Bio-Inspired Visualization
Education and learning are going through a massive transformation due to the emergence of the Internet and social media. The relationships among learners; and between learners and experts, have been redefined in the massive open online courses (MOOC) and other online learning forums. To understand such new forms of learning structures, it is critical to develop new ways of examining how learning takes place in these environments. In this project, we focus on an online help forum for Java programming language, and identify the behavior patterns and difference between the new comers (help seekers) and the forum experts (help providers). Our bio-inspired approach allows us to visualize and animate online activities by mapping them to a set of natural behaviors, such as following and flocking. The interaction and visualization of the virtual ecosystem help us understand and identify the dynamic activities in the online learning community.
Members
Yong Cao
Areas
Information Visualization
Social Media