Construction of an introductory physics e-learning system based on Topic Maps is discussed in view of subject-centric design of web-based learning. A pilot system with a visualized Topic Maps portal was created and utilized for students’ self-study of university lectures. The aim of this system is to provide a platform where learners can design their study by themselves, and extend their study into information resources on the Internet. The students’ response to an inquiry on their impressions of the pilot system suggested that the
Topic Maps portal is useful for figuring out the relationships of knowledge, and that navigation for the order of learning materials was required for beginners. Further, an e-Learning Topic Maps system that consists of three main domains, i.e., physics subjects, learning resource types, and learning record types, was created to improve the system
extensible in physics related knowledge and in the types of associations between subjects.