Querying Heterogeneous and Distributed Learning Object Repositories via Ontology-Based Mediation

1We propose a mediator architecture that allows a learning system to retrieve learning objects (LOs) from heterogeneous repositories of LOs and not exclusively from its proprietary repository. A mediating component accepts queries formulated in a uniform query language, translates them into repository specific queries and passes them to each connected repository. For the translation of queries, an ontology-based queryrewriting method has been developed which uses the specified knowledge representation of the repository and an ontology mapping to compute the rewriting steps for translating. For distributing queries we realized a mediating architecture, which passes the translated queries to the repositories. This architecture has been integrated in the Web-based, user-adaptive and interactive e-learning environment Active Math.