A framework for resource recommendations for learners using social bookmarking

E-Learning aims at providing an alternative to classroom learning where learners learn through internet or CD/DVD without physical presence in the classrooms. In this paper, the state-of-the-art e-Learning tools have been reviewed. It has been observed that the contemporary tools can be seen as course management system rather an alternative to classroom learning. When learners need further clarifications on the topic, learners need to visit external sources such as Search Engines, Citation Indexes, and Digital Libraries etc. However, with the advent of Web 2.0, the social community is engaged to share large number of important and recent resources with the scientific community. One of such system is known as: CiteULike which has more than 6 millions research resources and thousands of resources are shared on daily basis. Users of CiteULike annotate resources with useful keywords termed as Tags to give a structure to these resources. This paper further provides a framework for discovering most relevant resources from CiteULike for learners. The keywords of learning resource are matched with tags of CiteULike using Direct Match, Partial Match, and Synonym Match. The resources are further ranked based on number of weights. The ranked list of resources are made available in the local context of the learners in the eLearning system. The proposed framework has been demonstrated with the example of a case study. It has been found that the ranked list of resources are very important for learners. The learners not only get a ranked list of relevant resources, instead the learners discover evolving concepts and resources related to the topic of study. The reoccurs give breadth and depth knowledge to learners for further explorations.