Abstract. Personalisation, adaptation and recommendation are central features of TEL environments. In this context, information retrieval techniques are applied as part of TEL recommender systems to filter and recommend learning resources or peer learners according to user preferences and requirements. However, the suitability and scope of possible recommendations is fundamentally dependent on the quality and quantity of available data, for instance, metadata about TEL resources as well as users. On the other hand, throughout the last years, the Linked Data (LD) movement has succeeded to provide a vast body of well-interlinked and publicly accessible Web data. This in particular includes Linked Data of explicit or implicit educational nature. The potential of LD to facilitate TEL recommender systems research and practice is discussed in this paper. In particular, an overview of most relevant LD sources and techniques is provided, together with a discussion of their potential for the TEL domain in general and TEL recommender systems in particular. Results from highly related European projects are presented and discussed together with an analysis of prevailing challenges and preliminary solutions.Keywords. Linked Data, Education, Semantic Web, Technology-Enhanced Learning, Data Consolidation, Data Integration
IntroductionAs personalisation, adaptation and recommendation are central features of TEL environments, TEL recommender systems apply information retrieval techniques to filter and deliver learning resources according to user preferences and requirements. While the suitability and scope of possible recommendations is fundamentally dependent on the quality and quantity of available data, e.g., data about learners, and in particular metadata about TEL resources, the landscape of standards and approaches currently exploited to share and reuse educational data is highly fragmented.