Does the Degree of Abstraction of Interactive Visualizations Affect Students' Learning of Surveying?

Abstract

Many benefits have been claimed for visualizations, a general assumption being that learning is facilitated. However, several researchers argue that little is known about the cognitive value of graphical representations, be they schematic, such as diagrams, or more realistic, such as virtual reality. In the first part of the chapter, the authors present theories that guide the research on learning with visualizations, report different visualization taxonomies, and discuss the differences between realistic and schematic visualizations. In the second part, the authors discuss surveying education and describe a study that investigated the effect of the type of visualization on students' learning of surveying practices. The study compared two virtual learning environments, one with realistic visualizations of terrains and instruments, and one with schematic graphical representations. Results of an experiment with 62 students show that there were not significant differences in learning between students who interacted with the realistic visualizations versus those who interacted with the schematic ones.