Cognitive Load of Ontology as a Means of Information Representation in the Educational Process

Abstract

The article describes the process of assessing the cognitive load of ontology as a means of information representation in the educational process. Such a process allows evaluating the visual displaying of the ontology from the point of view of its cognitive perception. The characteristics of information cognitive perception are presented, as well as the important features of the cognitive load in the context of the educational process are identified. The basic means of information representation used in the educational process is considered. The approach to knowledge mapping is described, in which knowledge maps act as the basic principle of information visualization to facilitate its perception. It is determined that ontology, acting as a domain of a conceptual model, provides the formation of a knowledge base for the information displayed using a knowledge map representation and storage. A review of studies on the use of ontologies in the educational process is given. The elements of ontology and software tools for its development are described, as well as the main levels of information representation stored in the ontology are highlighted. It was revealed that among a variety of means for ontology displaying ways, it is the graphic method that allows implementing a visual representation of the ontology concepts (and thereby the terms of subject domain and the relationships between them), which simplifies the cognitive perception of the information contained in the ontology. Various metrics for assessing the quality of the developed ontology are outlined. Among them, a group of cognitive ergonomics metrics is distinguished that allows assessing the ontological model in terms of its visual representation quality.