The "Concept Cloud": Supporting Collaborative Knowledge Construction Based on Semantic Extraction from Learner-Generated Artefacts

Explicit visual representations of domain knowledge have the potential to support students engaged in scientific inquiry learning activities on an epistemic level. This can be facilitated using computational methods for the extraction of concepts from student generated knowledge artefacts such as hypotheses, concept maps, or wiki articles. We propose an application of this approach in the context of inquiry learning with online science laboratories. As a cognitive awareness tool, the “concept cloud” presents domain concepts and key phrases to the learners in order to help them reflect on their own learning and knowledge building. As part of a learning analytics toolset, the concept cloud also supports teachers in supervising their students’ knowledge building from an epistemic perspective. The approach has been tested in a classroom scenario with 84 secondary high school students. Cognitive awareness; reflection support; learning analytics; inquiry-based learning; online experimentation