CourseVis: Externalising Student Information to Facilitate Instructors in Distance Learning

Abstract. In this paper we present an approach for externalising student information to facilitate instructors involved in distance learning. Information visualization techniques have been used in CourseVis- a tool which obtains tracking data from course management systems, transforms the data into a form convenient for processing, and generates graphical representations that can be explored by course instructors to examine social, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of distance students. CourseVis is presented in the paper, and several examples of pictorial representations generated by the tool are discussed.