Competency Semantics Information Modules and Architecture

The structure and organization of skill and competency information within Information Technology (IT) systems to support learning, education and training have not been widely researched in the fields of e-Learning and learning science. Although there are IT systems (e.g., Learning Management Systems (LMSs), Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) that use and produce this type of information in the form of educational objectives, course content, learning resources metadata, and so on, very few systems are well integrated and capable of easily exchanging and managing competency information. Over several years, the Japanese government has developed several Japan national skills standards for lifelong learning, career development, and certification. They have had to address problems in terms of how various stakeholders can use, implement, and share the content of the information of skills specifications and standards using IT systems. Modules and architecture for skill and competency information content were needed in order to reuse and share this information and to optimize interoperability across various IT systems. Several reviews were conducted and modules and architecture were developed based on ontological engineering and practices. During this process, five types of expressions were discovered, and these were used as a basis to support further modularization. Based on the modules, a system-architecture to deal with the semantics of skill and competency information was developed.