Abstract:

ICTs great advances have led to new ways to acquire knowledge. Specifically, the Internet offers an ideal environment for online encyclopedias. Such encyclopedias have great potential, as they provide quick and easy access to the information. Despite this, not everything that is published on the Internet is scientifically rigorous.

This work analyses which online encyclopedias are the most adequate for learning, and it has concluded that none of the observed have abided to what are considered adequate parameters. Among them, Wikipedia, which is one of the most used online encyclopedias, is the closest to what we consider ideal. Among other parameters, it does not comply with expert article revision, as its content is created, edited and validated by the users themselves. There is another parameter used, specifically whether the encyclopedia considers the users previous knowledge, which is not satisfied by any of the observed encyclopedias, with the exception of Vikidia, which despite being directed towards a very specific user, it is not adaptive to different types of users.

Therefore new ideas, that improve these knowledge repositories are needed, while providing, on one hand, their own information with reliability and, on the other hand, staying adapted to the users knowledge. To make up for this lack we propose in this article, a new model for online encyclopedias, with two main objectives: first, to certify the content by experts and second, to classify the content in different levels according to complexity and ranging from basic to complex. Our proposal, named kNOwledge NETwork (NONET), represents a certified knowledge multilevel network. We also propose a model that represents, in an intuitive and easy manner, different levels of knowledge, and the potential relationships among them. Finally, the article presents an example, illustrated in the proposal, in which NONET is adapted to a university level course. In short, we believe this paper puts forward a very innovative and useful idea targeted at improving online encyclopedias, while offering great possibilities towards its adoption, specifically among university teaching.

Keywords:

KNOwledge NETwork (NONET), online encyclopedia, certified knowledge, classified knowledge, knowledge multilevel network.