U-TRACER® - o uso das tecnologias da comunicação no ensino superior - uma ferramenta de visualização de informação para o contexto do ensino superior público português

摘要

Information Visualization is gradually emerging to assist the representation andcomprehension of large datasets about Higher Education Institutions, makingthe data more easily understood. The importance of gaining insights andknowledge regarding higher education institutions is little disputed. Within thisknowledge, the emerging and urging area in need of a systematicunderstanding is the use of communication technologies, area that is having atransformative impact on educational practices worldwide.This study focused on the need to visually represent a dataset about howPortuguese Public Higher Education Institutions are using CommunicationTechnologies as a support to teaching and learning processes. ProjectTRACER identified this need, regarding the Portuguese public higher educationcontext, and carried out a national data collection. This study was developedwithin project TRACER, and worked with the dataset collected in order toconceptualize an information visualization tool U-TRACER®.The main goals of this study related to: conceptualization of the informationvisualization tool U-TRACER®, to represent the data collected by projectTRACER; understand higher education decision makers perception ofusefulness regarding the tool.The goals allowed us to contextualize the phenomenon of informationvisualization tools regarding higher education data, realizing the existing trends.The research undertaken was of qualitative nature, and followed the method ofcase study with four moments of data collection.The first moment regarded the conceptualization of the U-TRACER®, with twofocus group sessions with Higher Education professionals, with the aim ofdefining the interaction features the U-TRACER® should offer. The second datacollection moment involved the proposal of the graphical displays that wouldrepresent the dataset, which reading effectiveness was tested by end-users.The third moment involved the development of a usability test to the UTRACER® performed by higher education professionals and which resulted inthe proposal of improvements to the final prototype of the tool. The fourthmoment of data collection involved conducting exploratory, semi-structuredinterviews, to the institutional decision makers regarding their perceivedusefulness of the U-TRACER®.We consider that the results of this study contribute towards two moments ofreflection. The challenges of involving end-users in the conceptualization of aninformation visualization tool; the relevance of effective visual displays for aneffective communication of the data and information. The second relates to thereflection about how the higher education decision makers, stakeholders of theU-TRACER® tool, perceive usefulness of the tool, both for communicating theirinstitutions data and for benchmarking exercises, as well as a support fordecision processes. Also to reflect on the main concerns about opening up dataabout higher education institutions in a global market.