Vanessa Dennen, Michelle Cates & Lauren Bagdy OLC 2017

1. Effec%ve
Tagging
Prac%ces
for
Online
Learning
Environments:
Dic%onary
or
Freestyle
Vanessa
P.
Dennen
Michelle
L.
Cates
Lauren
M.
Bagdy
Florida
State
University
Presenta%on
at
OLC
2017
•
Orlando,
FL

2. A
Quick
Tagging
Primer
• Tags
are
just
labels
• Most
are
nouns
that
reflect
content
• Other
types
of
tags
– Type
of
material
– Author
– Personal
judgment
– Self-­‐reference
– Task
organiza%on

3. Background
Freestyle
Tags
– Learners
set
own
tags
– System
develops
over
%me
• Increasing
in
sophis%ca%on,
levels
of
dis%nc%on
– Strengths:
• User
ownership
– Weaknesses:
• Synonymy
• Misspellings
• Personal
naming
conven%ons

4. Background
Tag
Dic%onaries
– Predetermined
collec%ons
of
keywords
– Strengths:
• Standardiza%on
• Reduced
redundancy
– Weaknesses:
• Overly
constrained
• Inflexible

5. VALUE
OF
TAGGING
Tagging
is
only
effec8ve
when
end
users
find
the
informa8on
they
seek

6. Purpose
of
Study
• Compare
and
contrast
three
approaches
to
tagging:
– Freestyle
– Dic%onary-­‐based
– Dic%onary
+
freestyle

7. Method:
Par%cipants
Par%cipants
• 78
undergraduate
students
enrolled
in
6
sec%ons
of
a
class
• All
par%cipants
signed
informed
consent
forms
• Largely
preservice
teachers
Class
• Introduc%on
to
Educa%onal
Technology

8. Method:
Context
• During
a
5-­‐week
unit,
students
used
Diigo
• Class
sessions
were
assigned
to
one
of
three
treatments
– Freestyle
(2
sec%ons)
– Dic%onary
(2
sec%ons)
– Freestyle
+
dic%onary
(2
sec%ons)
• The
dic%onary
was
developed
by
researchers
– Based
on
readings/curriculum
– New
dic%onary
for
each
week’s
lesson
(5
lessons
in
unit)

9. Method:
Data
Collec%on
/
Analysis
Data
Collec%on
• Course
archives
(Diigo)
• End
of
term
survey
Data
Analysis
• Tagging
frequencies
• Similari%es/differences
across
groups
• Survey:
Frequencies,
themes
(open
items)

10. Week 1 2 3 4 5
Course Concept Academic
Software
Web 2.0 Productivity
Tools
Assistive
Technology
Professional
Development
Bookmark
x x x x x
Tag
x x x x x
Describe
x x x x x
Highlight
x x x x
Page Comment
x x x x
Peer Comment
x x x x
Topics
x x x

11. Pre-­‐Ac%vity
Instruc%on

12. Diigo
Bookmarking

13. Sample:
Tag
Dic%onary

14. Findings:
Student
Impression
of
Tags
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Tags
are
a
meaningful
way
to
share
links
86.08%
6.33%
7.60%
Tags
are
useful
to
search
resources
shared
by
classmates
69.63%
11.39%
18.98%

15. Findings:
Dic%onary-­‐Only
Use
• Used
fewest
tags
• Had
lowest
propor%on
of
single-­‐use
tags
• Had
tags
with
highest
rate
of
use

16. Findings:
Freestyle
Tagging
• Tags
did
not
always
relate
to
topic
(e.g.,
fun)
• Highest
use
tags
were
superfluous
(e.g.,
educa%on)
• Synonymous
tags,
which
also
were
most
applied
• Highest
rate
of
single-­‐use
tags

17. Findings:
Freestyle
+
Dic%onary
• Best
of
the
other
treatments
– Dic%onary
tags
headed
off
synonymy
– Dic%onary
served
as
tag
model
– Students
could
add
meaningful
tags
as
needed

18. Summary
of
Treatments
Synonymy
(least
to
most)
1. Dic%onary
2. Freestyle
+
Dic%onary
3. Freestyle
Single
use
tags
(least
to
most)
1. Dic%onary
2. Freestyle
+
Dic%onary
3. Freestyle

19. Summary
of
Student
Impressions
• Students
had
ligle
prior
experience
with
tagging
• Students
found
tagging
useful
in
general
• Unaware
of
other
tagging
approaches,
students
were
not
bothered
by
inefficient
peer
tagging
or
tagging
constraints
– They
did
no%ce
both
when
they
happened

20. Implica%ons
for
Instruc%on
• Students
need
help
learning
how
to
classify
and
tag
content
– Freestyle
tagging
is
not
intui%ve
• Tagging
dic%onaries
can
help
frame
tagging
ac%vi%es,
cue
learners
to
important
content
• Consider
student
orienta%on
toward
tagging
(for
self,
for
others)

21. Developing
a
Tag
Dic%onary
(Our
Process)
• Review
course
readings
and
highlight
key
terms
• Generate
a
list
of
key
terms
– Content
(e.g.,
blogging)
– Type
of
material
(e.g.,
journal
ar%cle)
– Audience/applica%on
(e.g.,
elementary)
• Eliminate
duplicates
and
synonyms
• Group
similar
terms
/
create
parallel
term
systems
• Assess
dic%onary
size
• Test
the
dic%onary

22. Tes%ng
a
Tag
Dic%onary
(Process)
• Iden%fy
texts
students
will
be
asked
to
tag
– If
students
are
searching
for
items
to
share
and
tag,
do
a
sample
search
• Prac%ce
using
the
tag
dic%onary
on
some
of
the
items
– Do
the
tags
fit?
If
not,
revise
– Do
the
tags
represent
the
range
of
content?
If
not,
add
tags
• Give
the
tag
list
to
another
person.
Ask
them
to
describe
each
tag
for
you
– Do
the
descrip%ons
match
your
intent?
If
not,
revise
• Have
another
person
tag
sample
content
– Do
they
apply
the
tags
as
you
would?
If
not,
discuss
with
them
and
determine
how
to
revise
the
tags
• Ask
a
few
people
to
tag
the
sample
content
freestyle
– Consider
u%lity
of
newly
generated
tags

23. Ques%ons?
• Thank
you
for
agending.
• Slides
at:
slideshare.net/vanessadennen
• Contact:
– Vanessa
Dennen
–
vdennen@fsu.edu
-­‐
@vdennen
– Michelle
Cates
–
MLC14J@my.fsu.edu
-­‐
@leaderlibrarian
– Lauren
Bagdy
– LB14X@my.fsu.edu
-­‐
@laurenbagdy