C-Link: a new information search tool

Peter Hartley, Peter Cowlingand Stephen Remde

p.hartley@bradford.ac.uk

The software• For background and links, go to:

http://conceptlinkage.org/• To go straight to the tool, go to:

http://conceptlinkage.org/clink/NB Version 2 about to go online.

C-Link development

Why bother?• Students are not making the most of their information

searching, especially in the early stages of their courses:o Limited range of sources.o Limited search strategies.o Problems of information overload.

• Present approaches to searching do not typically cultivate skills of critical analysis or enable dialogue.

•NB Need more research in this area!

What can C-Link do?• Builds a map of relationship between 2 concepts (searching

an archived edition of Wikipedia).• You can explore the map within C-Link.

(move around it/ zoom in and out/ go straight to Wikipedia page)

• You can export and save the map into freely available concept mapping software (Cmap)

• You can then modify the map and specify links/add resources.

And we are topical!

Possible advantages• Discover unknown links and possibilities.• Visual map helps to conceptualise relationships. • Helps to understand the relationships between

concepts that we have never seen before and those with which we are familiar.

• Can focus search on relevant areas without reading articles on unknown concepts in detail.

A preliminary test• Experimental trial, consisting of 10 tasks, half of which

were to be completed using C- ‐Link and the other half using the standard built- ‐in search in Wikipedia.

• For each of the tasks, the participants had five minutes to find five concepts that provided interesting connections between pairs of given concepts.

• They were also asked to rate how difficult each task was and how confident they were in their results.

Student reactions

Student reactions

Different ways ofC-Link searching

• A against A.o Can use to explore definitions by identifying related

concepts.

• A against B.o Identify links.o Explore an areao Suggest new avenues.

Demo• For background and links, go to:

http://conceptlinkage.org/• To go straight to the tool, go to:

http://conceptlinkage.org/clink/NB Version 2 about to go online.

Example

Example

Using C-Link search in learning and teaching• Offer the facility to staff and students• Use searches as a basis for discussion• Edit the searches with Cmap as exercise or

as basis for class discussion/posting/online dialogue.

Developmentand potential?

• Industrial/commercial development ongoing.

• Need to build user community for education.

• Potential for research?• Need to link to other databases.

And the barrier …• The classic project issue – a very useful

and flexible tool but limited funding for further development and community building.

• Suggestions most welcome!