An analysis of students' perspectives on the usage of knowledge maps in open learning environments

Open learning is a new form of online learning that allows learning materials and courses to be freely available on the Internet and accessible to anyone who is interested. Massive Open Online Courses is the term used for courses provided in these open environments. The authors believe that open learning environments are still in their early stages of evolution in terms of providing effective learning models with many aspects still needing to be considered. These aspects can be addressed with consideration to principles of cognitive science and herein lies our research. Based on the concept of schema theory, the knowledge map has been chosen to organize and present learning concepts. This paper presents a study that has been held to evaluate the use of knowledge maps as an approach to presenting and organizing learning materials in open learning environments. A prototype has been developed and piloted on a group of IT students. The students’ perspectives on the use of the knowledge maps and how they affect their learning have been collected through two surveys. The result is promising and an indication of the likely success of such an approach.