Topic maps as indexing tools in e-learning: bridging theoretical and practical gaps between information retrieval and educational psychology

摘要

This paper describes an empirical study investigating graduate learners' use of topic map indexing technologies to browse a neo-corpus of annotated essays. The author posits that theories of cognitive information retrieval can best formalise abstract notions of learner cognitions like task understanding and self-regulated learning in the context of navigation of large online corpora. In effect, the manual development of education-related topic map ontologies must be based on a combined theory of information sciences and educational psychology. Discussions are grounded in a practical case-study describing the development of a topic map currently in use at a large North American University.