US 2015/0262189 A1 - Online Community-based Knowledge Certification Method And System - The Lens

Online Community-based Knowledge Certification Method And System

Published: Sep 17, 2015
Earliest Priority: Mar 11 2014
Family: 1
Cited Works: 0
Cited by: 4
Cites: 9
Additional Info: Full text

Abstract

An online knowledge verification system, method and software system product provides self-generating community-based knowledge certification. The system can be web-based and includes an infrastructure that allows users to identify and import into the system information descriptive of virtually unlimited content media for which knowledge certification can be established. The system includes a Question Preparation Engine by which questions and answers for an identified content medium are prepared for supporting the certification process. A Question Judgment Engine permits users to provide endorsement scores for the value of questions provided by other users for each content medium. Testing Engines are provided for testing the knowledge of users, using the prepared questions and answers having sufficient endorsement from the community and providing certificates for users who pass the tests for that particular content medium. The system permits users to share those certificates with other users of the community, as well as contacts on social media websites.

Claims

A system for providing online community-based certification of a user's knowledge of content embodied in a content medium, the system comprising:
a database for storing information descriptive of each of a plurality of content media and the content embodied therein at the request of one or more users of the community, the descriptive information for each content medium of the plurality being associated with a unique content medium page;

at least one computer processing device coupled to the database, the computer processing device accessible to the users over a network;

a question preparation engine, executed by the at least one processing device at the request of a user, to enable the requesting user to prepare test questions and associated answer options concerning the content embodied in at least one content medium of the plurality;

a question judgment engine, executed by the at least one processing device at the request of a user, to enable the requesting user to assign an endorsement rating to questions prepared by other users of the community through the question preparation engine for at least one content medium of the plurality; and

at least one certificate test engine, executed by the at least one processing device at the request of a user, to enable the requesting user to apply for a certificate for at least one content medium of the plurality for which a minimum number of questions and associated answer options have been prepared, the at least one certificate test engine granting ownership of the certificate for which the user applies if the user correctly answers a predetermined number of the prepared questions.
The system of claim 1 wherein execution of the question preparation engine, the question judgment engine and the at least one certificate test engine can each be initiated by a user by activating a link associated with a content medium page displayed on a user's personal processing device.
The system of claim 1 wherein the question preparation engine can be initiated by a user claiming to be an author of the content embodied in the content medium to prepare author certification questions and answer options to test a user's knowledge of the content.
The system of claim 1 wherein the question preparation engine can be initiated by a non-author of the content embodied in the content medium to prepare crowd certification questions and answer options by which to test a user's knowledge of the content.
The system of claim 3 wherein the at least one certificate test engine includes an author certificate test engine that can be initiated by a user to apply for an author certificate, the author certificate test engine presenting one or more author certification questions and associated answer options to the user, the author certificate test engine granting the user ownership of the requested author certificate if the user correctly answers a predetermined number of the prepared author certification questions presented.
The system of claim 4 wherein the at least one certificate test engine includes a crowd certificate test engine that can be initiated by a user to apply for a crowd certificate, the crowd certificate test engine presenting one or more crowd certification questions and associated answer options to the user, the crowd certificate test engine granting the user ownership of the requested crowd certificate when the user correctly answers a predetermined number of the prepared crowd certification questions presented.
The system of claim 1 wherein each content medium page is stored in the database in association with a descriptor that is created from the information descriptive of the content medium and the content embedded therein, and an identifier unique to the content medium.
The system of claim 7 wherein the information descriptive of the content medium from which the descriptor is created is obtained from a source connected to the Internet in response to a search conducted by a user.
The system of claim 7 wherein the information descriptive of the content medium from which the descriptor is created is obtained from information provided by a user using a form presented to the user through the user's browser.
The system of claim 7 wherein for each content medium, the content medium page, the questions and associated answer options prepared by users through the question preparation engine, endorsement ratings provided for the prepared questions and answer options, and certificates granted by the at least one test certificate engine are stored in the database in association with the unique identifier for the content medium.
The system of claim 6 wherein the crowd certification questions and associated answer options presented by the crowd certificate test engine are those crowd certificate test questions having an endorsement score that exceeds a predetermined level and are randomly presented with a weighted probability based on their respective endorsement scores.
The system of claim 1 wherein the question preparation engine, the question judgment engine, and the at least one certificate test engine are initiated by a user from the content medium page by the user activating links that are displayed on the content medium page when it is displayed on the user's browser.
The system of claim 1 wherein a content medium page can be associated with a general topic rather than content embodied in a specific content medium, the questions and associated answer options prepared using the question preparation engine concerning the general topic being designed to test a user's knowledge concerning the topic generally.
The system of claim 1 wherein all certificates granted to a user through the at least one certificate test engine being displayed on a “Your Certificates” page displayed on the user's browser at the request of the user.
The system of claim 1 wherein all certificates granted to a user through the at least one certificate test engine can be shared using a link unique to each granted certificate.
The system of claim 3 wherein the question preparation engine further includes author validation that stores an indication of validation for any prepared author certification questions and answer options prepared by a user alleging authorship of the content medium and stored in the database.
The system of claim 1 wherein each user is provided with a medium score for each content medium that is at least based on the number of questions the user has prepared for the content medium and the number of questions that the user has judged that were prepared by other users.
The system of claim 1 wherein each user is provided with a reputation score that is at least based on an average endorsement score attributed to all of the questions prepared for all content media by the user, as judged by other users.
The system of claim 1 wherein the question preparation engine is configured to issue a pre-certificate to at least one user for a content medium when an insufficient number of questions has been prepared by which a user's knowledge of the content embodied in the content medium can be sufficiently tested.
The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one certificate test engine is configured to provide a user ownership of a granted certificate in exchange for either a predetermined payment or preparation of a predetermined number of test questions and associated answer options concerning the content embodied in the content medium for which the certificate is granted.