The document investigates how meaningful concept displays, particularly concept maps, assist users in exploring thesis or term paper topics. Through a study involving 10 graduate students, it was found that concept maps help clarify topics and improve literature retrieval by encouraging the use of thesauri and relevant organizational systems. Participants expressed interest in using the cmap software for future projects, highlighting its effectiveness in topic development and advisor-student discussions.

1. Meaningful Concept Displays for thesis topic exploration Katherine Bertel [email_address] Jun Deng [email_address] Department of Library and Information Studies

2. Purpose How do Meaningful Concept Displays , specifically concept maps , help users to explore a thesis or term paper topic? Through this type of exploration, are users able to gain a fuller understanding of the conceptual space surrounding their topic? Does this new understanding lead to better retrieval of relevant literature ?

4. Procedure A total of 10 doctoral and master’s students from GSE were recruited through listserv email messages to voluntarily participate in one, 1-2 hour session. All searching, note taking, and concept map construction was recorded using a voice recorder and screen capture software. A post-session interview was designed to learn about: the participant’s opinion of the overall experience during the study how they regard the usefulness of creating the concept map the value (if any) of the search results

5. Process Participants, Search thesauri, the GSE envisioning statement, and other knowledge organization systems (KOS) for relevant terms Construct and modify a concept map using IHMC CMap Take notes regarding what they have found in Microsoft OneNote Search education databases and the Web for relevant literature

6. Project description From KOS Concept ma p Take notes Search for documents Improved project description

7. Participant 9: Computer assisted instruction for music learning Beginning of session Middle of session End of session

8. Participant 9: Middle of session

9. Participant 9: End of session

10. Data analysis: Coding schema

11. Preliminary results Using the concept map helped participants to develop and clarify their topics “ Developed the structure of the whole thing” (P09) Helps visualize the progression from concept map to outline to final paper Thesauri and knowledge organization systems were useful for finding additional terms Instead of using the first thing that comes to mind, the thesaurus helps to expand the topic (P12) Participants were able to find more relevant literature using the found terms

12. Conclusions Every participant was interested in installing and using the CMap software for future projects CMap software is useful as a tool for developing a topic between advisor and student Being able to talk about the topic to someone outside the field of interest helped to clarify and envision new directions

13. Questions? Katherine Bertel [email_address] Jun Deng [email_address] Meaningful Concept Displays for thesis topic exploration