Visual approaches to knowledge organization and contextual exploration

This thesis explores possible visual approaches for the representation of semantic structures, such as zz-structures. Some holistic visual representations of complex domains have been investigated through the proposal of new views - the so-called zz-views - that allow both to make visible the interconnections between elements and to support a contextual and multilevel exploration of knowledge. The potential of this approach has been examined in the context of two case studies that have led to the creation of two Web applications. The \ufb01rst domain of study regarded the visual representation, analysis and management of scienti\ufb01c bibliographies. In this context, we modeled a Web application, we called VisualBib, to support researchers in building, re\ufb01ning, analyzing and sharing bibliographies. We adopted a multi-faceted approach integrating features that are typical of three di\ufb00erent classes of tools: bibliography visual analysis systems, bibliographic citation indexes and personal research assistants. The evaluation studies carried out on a \ufb01rst prototype highlighted the positive impact of our visual model and encouraged us to improve it and develop further visual analysis features we incorporated in the version 3.0 of the application. The second case study concerned the modeling and development of a multimedia catalog of Web and mobile applications. The objective was to provide an overview of a significant number of tools that can help teachers in the implementation of active learning approaches supported by technology and in the design of Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs). We analyzed and documented 281 applications, preparing for each of them a detailed multilingual card and a video-presentation, organizing all the material in an original purpose-based taxonomy, visually represented through a browsable holistic view. The catalog, we called AppInventory, provides contextual exploration mechanisms based on zz-structures, collects user contributions and evaluations about the apps and o\ufb00ers visual analysis tools for the comparison of the applications data and user evaluations. The results of two user studies carried out on groups of teachers and students shown a very positive impact of our proposal in term of graphical layout, semantic structure, navigation mechanisms and usability, also in comparison with two similar catalogs

VisualBib: A novel Web app for supporting researchers in the creation, visualization and sharing of bibliographies

In this paper, we present VisualBib, a Web application, which allows users to create, visualize, modify, explore, and share bibliographies and the related citation networks, using innovative diagrams, called narrative views. The metadata are retrieved in real-time from four existing bibliographic indexes, Scopus, OpenCitations, and CrossRef/Orcid. Bibliographies and views are formally described and modeled using zz-structures, a semantic, not-hierarchical data model. VisualBib has been evaluated through two evaluation studies, one focused on the quantitative side and another on the qualitative side. Taking into account both studies, they evaluate the tool regarding the effectiveness performing tasks, usability, graphic layout and other questions specific to the VisualBib features. The evaluation throws positive significant results in all areas when compared to Scopus searching features

AppInventory: a Visual Catalogue of Web 2.0 and Mobile Applications for Supporting Teaching and Learning Activities.

The availability of hundreds of Web 2.0 and mobile applications represent a great opportunity in helping teachers adopt student centred methodologies. These applications support users in creating and sharing digital artefacts, in aggregating, remixing and collecting heterogeneous materials and in communicating within working groups. When incorporated into daily teaching and learning activities (TLA), such applications can improve the collaborative, cognitive and creative work of the students, enhancing and redefining traditional educational practices. Nevertheless, although these applications are generally easy to find and use, there is a lack of knowledge about their existence, their functions and their potential in an educational setting. In this paper we describe AppInventory, a novel platform which contains a digital catalogue of applications: they are organized by applying an original taxonomy; the users can browse among them benefiting from a visual approach and semantic connections modelled using zz-structures

A Catalog of Web App for Smart Teaching

AppInventory is a Web platform, which proposes a holistic view on a digital catalog of 271 applications, an innovative visual layout, and semantic browsing structures; the applications have been organized in an original taxonomy and can support users in creating and sharing digital artifacts, aggregating, remixing and collecting heterogeneous materials and communicating within working groups

VisualBib(va): A Visual Analytics Platform for Authoring and Reviewing Bibliographies

Researchers are daily engaged in bibliographic tasks concerning literature search and review, both in the role of authors of scientific papers and when they are reviewers or evaluators. Current indexing platforms poorly support the visual exploration and comparative metadata analysis coming from subsequent searches. To address these issues, we designed and realized VisualBib(va), an online visual analytics solution, where a visual environment includes analysis control, bibliography exploration, automatic metadata extraction, and metrics visualization for real-time scenarios. We introduce and discuss here the relevant functions that VisualBib(va) supports through one usage scenarios related to the creation of a bibliography

VisualBib(va): A Visual Analytics Platform for Authoring and Reviewing Bibliographies

Researchers are daily engaged in bibliographic tasks concerning literature search and review, both in the role of authors of scientific papers and when they are reviewers or evaluators. Current indexing platforms poorly support the visual exploration and comparative metadata analysis coming from subsequent searches. To address these issues, we designed and realized VisualBib(va), an online visual analytics solution, where a visual environment includes analysis control, bibliography exploration, automatic metadata extraction, and metrics visualization for real-time scenarios. We introduce and discuss here the relevant functions that VisualBib(va) supports through two usage scenarios related to the creation and the review of a bibliography. Full details about the VisualBib(va) design, implementation and evaluation are available in [3]. A fully interactive environment is available at http://visualbib.uniud.it/ (video demo: http://bit.ly/3fKuZNg)

App 2.0: strumenti per una didattica innovativa

L\u2019idea di descrivere in maniera sistematica un vasto insieme di app del Web 2.0 nasce all\u2019interno di un progetto di innovazione didattica dedicato alla formazione degli insegnanti di scuola di primo e secondo grado. Il progetto \u201cScuol@ 2.0: conoscere gli strumenti offerti dal Web e sperimentare una didattica innovativa\u201d si \ue8 svolto a Gorizia, nei laboratori informatici del polo universitario di Santa Chiara dell\u2019Universit\ue0 di Udine, nel febbraio/marzo 2016.Prefazione L\u2019idea di descrivere in maniera sistematica un vasto insieme di app del Web 2.0 nasce all\u2019i nterno di un progetto di innovazione didattica dedicato alla formazione degli insegnanti di scuola di primo e secondo grado. Le pagine che seguono presentano una selezione di un centinaio di app, riportando per ognuna di esse: \u2022 il logo; \u2022 il QR code per accedere alla pagina Web dell\u2019app; \u2022 la tipologia di app; \u2022 la descrizione; \u2022 i dettagli tecnici; \u2022 le funzionalit\ue0 e caratteristiche; \u2022 esempi di prodotti e collegamenti a tutorial

Assisting researchers in bibliographic tasks: A new usable, real-time tool for analyzing bibliographies

The amount of scientific papers is growing together with the development of science itself; but, although there is an unprecedented availability of large citation indexes, some daily activities of researchers remain time-consuming and poorly supported. In this paper, we present VisualBib, a real-time visual platform, designed using a zz-structure-based model for linking metadata and a narrative, visual approach for showing bibliographies. VisualBib represents a usable, advanced, and visual tool, which simplifies the management of bibliographies, supports a core set of bibliographic tasks and helps researchers during complex analyses on scientific bibliographies. We present the variety of metadata formats and visualization methods, proposing two use case scenarios. The maturity of the system implementation allowed us two studies, for evaluating both the effectiveness of VisualBib in providing answers to specific data analysis tasks and to support experienced users during real life uses. The results of the evaluation are positive and describe an effective, and usable platform

VisualBib: Narrative Views for Customized Bibliographies.

Existing citation indexes of scientific literature, like Scopus, WOS, Google Scholar and OpenAire, collect metadata of papers and authors. By using appropriate queries, it is possible to access these metadata, find specific papers and all associated details, as well as retrieve indices, metrics and information about authors. However, a big issue is that they generally do not aggregate the results of subsequent searches and do not offer explicit representations of author/citation relationships between found items. This paper introduces VisualBib, a Web application prototype conceived to support researchers who wish to create, modify, visualize and share bibliographies. Starting with a small set of papers or with a restricted number of authors, it generates, in real-time, an interactive visual representation of the corresponding bibliography; the user can explore the network of cited/citing references and dynamically add new papers in order to build up customized bibliographies which are represented using holistic, aggregated and graphical views