Application of ontology to knowledge management in web based learning

Systematic approach to managing knowledge is an essential pre-requisite to enabling learners and knowledge seekers to access relevant material as and when it is required. Standard information retrieval mechanisms applied in on-line learning environments do not offer access to semantic relationships between knowledge items, and thus are unable to put query results in context. While ontology and semantic web, which provide for semantic links, are increasingly used in business and research, their acceptance in e-learning is still at the preliminary stages. In this background, this paper develops a framework for a knowledge management system which uses ontology to enable efficient reuse and sharing of knowledge in a web based learning environment.