Concept Mapping

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Description

Concept maps, also known as mind maps, are graphical tools for organising and representing knowledge. They allow educators and students to organise and represent knowledge of a subject by creating a map in which concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, represent ideas or facts, and lines or arrows between concepts represent relationships. Users can construct, navigate, share and review knowledge models represented as concept maps. There is not one specific software for creating concept maps, but we recommended using CmapTools (other online concept mapping tools include SimpleMind and MindMaple).

CmapTools software is a result of research conducted at the Florida institute for Human and machine cognition (IHMC). It empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticise knowledge models represented as concept maps.

Best Practice

Concept maps are useful for:

Helping students brainstorm and generate new ideas
Allowing students to more clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information
Evaluating and measuring the growth of student learning (as students create concept maps, educators are able to see what students do not understand, providing an accurate, objective way to evaluate areas in which students do not yet fully grasp concepts)

Pros/Cons

Pros (CmapTools):

Easy to download and install onto your own computer
Maps can be saved locally on your PC or uploaded to a server so that they can be accessed from any location
Saving on the CmapTools server means that several people can collaborate on the concept map simultaneously or at different times.
Within the server, Cmaps can be linked and web pages can be automatically created
Nodes and connecting lines are easily created by clicking and dragging and clusters of nodes can be 'nested' so that they collapse into a single node until you re-expand them
CMaps make use of dual coding – students learn material from text labels found on the concept map, as well as from the visual structure of the map (this can ease cognitive load of some students by allowing them to focus on essential relationships rather than on decoding a written text)

Cons (CmapTools):

Linking words are required to specify the relationship between two concepts in the mind-map, if not the arrow will have a blank space in between
It is not possible to upload pictures and the tool is not printer-friendly.

Getting started

CmapsTools is available for free download HERE.

NOTE: If you're using a UNSW SOE (Standard Operating Environment) computer, and you do not have admin permission then you will need to make a request from UNSW IT to install the software for you. Follow this link for more details: IT Service Centre. Not sure whether you are using a UNSW SOE computer? Click HERE to find out.

Training and Support:

The following links provide further useful information and support to help get you started with CmapTools:

Showcase

In this example CmapTools was used to create online concept maps for formative and summative assessment.

Gary Velan

Freeware CmapTools was used to create online concept maps, and subsequently utilised Questionmark Perception to enable students to complete concept maps by dragging and dropping concepts and linking phrases into the maps. Students received automated feedback following submission of completed maps. These online testable concept maps with automated feedback had significant impact on learning Pathology by junior and senior medical students. It enabled students to integrate knowledge in a meaningful way.

Until now, there is no widely available software that enables comparison of students' maps, and which provides automated feedback on students' submissions. Our approach was a workaround, but somewhat laborious. We are trying to develop a bespoke system for automated assessment of concept maps.

The online concept map quiz created is available for viewing HERE.

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