This document discusses applying linked data and semantic web technologies at universities. It provides examples of how the Open University in the UK publishes various types of data as linked open data, including course information, research publications, podcasts and videos. This enables new applications for resource discovery, social networking and supporting research activities. The document also outlines challenges in linking educational data across institutions and supporting new research methodologies through linked data approaches.

1. Linking Universities - A broader look
at the application of linked data and
semantic web technologies in an
academic environment
Mathieu d’Aquin
Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK
@mdaquin

2. A University…

3. A University…
A university is an institution of higher
education and research which grants
academic degrees in a variety of subjects and
provides both undergraduate education and
postgraduate education. The word "university"
is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et
scholarium, which roughly means “community
of teachers and scholars.”
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University

4. The Open University
• The largest university in the
UK: 250K students per year,
8000 associate lecturers, a big
campus in Milton Keynes
• Created in 1969
• Almost entirely open and
distance learning
• 13 regional centers, more
national centers, courses
available in a large number of
countries

5. Public information at the Open University
Data
from
OpenLearn
ORO
Research
Content
Outputs
Archive
of
Library’s
Course
Catalogue
Material
Of
Digital
Content
A/V
Material
Podcasts
iTunesU

6. Linked Data
Open University Person: Mathieu
Website
Publication: Pub1
author
workFor
Open University
VLE
Course: M366
offers
M366 Course
page
Organisation:
The Open University
Mathieu’s
Homepage availableIn
setBook
Mathieu’s
List of Mathieu’s
Publications Twitter Country: Belgium
Book: Mechatronics
The Web" The Web of Linked Data"

7. Applying linked data to the Open University
DBPedia
RAE
Data
from
OpenLearn
ORO
Research
Content
Outputs
Archive
of
Library’s
Course
Catalogue
geonames
Material
Of
Digital
Content
data.gov.uk
A/V
Material
Podcasts
iTunesU
BBC
DBLP

8. data.open.ac.uk
The first linked data platform providing open
information from a across a whole university

9. Linked Data at the Open University
Course information:
580 modules/ description of the course, information about the levels and number of
credits associated with it, topics, and conditions of enrolment.
Research publications:
16,000 academic articles / information about authors, dates, abstract and venue of
the publication.
Podcasts:
2220 video podcasts and 1500 audio podcats / short description, topics, link to a
representative image and to a transscript if available, information about the course
the podcast might relate to and license information regarding the content of the
podcast.
Open Educational Resources:
640 OpenLearn Units / short description, topics, tags used to annotate the resource,
its language, the course it might relate to, and the license that applies to the content.
Youtube videos:
900 videos / short description of the video, tags that were used to annotate the
video, collection it might be part of and link to the related course if relevant.
University buildings:
100 buildings / address, a picture of the building and the sub-divisions of the
building into floors and spaces.
Library catalogue:
12,000 books/ topics, authors, publisher and ISBN, as well as the course related.
Others…

10. Applications
Social"
Resource "
Discovery"
Research"
Exploration

11. Example Application: Study at the OU
That’s where linked data is

12. Example application: Media Relation Reports
Academics in “Arts and Humanities” Topics most commonly mentioned by
most often involved with the media (in news outlets owned by the BBC (in
number of news items)" number of news items)"
From dataset about our
From news clipping From dbpedia.org
researchers
data

13. Research Application:
Research communities

14. Beyond the Single University
mEducator
The Open Data.gov.uk
University education
Research
Orgs., ouputs
Buidings,
Locations
Learning
resources University of
OrganicEduNet Muenster, DE
University University of
of Bristol Southampton

15. See http://linkeduniversities.org

16. LinkedUp
The LinkedUp support action (http://linkedup-project.eu): tackling the challenge
of large scale Web Data integration for concrete educational scenarios

17. State of the Linked Education Cloud
• Currently building a catalogue of educational
datasets (the LinkedUp data pool). Collected
165 from 27 sources so far. There is immensely
more!
• About 600 classes, less than 100 used by more
than 1 dataset
• Almost 1000 properties, less than 180 used by
more than 1 dataset

18. Number of datasets
containing instances of a
given class

19. Number of
datasets using a
given property

20. Challenge: Discovery of open educational resources
Example: DiscOU - http://discou.info

21. Resources URIs Similarity-
Interface
+ common topics
Based Search
BBC Programme or iPlayer page
Resource
descriptions
Indexes
Synopsis
Named Entity Semantic Entities Semantic
Recognition
(Dbpedia)
Indexing
Podcasts, Indexes
OpenLearn Units
and Articles
data.open.ac.uk
Semantic Index

22. Challenge: Supporting Research
Example: Reading Experience Database Project
Event
LocaHon
subClassOf
locatedIn
subClassOf
Experience
City
Country
date:
Date
readerInvolve
d
originCountry
textInvolved
givesBackgroundTo
occupaHon
Person
religion
gender
creator/editor
LinkedEvent
Ontology
Document
CITO
CitaHon
Ontology
Htle:
String
Dublin
Core
descripHon:
String
providesExcerptFor
published:
Date
FOAF
DBPedia

24. More research support…
Building new directions for investigation, e.g. reading during
the first world war
Linked Data as data/knowledge capture medium from the
start: new projects with Linked Data as their backbone
(Listening Experience Database, Damned in Hell…)

25. Challenge: Need for new methodologies
Example: Enriching data-mining results for interpretation

26. Conclusion
Universities / Education / Research
have for objective to create and share
knowledge
Linked Data provides a backbone to
achieve that, while removing the
technological barrier between
researchers/teachers/students and the
data
Semantic Web and Knowledge
technologies have the potential to
support new methodologies for learning
design and for research, whatever the
domain

27. Thank you!
More info and contacts:
@mdaquin
m.daquin@open.ac.uk
http://mdaquin.net
http://linkeduniversities.org
http://linkedup-project.org