An interoperability model based on ontologies for learning object repositories

Currently, most of the repositories implement Dublin Core (DC) as metadata standard, allowing the application of Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH: Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). However, DC is not the most appropriate standard for the description of learning objects, which makes necessary resort to other standards. The Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard emerges as the most suitable for the description of learning objects. Also, other standards such as Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) arise among others. This variety of standards makes the interoperability between repositories will become increasingly complex. Most solutions, until now, propose to adopt a metadata standard and include the necessary metadata to be harvested. This paper presents a solution based on ontologies for interoperability between repositories that use different metadata in the description of its objects.