A framework for comparing concept maps

Abstract

Concept maps are at the base of teaching activity and they are widely used in the process of creating courses. In the perspective of reusing learning materials, we could do the same (reuse) also with concept maps. Unfortunately concepts maps are hard to compare in an educational setting, as most of the algorithms applied to this task work mainly on structural similarity, and may take into limited account pedagogical issues. In this work, we consider some measures that take into consideration both structural and didactic aspects of the concept maps, such as the prerequisite relation and the commonality of concepts, and present a framework that allows teacher to draw and/or compare her concept map with maps proposed by other teachers, in order to highlight common pedagogical aspects.