Description:
To support a pedagogical approach based on the collaborative writing of hyperbooks, we have developed several hyperbook models and systems based on the virtual document idea. In these hyperbooks, domain ontologies are used to organize the information contents and to infer interface documents. This article first presents our hyperbook models, together with observations made when using them with student. Then we discuss some of the lessons we have drawn about the use of ontologies in these environments. These lessons concern both the engineering of hyperbooks and the creation of domain ontologies. Finally we show how to use ontologies to extend the hyperbook concept to take into account several points of view, to integrate hyperbooks into a library of hyperbooks, to personalize hyperbooks, and to generate documentation about a topic.