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

• US 8,037,083 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2005
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Meyer, Marek, Hildebrandt, Tomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene; John E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Raab; Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US11/287,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124322A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,143 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/102
• US Class Current: 707/756
• 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 of an e-learning course of learning resources stored in a plurality of electronic files, wherein the electronic files are stored in a plurality of formats;

generating an object-oriented tree-structure representation of the content of the course based on the content that has been read from the electronic files stored in a plurality of formats, wherein the representation includes objects that represent portions of the content of the course and the tree-structure representation defines hierarchical relationships between objects of the representation and wherein the object-oriented representation is independent of the formats in which the files are stored;

generating a semantic content model of the content of the e-learning course, wherein the semantic content model includes an outline of the content including semantic relations and decoration, an abstract representation of the course content based on the object-oriented representation of the content, and semantic information about the content of the course based on implicit semantics between objects of the object-oriented representation;

providing information about the semantic content of the course model to a user through the semantic content model;

receiving instructions from the user to modify the content of the e-learning course;

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

modifying the content of the e-learning course stored in at least one electronic file in response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content.

2. 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.

3. The method of claim 1, 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.

4. The method of claim 1, 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.

5. The method of claim 1, 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.

6. 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 of an e-learning course 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 tree-structure representation of the content of the course based on the content that has been read from the electronic files stored in a plurality of formats, wherein the tree-structure representation defines hierarchical relationships between objects of the representation and includes objects that represent portions of the content of the course that are independent of the format in which the files are stored;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to generate a semantic content model of the content of the e-learning course, wherein the semantic content model includes an outline of the content including semantic relations and decoration, an abstract representation of the course content based on the object-oriented representation of the content, and semantic information about the content of the course based on implicit semantics between objects of the object-oriented representation;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to provide information about the semantic content of the course model to a user through the semantic content model;

an executable code segment for causing a processor to receive instructions from the 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.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, 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.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, 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.

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

a machine-readable medium having executable-instructions stored thereon;

a plurality of plug-in modules configured for executing instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the plug-in modules to read learning resources of the e-learning course stored in different particular formats of electronic files, to generate an object-oriented tree-structure representation content of the e-learning course based on the content that has been read from the electronic files stored in a plurality of formats, wherein the tree-structure representation includes objects that represent portions of the content of the course and defines hierarchical relationships between objects of the representation, and to generate a semantic content model of the content, wherein the semantic content model includes an outline of the content including semantic relations and decoration, an abstract representation of the course content based on the object-oriented representation of the content, and semantic information about the content of the course based on implicit semantics between objects of the object-oriented representation;

and a transaction engine configured to execute instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the engine to modify the object-oriented representation of the structures of the content in response to instructions from the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the plug-in modules are further configured for executing instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the plug-in modules to modify the learning resources in response to the modified object-oriented representation of structures of the content.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a mapping engine configured for executing instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the engine to map entries of the semantic content model to objects of the object-oriented representation.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the object-oriented representation is independent of the format in which the content is stored.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the plug-in modules are further configured for executing instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the plug-in modules to convert 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.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a semantic enrichment engine configured execute instructions stored on the machine-readable medium to cause the engine to add semantic information to the semantic content model based on the object-oriented representation of structures of content of the e-learning course.