Implementing a Workflow Visualization System for Design Based Research

The goals in this exploratory project are to design, implement, beta test, evaluate, and disseminate a fully automated, sharable Workflow Visualization System (WVS) to help researchers and educators preserve, organize, and analyze complex information/data captured from multiple design iterations of complex cyberlearning implementations.

Moodle is a widely used learning management system. We will augment its data collection algorithms with new tools that  produce visual, multi-layered representations of (a) the design of complex educational interventions, including information about variables such as tasks, resources used, participant structures, and  workspaces; and (b) the enacted implementations of these interventions, including data about learners’ completion of tasks or acquisition of resources and learner-produced data.

The WVS will support reflective teaching practice, sharing of adaptable successful interventions, and design-based research (DBR). The project will also tackle significant problems regarding privacy and protecting the rights of human subjects in research that involves data mining from online sources.