Meaningful Concept Displays for thesis topic exploration

Katherine Bertelksbertel@buffalo.edu

Jun Dengjundeng@buffalo.edu

Department of Library and Information Studies

Purpose

• How do Meaningful Concept Displays, specifically concept maps, help users to explore a thesis or term paper topic?

• Through this type of exploration, are users able to gain a fuller understanding of the conceptual space surrounding their topic?

• Does this new understanding lead to better retrieval of relevant literature?

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Procedure

• A total of 10 doctoral and master’s students from GSE were recruited through listserv email messages to voluntarily participate in one, 1-2 hour session.

• All searching, note taking, and concept map construction was recorded using a voice recorder and screen capture software.

• A post-session interview was designed to learn about:– the participant’s opinion of the overall experience during

the study– how they regard the usefulness of creating the concept

map– the value (if any) of the search results

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ProcessParticipants,

• Search thesauri, the GSE envisioning statement, and other knowledge organization systems (KOS) for relevant terms

• Construct and modify a concept map using IHMC CMap

• Take notes regarding what they have found in Microsoft OneNote

• Search education databases and the Web for relevant literature

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Project description

From KOS

Concept map

Take notesSearch for documents

Improved project

description

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Participant 9: Computer assisted instruction for music learning

Beginning of session

Middle of session

End of session

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Participant 9: Middle of session

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Participant 9: End of session

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Data analysis: Coding schema

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Preliminary results• Using the concept map helped participants to

develop and clarify their topics– “Developed the structure of the whole thing” (P09)

– Helps visualize the progression from concept map to outline to final paper

• Thesauri and knowledge organization systems were useful for finding additional terms– Instead of using the first thing that comes to mind,

the thesaurus helps to expand the topic (P12)

• Participants were able to find more relevant literature using the found terms

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Conclusions• Every participant was interested in installing

and using the CMap software for future projects

• CMap software is useful as a tool for developing a topic between advisor and student

• Being able to talk about the topic to someone outside the field of interest helped to clarify and envision new directions

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Questions?

Katherine Bertelksbertel@buffalo.edu

Jun Dengjundeng@buffalo.edu

Meaningful Concept Displays for thesis topic exploration

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