Development of a visual tool to analyze interactions in forums in an e-learning environment

Abstract

This article presents VAFAE – Forum Access Visualization on a Distance Learning Environment, a web tool that visually maps Universidade Aberta’s (UAb) students’ interaction with a course available on the e-learning platform. Raw data is extracted from the log files that are then transformed to obtain the necessary format. Next, different visualization techniques are applied with the aim of improving and streamlining the underlying information. In a more specific way, VAFAE aims at helping teachers to better understand the level and quality of the interaction of the students with the modules of the learning units in UAb’s distance learning environment.

Keywords

• information visualization
• e-learning
• e-learning platforms.