A Conceptual Framework for an Ontology-Based Examination System

There is an increasing reliance on the web for many software application deployments. Millions of services ranging from commerce, education, tourism and entertainment are now available on the web, making the web to be the largest database in the world as of today. However, the information available on the web is syntactically structured whereas the trend is to provide semantic linkage to them. The semantic web serves as a medium to enhance the current web in which computers can process information, interpret, and connect it to enhance knowledge retrieval. The semantic web has encouraged the creation of ontologies in a great variety of domains. In this paper, the conceptual framework for an ontology-based examination system and the ontology required for such examination systems were described. The domain ontology was constructed based on the Methontology method proposed by Fernandez (1997). The ontology can be used to design and create metadata elements required developing web-based examination applications and can be interoperate-able with other applications. Taxonomic evaluation and the Guarino-Welty Ontoclean techniques were used to assess and refined the domain ontology in other to ensure it is error-free.