Investigating Cognitive Network Models of Learners’ Knowledge Representations

Abstract

This commentary discusses how research approaches from Cognitive Network Science can be of relevance to research in the field of Learning Analytics, with a focus on modelling the knowledge representations of learners and students as a network of interrelated concepts. After providing a brief overview of research in Cognitive Network Science, I suggest that a focus on the cognitive processes that occur in the knowledge network, as well as the mechanisms that give rise to changes in the structure of knowledge networks, can lead to potentially informative insights into how learners navigate their knowledge representations to retrieve information and how the knowledge representations of learners develop and grow over the course of their educational careers. Learning Analytics can leverage these insights to design adaptive learning or online learning platforms that optimize learning, and inform pedagogical practice and assessment design that support the development of effective and robust knowledge structures.