The Strand Map Service

Tamara Sumner

Computer Science and ICS

This research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation under NSF Awards #226286 and #121724 and under Cooperative Agreements #ATM-9732665 and #ATM-0301213 between the NSF and UCAR, and by NSF Grants SP035, #0085600, and #0227656.

2

Educational Digital Libraries: Objectives

New models for the production, distribution, and sharing of learning resources and best practices, with traditional and new partners

Open and interoperable library infrastructure enabling third parties to create new apps and services

Content-rich and adaptive learning environments that build on library collections and infrastructure to positively impact student learning

Approach: Contextualization Services Architecture

Characterization and

Filtering Services

Knowledge Organization

Services

Contextualization Services

Learning Environments

Adaptive

Content-Rich

Strand Map Service

Discovery Service

DLESE Teaching Box

4

The Strand Map Service Motivation

Harsh Realities: No Child Left Behind Legislation – 2014, Standards as ‘checklists’ to be covered (Atlas for Science Literacy, AAAS, 2001), Connections between ideas are lost (How People Learn, NRC,2000)

Opportunities: Standards embody reform agenda, integral to perspective of curriculum reform as a ‘design by assembly’ problem (AAAS, Designs for Science Literacy, 2001)

Partners: UCB, Project 2061 – AAAS, DLESE, UCSB

Goals ‘Rich representations’ of learning goals and means to

visualize relationships between goals

Representations and visualizations available throughout distributed library network

5

AAAS Benchmarks and Strand Maps

Benchmarks: Describe what learners should know, or be able to do, at key stages in their education across the STEM disciplines

Strand maps: Node-link diagrams illustrating how student understanding changes over time

6

What is a Benchmark?

The sun warms the air, land and water.

When warmer things are put with cooler ones, the warm ones lose heat and the cool ones gain it until they are all the same temperature.

K-2

3-5

Research on the cognitive and scientific basis

Research on student (mis-)conceptions

Strategies to check student understanding

Assessment activities

7Flow

of

Matt

er

in E

cosy

stem

s M

ap

matter cycle food webplants

making food

8

Approach: Knowledge Organization Service

Service components

Visualization interfaces

Web service protocol

AAAS information model

User constituency

K-12 teachers and students

Library developers

AAAS staff

Related Work: Concept Maps (Hall et al; O’Donnell et al) Snap-together Visualizations (North and

Schneiderman) Knowledge Organization Systems (Binding and

Tudhope)

9

Research Methodology

Visualization requirements

AAAS Info Space

Visualization Algorithm

Concept Space Interchange Protocol

Benchmarks Repository

Pilot User Study

Deployment Cases

10

Strand Map Service:How it

works

11

The Strand Map Service in DLESE

12

CSIP Web Service Protocol Balance expressiveness

with facility expressiveness -> visual

components facility -> programming

walkthrough

<Query DetailLevel="Detailed" Format="SVG" Scope="MAP"><Content-Query> <Name MatchType="Equal">Weather and Climate</Name> </Content-Query> </Query>

Representational State Transfer (REST)

Protocol consists of three services Service Description Submit Resource Query

13

The Strand Map Service in the Harvard-Smithsonian Digital Video Library

14

Reflections and Outcomes Illustrates educational Cyberinfrastructure

Learning environment based entirely on web services SMS makes visual components available to

developers Impact on the mindset and practices of our CI

partners

Evaluation results – a useful cognitive tool Controlled study examined influence of interface on

cognitive processes of undergraduates Compared visual interface and keyword-based

interface Students focused on science content, twice as much

using visual interface, as opposed to query construction and surface features

15

Evaluation Study Methodology

Compared cognitive strategies using Strand Map Service versus DLESE search interface 12 participants – undergraduate psychology students 4 Tasks – teachers using DLESE to find educational resources

in order to teach a topic in class Self-explanation with tasks – coded and analyzed verbal

protocols

“…I’m reading the different little boxes to find out which one sounds more related to why earthquakes occur…this one talks about .. how the core of the earth is hot and that’s what makes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions but .. this one says that they also occur along boundaries with colliding plates, so I’m going to try this one first .. “

“.. I guess the first thing I do is probably the most basic thing, just type in rock cycle into the search engine…And it yielded no results so I’ll go back .. right now I’m just clicking on the options I have here, seeing if I can narrow down the search.. “

16

Examples of Coded Verbal Protocols

Complex Proposition Coded Category Participant 5, Strand map search interface

He wants to learn about the rock cycle………………..………………………………………...Task so I guess I’ll go to rocks and sediments right now……………………………Strategy-Content

Here’s one that talks about the rock cycle and reforming of rock…………………Interface-Content I think this one might work well……………………………………...…………………...Evaluation It talks about the rock cycle…..………………………………………………….Reasoning-Content

and mentions minerals …………………………………..…………………..Reasoning-Content and that’s what he wants to teach ……………………………………………....Reasoning-Task

Participant 4, Standard search interface

I’m wondering if…………………………..…………………………..………………...Monitoring I’m supposed to go to this browse resources and collections……..……..……….Interface-Surface I’m going to try to search…………………..…..…….……………………………Strategy-Surface

for like the basic atomic structures………..…………………………………..Strategy-Content in minerals……...….…….……………………………………………………Strategy-Content

It says that he wants pictures…….……………………………………………………………..Task so I clicked on visual…………..………………………………………………Strategy-Surface

Now there’s a bunch of sedimentary rocks………………………………………Interface-Content …so I guess that would work as far as pictures ………………………………..Reasoning-Surface

17

Results

02468

10121416

Task

Mo

nit.

Su

rf(I

nt)

Su

rf(S

tra

t)

Co

nt(

Int)

Co

nt(

Str

at)

Eva

l

Re

as(

Su

rf)

Re

as(

Co

nt)

Re

as(

Task

)

Search Processes

Co

mp

lex

Pro

po

siti

on

s (M

)Strand Maps Textual Search

Mean number of search processes performed during a) formulation, b) performance, and c) evaluation

phases

a b c

18

Advance Knowledge Sharing (“Concept” only so far!)The Integrative Data Viewer (IDV) and other such tools can access multiple datasets served by

GEON and save and share the view using a “Bundle”. An advanced application could allow the user not only to share this visualization bundle of integrated data and model files, but also the concepts that led the user to create a particular bundle. Since each individual dataset is registered to an ontology(ies) at GEON, the user could in principle create a new cross-cutting ontology with associated concepts. An ambitious user could also register the new concept for educational purposes to a strand map.

(C. Meertens, 20 April 2005)

IDV Userviews all three data sources together and comes to a brilliant integrative science thought!

Scientist Point of View: User saves

IDV xml bundle, creates a new integrated knowledge concept space, and saves thought in “my GEON”

GEON PortalIDV user grabs data from several data ontologies (perhaps unrelated as shown)

Educator Point of View:

User saves IDV xml bundle, creates associated material that is registered to a strand map

19

Further Reading Butcher, K, S. Bhushan, and T. Sumner (2005). “Multimedia displays

for conceptual search processes: Information seeking with strand maps.” To appear in: ACM Multimedia Systems Journal (Special issue on Multimedia in Education and eLearning).

Sumner, T., F. Ahmad, et al. (2005). “Linking Learning Goals and Educational Resources through Interactive Concept Map Visualizations.” International Journal on Digital Libraries 5(1 (March), Special Issue on Information Visualization Interfaces for Retrieval and Analysis): 18-24.

Sumner, T., F. Ahmad, et al. (2004). A Web Service Interface for Creating Concept Browsing Interfaces, D-Lib Magazine, Volume 10, Number 11.

Gu, Q., F. Ahmad, et al. (2004). Dynamically Generating Conceptual Browsing Interfaces for Digital Libraries using SVG. 3rd Annual Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG Open '04), Tokyo, Japan (Sept 7-10).

Sumner, T., S. Bhushan, et al. (2003). Designing a Language for Creating Conceptual Browsing Interfaces for Digital Libraries. ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL '03), Houston, Texas (May 27-31).