured sets
of terms representing
concepts and their
interrelationships.
Graphical
representations of
concepts and
interrelationships
derived from such KOS
typically take the
simple form of a set of
named nodes connected by
named links.
 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Values of these models

❏ They support, for example, access to traditional
knowledge containers, such as texts and journals, in
which term-based representations of concepts occur.
❏ They are also of value in supporting high-level
graphical views (or “concept maps”) of the
interrelationships among concepts.

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 22

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Limits of these models

❏ They could not provide deep organization of, and
access to, scientific knowledge that is important for
learning.
❏ Accessing knowledge is largely restricted to the
traditional information containers.
❏ They cannot easily support access to, or integration
of, knowledge concerning many of the attributes of
concepts that make them useful in SME modeling
activities.

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 23

Strongly-structured
A Taxonomy of KOS

Relationship Groups: Ont olo gies

Sem an tic
ne tworks
Th esa uri
Clas sifica tion sch eme s
Classification & Taxo no mies
Ca tego riza tio n sc hem es
Categorization: Sub ject Head ing s
Weakly-structured

Auth ority F iles

Term Lists: Glos saries/ Diction aries
Ga zett eers

Natural language Controlled language

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Toward Strongly-Structured Models

❏ These models focus on such attributes as the
 objective representations,
 operational semantics,
 use, and
 interrelationships of concepts,
❏ all of which play important roles in constructing
representations of phenomena that further
understanding of MSE domains of knowledge.

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 25

 Alexandria Digital Library Project

Toward Strongly-Structured Models

❏ Taxonomy + metadata (or attribute-value pairs)
 Ontology for knowledge based systems
❏ Taxonomy and thesaurus + domain-specific markup
languages
❏ Specialized models for learning scientific concepts

Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003 26

 Alexandria Digital Library Project
ADLP Activities
EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS
• knowledgebase and lecture composing,
visualization, and presentation tools
• physical geography concept space and
learning object collections
• applications to undergraduate education
• educational evaluation
• learning services and DL integration
• digital classrooms
• metadata content standards
• learning objects
• computational models
USER INTERFACES
• reusable user interface components
• contextual maps, footprint creation
• KOS navigation
• lightweight GIS functionality
• Digital Earth visualization
• image processing
• query-by-content, classification
• spatial extent determination
Smith et al • NKOS • May 31, 2003
GEOREFERENCED DIGITAL LIBRARIES
• distributed georeferenced DL services
• NSDL core infrastructure
• data environment (e.g., GIS) integration
• hardware acceleration for spatial data
• collaborative tools
• Z39.50 support
• ingest and workflow systems
KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION
• gazetteers: research and community
• gazetteer content standard
• web service protocols for gazetteers,
thesauri, and other KOS
• ADL gazetteer
• thesauri for feature and object types
• duplicate detection for gazetteers
• textual-geospatial integration services
OPERATIONAL APPLICATIONS
• georeferenced DL tutorials
• distributable software packages
• operational libraries: UCSB library, ...
• outreach; federated nodes
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