Visualising M-learning system usage data

• Main Author: Kamuhanda, Dany
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2015
• Subjects: Database management; Information visualization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11015

Data storage is an important practice for organisations that want to track their progress. The evolution of data storage technologies from manual methods of storing data on paper or in spreadsheets, to the automated methods of using computers to automatically log data into databases or text files has brought an amount of data that is beyond the level of human interpretation and comprehension. One way of addressing this issue of interpreting large amounts of data is data visualisation, which aims to convert abstract data into images that are easy to interpret. However, people often have difficulty in selecting an appropriate visualisation tool and visualisation techniques that can effectively visualise their data. This research proposes the processes that can be followed to effectively visualise data. Data logged from a mobile learning system is visualised as a proof of concept to show how the proposed processes can be followed during data visualisation. These processes are summarised into a model that consists of three main components: the data, the visualisation techniques and the visualisation tool. There are two main contributions in this research: the model to visualise mobile learning usage data and the visualisation of the usage data logged from a mobile learning system. The mobile learning system usage data was visualised to demonstrate how students used the mobile learning system. Visualisation of the usage data helped to convert the data into images (charts and graphs) that were easy to interpret. The evaluation results indicated that the proposed process and resulting visualisation techniques and tool assisted users in effectively and efficiently interpreting large volumes of mobile learning system usage data.