A Web Application to Support Research on Epistemic Beliefs

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

18-4-2016 10:00 AM

End Date

18-4-2016 11:30 AM

Student's Major

Computer Information Science

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Rebecca Bates

Mentor's Department

Integrated Engineering

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Second Mentor's Name

Jonathan Hardwick

Second Mentor's Department

Computer Information Science

Second Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Third Mentor's Name

Lisa Benson

Description

Research into the epistemic beliefs of engineering students – that is, their beliefs about knowledge, its structure and where it comes from – is currently being used to guide and improve the educational process, and to provide insight into how people learn. Data-gathering for this research includes presenting subjects with a set of knowledge-related words, and then measuring how the subjects perceive the importance of and relationships between the words. This project presents a novel web application designed to support this data-gathering task in an intuitive and visual manner. Researchers load the web app with a list of predetermined words, which appear in circles on a blank canvas. A web prototype has been created to structure how the site is going to look. Then, we created a website application dividing different sections into keywords, circles, and colors. The goal is to have the user can move, resize, delete, create and link word-circles to represent how they perceive the importance of and relationship between the words. The digital diagrams created, can be used as prompts in qualitative interviews. The diagrams will also allow research to be extended quantitatively, as comparisons of relationships, size, and placement can be done across multiple subjects, or with the same subject at different times. Within the month of March, the web application would include a database to store students and teachers information; and improvements would be made based on feedback from the researchers about ease of use and quality of data collection.

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Apr 18th, 10:00 AM Apr 18th, 11:30 AM

A Web Application to Support Research on Epistemic Beliefs

CSU Ballroom

Research into the epistemic beliefs of engineering students – that is, their beliefs about knowledge, its structure and where it comes from – is currently being used to guide and improve the educational process, and to provide insight into how people learn. Data-gathering for this research includes presenting subjects with a set of knowledge-related words, and then measuring how the subjects perceive the importance of and relationships between the words. This project presents a novel web application designed to support this data-gathering task in an intuitive and visual manner. Researchers load the web app with a list of predetermined words, which appear in circles on a blank canvas. A web prototype has been created to structure how the site is going to look. Then, we created a website application dividing different sections into keywords, circles, and colors. The goal is to have the user can move, resize, delete, create and link word-circles to represent how they perceive the importance of and relationship between the words. The digital diagrams created, can be used as prompts in qualitative interviews. The diagrams will also allow research to be extended quantitatively, as comparisons of relationships, size, and placement can be done across multiple subjects, or with the same subject at different times. Within the month of March, the web application would include a database to store students and teachers information; and improvements would be made based on feedback from the researchers about ease of use and quality of data collection.

Recommended Citation

Adom, Stanley and Zhejian Wang. "A Web Application to Support Research on Epistemic Beliefs." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 18, 2016.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2016/poster-session-A/48