Towards an "adaptive concept map": Creating an expert-generated concept map of an engineering statics curriculum

Concept maps are graphical representations of cognitive knowledge structures. Although they were originally developed as a way to follow and understand changes in student knowledge, they have proven to be effective instructional tools. Concept maps consist of labeled nodes that represent concepts, or perceived regularities or patterns, and links that are labeled to indicate the relationships between the nodes. Current work with concept maps is limited to small maps that cover only sections of a class or the entire class at a high level of abstraction. Due to problems in interpreting concept maps with numerous nodes and links, maps of larger domains are limited in the detail the can represent. The authors are exploring the use of interactive digital tools as a way to present large-scale concept maps that organize information and show connections across the curriculum without overwhelming the user visually. As an exemplar, the authors have chosen the content in an engineering statics course. If successful, the concept mapping tool could be used to cognitively link information between courses in engineering mechanics and then across the entire engineering curriculum. As the first step in this process, the authors set out to capture an expert's knowledge of engineering statics in the form of a course-wide concept map. This paper details the process of capturing expert knowledge of a course and organizing this information into a concept map that accurately represents the information taught in the course.