Sw-el'05: Applications of Semantic Web Technologies for E-learning in Conjunction with 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (aied'05) Special Session on Semantic Web for Adaptive Learning Environments Session Co-chairs: Special Session on Semantic Web-based Educational Information Systems

ii Preface The AIED'05 session of the SW-EL'05 workshop focuses on Semantic Web-based knowledge representation and engineering approaches and methods for the needs of intelligent learning systems and discusses issues related to their use for content and knowledge components specification, effective intelligent courseware construction and modelling the learner. The following topics are addressed in the attempt to achieve the Educational Semantic Web: • Using ontologies and/or Semantic Web technologies for: o knowledge representation in intelligent educational systems o modularised and standardized architectures (e.g. separation of domain models and application models) o achieving interoperability between intelligent learning applications, sharable user models and knowledge components o supporting authoring of intelligent educational systems • Semantic Web technologies for Adaptive Learning Systems o Personalization and adaptation in educational systems (flexible user models) o Ontology-based reasoning for personalising the educational Semantic Web o Techniques and methods to capture and employ learner semantics • Semantic Web technologies for Educational Information Systems o SW-based indexing/annotation of educational content (incl. individual and community based) o Ontology-based information browsing and retrieval o Semantic Web/ontology based recommender systems • SW-based Methods, Techniques, and Tools for: o Building and sharing educational content, models of users, and personalisation components. o Ontology evolution, versioning and consistency • Empirical research for Intelligent Educational Systems: o Real-world systems and case studies o Community and individual support with Semantic Web-technologies and Ontologies To answer the open questions posed by this workshop, together to share their experience by working with divergent communities of teachers and learners and, possibly, involving educational web industries. Two special sessions are organized within the context of this workshop: The 2005 edition of the SW-EL workshop is organized in three sessions held at three different conferences in order to discuss the current problems in e-learning from different perspectives, including those of advanced Web-based educational applications, Artificial Intelligence in education and the implications of applying Semantic Web standards and technologies for solving them: Researchers with interest in various aspects of Web-based educational systems get together at SW-EL'05 in order to discuss important issues in this field and present their latest results. We hope that the workshop will continue to contribute towards the realization of the vision of the Educational Semantic Web.