Using word clouds to support students' knowledge integration from online inquiry: an investigation of the process and outcome. Issue 4 (19th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xie, Ying; Lin, Shu-Yuan
• Is Part Of: Interactive learning environments. Volume 27:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 478
• Page End: 496
• Publication Date: 2019-05-19
• Subjects: Knowledge integration -- tagging -- word cloud -- online inquiry; Educational technology -- United States -- Periodicals; 371.33
• DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2018.1484774
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1049-4820

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study reports the effects of using word clouds to support students' knowledge integration from online inquiry as demonstrated by blog posts, tags and concept maps. Fifty-four undergraduate students from a medium-sized university in the northwestern United States were randomly assigned into two groups and blogged for five weeks. To support students' online searching activity, the treatment group was provided a list of concepts in the format of a word cloud. The control group received the same list of concepts in an alphabetic order. Data analyses included comparing participant-attached tags and individual concept maps to the instructor's keyword list. Results revealed that the word clouds facilitated the construction of schema in a top-down deductive approach, which could be a meaningful and efficient way of learning.