Developing a semantic web matchmaker for multimedia learning objects - A case study on creating a web service interface for 00-JDrew

This paper introduces a matchmaker to discover multimedia learning objects on the semantic Web. The increase in learning objects and lack of semantic base in search mechanisms of the semantic Web discovery engine (UDDI) make it difficult for clients to find a required learning object service (LOs). Using metadata to find distributed educational Web services or LOs that meet one's functional requirements is only the first step. LOs requestors may have additional requirements such as presenting a flexible query to find a relevant multimedia course. The LOs need to employ a matchmaking engine that can process the rules and conditions of the requesters. This article provides a draft implementation of an Apache Axis matchmaker, which embeds the OO-jDREW rule-based engine. The developed first prototype provides a lightweight and custornizable reasoner for allocating multimedia LOs courseware presentations.