Computer Based Concept Mapping: Flipping the Research Process

Abstract

The approach described is meant to facilitate the team-building process to accelerate interdisciplinary collaboration. It for use in workshops that bring together disciplinarily diverse groups who have not previously collaborated. A theme that is of interest to a broad array of scholars is identified. Selected themes should be those that can be conceptualized through many different frameworks e.g., food and water. A group of interested researchers are brought together and after introducing the theme and process, each individual participant uses a cyber platform to search for the types of data and data sets they believe important to the topic. This is followed by a facilitated group discussion focused on how each person approached data discovery—what topics and data they explored, in what order, and why? This exercise reveals differences in the assumptions, values, and perspectives that participants bring to a broad problem. Then the teams work iteratively in small groups to develop a research question(s) and identify associated types of data they can agree are critical. The search and discussion process facilitates the sharing and integration of knowledge. Because each person uses the same platform but queries it in diverse ways, then share how they went about the queries and why, the process promotes conversion of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge—allowing diverse participants to communicate through cross-boundary discussion. Since building such platforms is time-consuming and expensive to build, widely available literature search platforms could be used.