Assessing Educational Research -- An Information Service for Monitoring a Heterogeneous Research Field

TL;DR

This paper introduces a web-based visualization tool for educational research projects, enabling monitoring of research activity, funding, and disciplinary trends through collaborative semantic data entry and indicator computation.

Contribution

It presents a novel web prototype utilizing Semantic MediaWiki technology for visualizing and collaboratively managing research project data in education.

Findings

Effective visualization of research indicators

Facilitates collaborative data entry and analysis

Supports monitoring of research field dynamics

Abstract

The paper presents a web prototype that visualises different characteristics of research projects in the heterogeneous domain of educational research. The concept of the application derives from the project "Monitoring Educational Research" (MoBi) that aims at identifying and implementing indicators that adequately describe structural properties and dynamics of the research field. The prototype enables users to visualise data regarding different indicators, e.g. "research activity", "funding", "qualification project", "disciplinary area". Since the application is based on Semantic MediaWikitechnology it furthermore provides an easily accessible opportunity to collaboratively work on a database of research projects. Users can jointly and in a semantically controlled way enter metadata on research projects which are the basis for the computation and visualisation of indicators.