Ontology learning for online course creation using NLP techniques and graph theory

Authoring an online course involves creating a conceptual map, the required materials for the course and making it available through an appropriate web interface. This research aims at assisting an author or a student with the task of creating a conceptual map for a course. A conceptual map could be used as a layout in creating an online course. We propose to do this by creating an ontology of related concepts automatically from available glossaries and then using this ontology to create a conceptual map according to a user specification. The proposed method leads to the development of the first such tool that assists an author in the creation of conceptual map for an online course. It is also the first step in a long term goal of automated courseware for non-formal learning.