Infographics as a Reflective Assignment Method in Requirements Engineering e-Course?

Abstract

Our Work in Progress Paper in Innovative Practice Category focuses on how learners’ experience use of infographics in advanced level e-course on requirements engineering (RE). Infographics are visual representations of information in such a way that information can be easily understood at a glance. Most of the previous infographics studies have been conducted in the context of inquiry learning. To complement this research, we studied how learners experience use of infographics as a method for reflective assignment and hence if the usage of infographics supported conceptualization about RE. We adopted a qualitative content analysis approach, applying thematic network analysis to the data received from five case learners. This approach proposes graphical networks as an aid for analyzing and synthesizing qualitative data into basic, organizing, and global themes. The thematic network analysis produced two global, seven organizational, and 53 basic themes. The global themes were named “Visual literacy” and “Conceptualization”. In addition, the e-course supervisor evaluated learners’ infographics according to assessment criteria. Based on these analyses, learners can, using infographics, concentrate on essential topics, distill information, and develop their skills for visual literacy and conceptualization. The results suggest that infographics can be successfully utilized in reflective courses assignments that are typically produced as linear texts.