Riccardo Mazza

CourseVis: A graphical student monitoring tool for supporting instructors in web-based distance courses

This paper presents CourseVis, a system that takes a novel approach of using Web log data generated by course management systems (CMSs) to help instructors become aware of what is happening in distance learning classes. Specifically, techniques from information visualization (IV) are employed to graphically render complex, multidimensional student tracking data. Several graphical representations are generated to help distance learning instructors get a better understanding of social, behavioural, and cognitive aspects related to learners. The evaluation of CourseVis shows that it can help instructors to quickly identify tendencies in their classes and discover individuals that might need special attention. This suggests that the effectiveness of CMSs can be improved by integrating IV techniques to generate appropriate graphical representations, similar to those produced in CourseVis.

Visualising student tracking data to support instructors in web-based distance education

This paper presents a novel approach of using web log data generated by course management systems (CMS) to help instructors become aware of what is happening in distance learning classes. Specifically, techniques from Information Visualization are used to graphically render complex, multidimensional student tracking data collected by CMS. A system, called CourseVis, illustrates the proposed approach. Graphical representations from the use of CourseVis to visualise data from a java on-line distance course ran with WebCT are presented. Findings from the evaluation of CourseVis are presented, and it is argued that CourseVis can help teachers become aware of some social, behavioural, and cognitive aspects related to distance learners. Using graphical representations of student tracking data, instructors can identify tendencies in their classes, or quickly discover individuals that need special attention.

Focus Group Methodology for Evaluating Information Visualization Techniques and Tools

This paper proposes a structured methodology that uses focus group interviews to evaluate Information Visualization techniques and tools. Focus groups are particularly suitable for the collection of qualitative data from users, and allow researchers to uncover unexpected problems that cannot be identified through analytical evaluations or controlled experiments. The approach relies on open-ended questions to explore user attitudes, feelings, and beliefs, but also indicates a number of questions designed to explore specific cognitive tasks related to Information Visualization systems. We argue that focusing the discussion on cognitive tasks allows for the generation of user comments that are more effective than informal and unstructured interviews.

User-Friendly Ontology Editing and Visualization Tools: The OWLeasyViz Approach

This paper aims to propose solutions to the issue of ontology visualization, by presenting intuitive and user-friendly ontology editing and visualization environments mainly oriented to domain experts. It starts with an overview of existing ontology visualization methods; afterwards it describes the Semantic DB system and the OWLeasyViz ontology editor. Semantic DB is a web application framework to create simple complete semantic web applications, integrating an ontology editor, a resource editor, an inference rule editor, a reasoner, and a search engine. OWLeasyViz is an ontology editor that combines a textual and a graphical representation of OWL ontologies. It meets different user needs by providing a simple and intuitive interface to end-users who are not ontologists, and offering more advanced tools to ontology experts. The OWLeasyViz editor is intended to be a module of a semantic web integrated working environment, developed within the context of a Swiss Government funded CTI applied research project in the domain of waste water management.

Evaluating information visualization applications with focus groups: the CourseVis experience

This paper reports our experience of evaluating an application that uses visualization approaches to support instructors in Web based distance education. The evaluation took place in three stages: a focus group, an experimental study, and a semi-structured interview. In this paper we focus our attention on the focus group, and we will show how this evaluation approach can be very effective in uncovering unexpected problems that cannot be identified with analytic evaluations or controlled experiments.

GVIS: a facility for adaptively mashing up and representing open learner models

In this article we present an infrastructure for creating mash up and visual representations of the user profile that combine data from different sources. We explored this approach in the context of Life Long Learning, where different platforms or services are often used to support the learning process. The system is highly configurable: data sources, data aggregations, and visualizations can be configured on the fly without changing any part of the software and have an adaptive behavior based on users or systems characteristics. The visual profiles produced can have different graphical formats and can be bound to different data, automatically adapting to personal preferences, knowledge, and contexts. A first evaluation, conducted through a questionnaire, seems to be promising thanks to the perceived usefulness and the interest in the tool.

Interactive Visualization - A Survey

Advances in computer science and technology have led to unprecedented new possibilities in science, engineering, and business. At the same time, the automation of measurements, the networking of sensors, the digitization of processes, and large-scale computer simulations produce a deluge of data. The amount of new data grows faster than our ability to analyze and comprehend it. The maturing field of interactive visualization provides a new generation of tools and techniques that promise to contribute to a solution of this problem. In this chapter we present a survey of the field. The two complementary aspects of scientific visualization and information visualization are introduced, and a description of typical applications and research directions provided. The survey is rounded off by a look at the activities in the various fields of interactive visualization in Switzerland.

The integrated eBook: the convergence of ebook, companion web site, and elearning

In recent years, universities have adopted eLearning solutions as part of their learning resources to provide students with digital and multimedia content. The effect of this strategy is that the educational materials in electronic format are replacing in part (or as a whole) the classic printed books. In this paper we present our strategy of integrating in a single resource an electronic book with a companion eLearning website. Instead of considering the textbook and the eLearning website as two distinct resources that have to be adopted by the students of the course, here we propose a unified approach that integrates both in a single resource.

Supporting Learners in Adaptive Learning Environments through the Enhancement of the Student Model

This positional paper presents our research aimed at finding some possible research directions towards the enhancement of the use of open student models in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning and Adaptive Systems. Starting from the historical evolution of the learner model, we will describe some possible uses of learner models and propose some possible directions of enhancement. We will present 6 possible directions of research, and 11 dimensions on analysis. The 6 directions have been evaluated against the dimensions, and tentative ranking has been proposed. The result of this analysis will guide the work on open learner models which will be undertaken in the context of the European Union funded project GRAPPLE [1] aimed at building an infrastructure for adaptive learning systems that will adopt the strategy of opening learner models to the course learners and instructors.

A graphical tool for monitoring the usage of modules in course management systems

This paper proposes an approach to graphically represent the tracking data in Course Management Systems in order to mine and discover the usage of specific software modules. We have implemented a tool that aims to give, at a glance, a visual representation of the usage of a specific module in all the courses managed by the Course Management System. The tool also allows comparing the usage in different courses, and seeing the distribution of the usage over time. This information is useful to administrators of the Course Management System that have to know how much the modules have been used in courses. But also, it could be useful to instructional designers that have to design, plan, and evaluate the learning needs in institutions.