Lossless format-dependent analysis and modification of multi-document e-learning resources

• US 20070124322A1
• Filed: 11/28/2005
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Meyer, Marek, Hildebrandt, Tomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,037,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Content stored in a plurality of electronic files that belong to a course of learning resources is read. An object-oriented representation of structures of the content is generated, where the representation includes objects that represent portions of the content, and a semantic content model of the content is generated based on the object-oriented representation of the content. Instructions to modify the content are received and the object-oriented representation of the structures of the content is modified in response to the instructions from the user. In response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content the content is modified.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

reading content stored in a plurality of electronic files, wherein the files belong to a course of learning resources;

generating an object-oriented representation of structures of the content, wherein the representation includes objects that represent portions of the content;

generating a semantic content model of the content based on the object-oriented representation of the content;

receiving instructions to modify the content;

modifying the object-oriented representation of the structures of the content in response to the instructions from the user; and

modifying the content in response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the object-oriented representation includes organizing the objects in a tree-structure defining hierarchical relationships between the objects.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a mapping between semantic information in the semantic content model and objects of the object-oriented representation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the semantic content model comprises generating semantic information about the content based on implicit semantics between objects of the object-oriented representation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving instructions to modify the content comprises receiving instructions from a user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of electronic files comprises files stored in different formats.

7. The method of claim 6,

wherein the object-oriented representation is independent of the format in which the content is stored.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein modifying the content stored in a particular electronic file in a particular format comprises converting modifications to the object-oriented representation into modifications to the content stored in the particular electronic file using a format-dependent plug-in module between the object-oriented representation and the content stored in the particular format.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein modifying the content stored in the plurality of electronic files comprises invoking a plurality of plug-in modules, each plug-in module being adapted for modifying a particular format of electronic file, for executing modifications to the content based on modifications to the object-oriented representation.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the content stored in an electronic file comprises:

identifying an object of the object-oriented representation associated with the content to be modified; and

issuing a command to modify the identified object.

11. An apparatus comprising a machine-readable storage medium having executable-instructions stored thereon, the instructions including:

an executable code segment for causing a processor to read content stored in a plurality of electronic files, wherein the files belong to a suite of learning resources and at least some of the files are stored in different formats than other files;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to generate an object-oriented representation of structures of the content, wherein the representation includes objects that represent portions of the content that are independent of the format in which the content is stored;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to generate a semantic content model of the content based on the object-oriented representation of the content;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to receive instructions from a user to modify the content;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to modify the object-oriented representation of the structures of the content in response to the instructions from the user; and

an executable code segment for causing a processor to modify the content in response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the code segment for causing the process to modify the content stored in a particular electronic file in a particular format comprises a code segment for causing the processor to convert modifications to the object-oriented representation into modifications to the content stored in the particular electronic file using a format-dependent plug-in module between the object-oriented representation and the content stored in the particular format.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the code segment for causing the process to modify the content stored in the plurality of electronic files comprises a code segment for causing the processor to invoke a plurality of plug-in modules, each plug-in module being adapted for modifying a particular format of electronic file, for executing modifications to the content based on modifications to the object-oriented representation.

14. A system for modifying an e-learning course, the system comprising:

a plurality of plug-in modules configured for reading learning resources of the e-learning course stored in different particular formats of electronic files;

an object-oriented representation of structures of content of the e-learning course, wherein the representation includes objects that represent portions of the content;

a semantic content model of the content based on the object-oriented representation of the content;

an transaction engine configured to modifying the object-oriented representation of the structures of the content in response to instructions from the user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plug-in modules are further configured for modifying the learning resources in response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the object-oriented representation includes a tree-structure defining hierarchical relationships between objects of the representation.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising a mapping engine configured for mapping entries of the semantic content model to objects of the object-oriented representation.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the object-oriented representation is independent of the format in which the content is stored.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the plug-in modules are further configured for converting modifications to the object-oriented representation into modifications to the learning resources of the e-learning course, each plug-in module being adapted for modifying a particular format of electronic file.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising a semantic enrichment engine configured to add semantic information to the semantic content model based on the object-oriented representation of structures of content of the e-learning course.