Net.Create: Network Analysis in Collaborative Co-Construction of Historical Context in a Large Undergraduate Classroom

• In Event: Instructional Technology Systems and Tools

Abstract

Collaborative engagement in undergraduate history classrooms is often hindered by large-lecture environments and complex historical sources. Net.Create, an open-source network-analysis software tool, harnesses intuitive network creation and visualization to help students explore complex historical texts in large classrooms. Simultaneous data entry and network-analysis visualizations capitalize on the lecture setting of many undergraduate classrooms to help students collaboratively co-construct knowledge about a large corpus of data at both the individual local and historical-context level, facilitating discovery, discussion, and recreation of historical context in an interactive and engaging way. Our study demonstrates Net.Create’s role as a mediating tool that supported strong students in appropriating historical-context reconstruction as their object of activity and engaged weaker students in the initial stages of historical-context reconstruction.

Authors

• Kalani L Craig, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Joshua Adam Danish, Indiana University

• Haesol Bae, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Maksymilian Szostalo

• Megan Alyse Humburg, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, Indiana University

• Ann McCranie, Indiana University - Bloomington