Are we on the same learning curve: Visualization of Semantic Similarity of Course Objectives

TL;DR

This paper presents a visual tool that extracts, analyzes, and compares the semantic similarity of course descriptions to assist in academic transfer agreements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for semantic analysis and visualization of course descriptions to facilitate course comparison and transfer agreement processes.

Findings

Successful extraction and analysis of course description data.

Effective visualization of semantic similarities between courses.

Intermediate results demonstrate potential for aiding academic transfer decisions.

Abstract

The course description provided by instructors is an important piece of information as it defines what is expected from the instructor and what he/she is going to deliver during a particular course. One of the key components of a course description is the Learning Outcomes section. The contents of this section are used by program managers who are tasked to compare and match two different courses during the development of Transfer Agreements between different institutions. This research introduces the development of visual tools for understanding the two different courses and making comparisons. We designed methods to extract the text from a course description document, developed an algorithm to perform semantic analysis, and displayed the results in a web interface. We are able to achieve the intermediate results of the research which includes extracting, analyzing and visualizing the data.