Ontology based approach for representing the learner profile and learning styles

In the era of ICT, our way of learning has known several improvements and changes. The objective of new educational systems is not delivering the learning materials through Internet or electronic devices, but they aim to use many technics and methods to enhance our learning process. Recently, increasing attention is given to these aspects such as: learning styles, learner profile, adaptive learning and their impact on learning, and how the individual characteristics and features may be supported in learning systems. These investigations are motivated by pedagogical theories that claim if we provide courses that meet the individual characteristics of learners, then it makes learning easier for them and increases the progression of their learning. Personalized learning takes into account the abilities, preferences, backgrounds, intellectual capacities, needs of learners, and learning styles, that helps the educational system to provide the appropriate activities and learning content for a particular learner. In this paper, we propose an ontological approach for the representation of learner profile and learning styles to simply use them for a personalized E-learning and to allow greater flexibility and reusability. In addition, the ontological representation of learners’ profiles and learning styles gives a detailed description about them which allows the delivery of the pertinent content for each learner according to his preferences and characteristics.