An Ontology to Model e-portfolio and Social Relationship in Web 2.0 Informal Learning Environments

Web 2.0 applications and the increasingly use of social networks have been creating new informal learning opportunities. Students interact and collaborate using new learning environments which are structurally different from traditional e-learning environments. In these informal unstructured learning contexts the boundaries between the learning contexts and social spheres disappear, and the definition of the students competences appears more and more important. In this paper we propose a semantic web approach in order to create the basis for a software platform to model learner profiles. In particular we propose to extend the FOAF ontology, used to describe people and their personal relationships, with an ontology related to the IMS Learning Portfolio used to model students’ competencies. This ontology could be a fundamental layer for a new Web 2.0 learning environment in which students’ informal learning activities carried out in social networks can be managed and evaluated.