TY - JOUR
T1 - Effectiveness of adaptive concept maps for promoting conceptual understanding
T2 - Findings from a design-based case study of a learner-centered tool
AU - Moore, Jacob
AU - Williams, Christopher B.
AU - North, Christopher
AU - Johri, Aditya
AU - Paretti, Marie
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Traditional instructional materials such as textbooks contain significant educational content, but thenavigational mechanisms to access that content are limited and, more importantly, not designed with learning in mind. To address this gap, we present the Adaptive Map, a novel organization and navigation tool designed to help students better understand large collections of information such as those found in textbooks. The tool promotes conceptual understanding by leveraging expert-generated concept maps, which have been shown to improve learning. In addition, to alleviate problems associated with visually processing large-scale concept maps, our design integrated information visualization techniques to increase usability and facilitate processing. To evaluate the approach, a prototype was developed and tested in an engineering statics class. A multiple case study methodology was used to explore how students used the tool. Results show that the tool promoted conceptual understanding by facilitating advance organizer usage and students' exploration of relevant prior content.
AB - Traditional instructional materials such as textbooks contain significant educational content, but thenavigational mechanisms to access that content are limited and, more importantly, not designed with learning in mind. To address this gap, we present the Adaptive Map, a novel organization and navigation tool designed to help students better understand large collections of information such as those found in textbooks. The tool promotes conceptual understanding by leveraging expert-generated concept maps, which have been shown to improve learning. In addition, to alleviate problems associated with visually processing large-scale concept maps, our design integrated information visualization techniques to increase usability and facilitate processing. To evaluate the approach, a prototype was developed and tested in an engineering statics class. A multiple case study methodology was used to explore how students used the tool. Results show that the tool promoted conceptual understanding by facilitating advance organizer usage and students' exploration of relevant prior content.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84944706999&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84944706999&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84944706999
SN - 1941-1766
VL - 4
JO - Advances in Engineering Education
JF - Advances in Engineering Education
IS - 4
ER -