An empirical analysis of ontology-based query expansion for learning resource searches using MERLOT and the Gene ontology

  • Authors:
  • N. Alejandra Segura; Salvador-Sánchez;Elena García-Barriocanal;Manuel Prieto

  • Affiliations:
  • Universidad del BioBio, Avda. Collao 1202, 4081112 Concepción, Chile;Universidad de Alcalá, Ctra. Barcelona km. 33.6, 28871 Madrid, Spain;Universidad de Alcalá, Ctra. Barcelona km. 33.6, 28871 Madrid, Spain;Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Po. de la Universidad 4, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain

  • Venue:
  • Knowledge-Based Systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

This paper proposes an expansion of queries based on formal domain ontologies in the context of the search for learning resources in repositories. The expansion process uses the relation types that are represented in these models; common ontological relations, and ontological relations specific to domain and traditional terminology relations, typical of thesauri. The tests were conducted using Gene ontology as the knowledge base and MERLOT is used as the test repository. The results of this study case indicate that, at similar levels of precision, expanded queries improve levels of novelty and coverage compared to the original query (without expansion), i.e. expanded queries allow the user to retrieve relevant objects, which might not be obtained without expansion.