Learning Management Systems’ database exploration by means of

Information Visualization-based query tools

Celmar Guimarães da Silva and Heloísa Vieira da Rocha

Institute of Computing, State University of Campinas
P.O. Box 6176, Zip Code 13084-971, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Phone number: 55 19 3521-5838
{celmar, heloisa}@ic.unicamp.br

Abstract that can reveal problems related to some adopted

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) store
different kinds of e-learning related data, whose
analysis is important for monitoring students’ learning
processes and for helping detection of potential
problems on these processes. Different researches
apply Information Visualization concepts and
techniques for graphically and interactively presenting
LMS data for analysis. Nonetheless, these researches
show data obtained by predefined database queries,
which fit only specific analysis situations, in despite of
unforeseen situations derived from final user’s
knowledge about e-learning domain. Taking into
account these situations, this paper presents a solution
that enable LMS users to define database attributes
they want to analyze, without need to know the internal
organization of LMS database. Selected attributes are
treated as a universal relation query and, after
executed, query results are automatically converted
into interactive graphical representations, avoiding
user’s concern with selecting the more adequate chart.
1. Introduction
Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are virtual
environments that enable and mediate communications
among distance courses’ participants. These systems
group distinct computer-based resources, like
electronic mails, chat rooms, resources for publishing
readings and for delivering activities results, among
others. Each resource manages and saves different
kinds of data, like messages, published contents, and
courses’ participants.
Analyzing these data is an important task for
monitoring students’ learning processes, making
possible to detect potential problems. E.g., participants
with few accesses to the LMS or those that do not
interact with other course participants are situations
course methodology. However, analyzing these LMS
data by means of these systems’ textual interfaces is an
arduous work, because these interfaces hamper the
observation of patterns and trends that are relevant for
the analysis.
This kind of difficulty when analyzing data is
investigated by Information Visualization area
(InfoVis, for short), which studies the use of
interactive visual representation of abstract data in
order to amplify cognition [1]. InfoVis works aim to
provide effective and expressive visual representations
of data [2], in order to enhance users’ understanding
about these data and to enable decision making.
Interaction techniques (such as dynamic queries [3])
help even more this understanding: they provide user
controls for selecting relevant data and for querying
details without need to know command-line syntax;
and they aid the user to construct an internal model or
cognitive map about data under analysis.
Given that LMS data is essentially abstract data,
different researches apply InfoVis techniques for
overcoming LMSs data analysis difficulty. Some
examples of these researches are: InterMap visual
representations of course participants interaction [4],
France et al.’s interactive activity diagram for learning
scenarios [5], and GISMO [6] and CourseVis [7]
representation of students’ social, behavioral and
cognitive aspects.
Nonetheless, these researches show data obtained
by predefined database queries, and consequently these
data only fit specific analysis situations. Unforeseen
situations derived from final user’s knowledge about e-
learning domain are not considered by these
researches, which do not provide ways for this user to
point to the system the data he/she wants to analyze.
Two questions arise from this problem: (1) How to
enable a user to define what LMS datasets does
him/her analysis need? (2) Besides, how to enable this

Seventh IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2007)

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 user to obtain data from LMS and to analyze them, in
order to understand the characteristics he/she is
analyzing?
This paper, which summarizes some results of
Silva’s doctoral thesis [8], presents a solution for these
questions. The proposed solution enables LMS users,
each with distinct data analysis needs, to define
different data combinations that they want to analyze,
instead of using only system predefined queries. This
solution uses database concepts of universal relation
model [9] for enabling users to choose database fields
to be queried, without need to know the internal
organization of the queried LMS database. Besides,
these concepts are used for executing a query derived
from this field choice at LMS database. The solution
also converts query results into interactive graphical
representations by InfoVis techniques, avoiding user’s
preoccupation with constructing a representation that is
adequate for these data analysis.
Next sections present the proposed solution and a
prototype that implements it (Section 2), followed by
conclusion and future works of this research (Section
3).
second part, which resides at the LMS server, obtains
data from LMS database and sends them to the applet.
Although the prototype uses TelEduc [10] as its
subjacent LMS, the prototype does not invoke TelEduc
functions or methods; instead, it directly access
TelEduc database. This way, the prototype tends to
work with other distinct LMSs.
Figures 1, 2 and 3 exemplify prototype use. As a
first example, imagine that a user wants to discover
when and how much messages were sent to each
discussion forum of a course. At Figure 1Error!
Reference source not found., this user chooses the
following LMS database attributes in order to answer
this question: “discussion forum messages date”,
“discussion forums”, and “discussion forum messages
– quantity”. Figure 2Error! Reference source not
found. shows a scatter plot that represents the results
of this query. This scatter plot represents the quantity
of forum messages (represented as color) by forums (at
y-axis) and by message date (at x-axis). At its top,
Figure 2 shows a dynamic query-based control that
defines what time interval to present.

2. Proposed solution and prototype

InfoVis and Database techniques enable to
construct a solution for the LMS querying problem
stated at previous section. This solution has two main
parts: query definition, and results’ visual
representation.
The solution starts with a user defining a query by
selecting attributes from all LMS database tables’
attributes. These attributes are shown with descriptive
names and without internal organization details of the
database. After user selects an attribute set, an Figure 1. User selecting LMS database
algorithm transforms this set (considered as a universal attributes.
relation query) into a relational query, which is
executed at LMS database.
After that, the solution analyzes query results and
defines a graphical and interactive representation to
use for presenting them. This definition process is
based on expressiveness and effectiveness concepts [2]
of visual representations, and on selected attributes’
categories and functional dependencies. After the
solution shows the defined representation, the user can
explore it by means of dynamic query-based controls
and functionalities that enable him/her to reorganize
data, to filter them and to ask details about them.
A Java prototype implements the proposed solution,
which has two parts. The first one runs at users’ Web
browser (as an applet), where it manages attribute
Figure 2. Visual structure showing results
selection and interaction with visual structures. The
from Figure 1’s query.

Seventh IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2007)

0-7695-2916-X/07 $25.00 © 2007
 As another example, imagine that a user is
answering the question “What was the intensity of
discussion forum messages by participant in the
course?”. The user first selects two attributes:
“Discussion forum messages – quantity” and “Users
that wrote forum messages”. After that, the prototype
shows a bar chart with quantity of forum messages by
message author (Figure 3).
Post-use evaluation identified that users had a good
impression of the prototype. They agree that the
prototype helps to analyze LMS data. The evaluation
points out that using the prototype for answering a
query was not a hard task for users. They answered
that the presented visual representations are relevant
and that the controls for data filtering and selection are
very useful. Users’ main suggestions at this evaluation
were to review attribute descriptions (specially
avoiding ambiguous ones) and quantity of available
attributes, and to enhance prototype usability.
Figure 3. Bar chart showing query results.
3. Conclusion and future works
Previous works from InfoVis related to LMS
focused only predefined subsets of LMS data, and
consequently they fit only a subset of users’ need of
information about LMS stored data. The contribution
of this paper is to present a more general solution for
querying LMS data and for representing the obtained
data, fitting distinct LMS data analysis needs and
enabling visual analysis of these data. The proposed
solution uses universal relation model for enabling
users to specify queries without knowing the database
internal organization, which is a necessary feature for
enabling the prototype use by people with no database
knowledge. Besides, analyzing attributes’ categories
and functional dependencies is important for defining
what visual structure can better represent an attribute
set. The solution has a high level of generality because
it is not connected to LMS concepts like users or
messages, but to LMS databases. Therefore, other
Seventh IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2007)
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LMSs can use the prototype if its database was
connected to it.
Some future works include prototype use with other
LMSs and with new TelEduc tools; enhancements in
query mechanisms and in usability; use of more visual
structures (because this prototype only uses scatter plot
and bar chart); and internationalization.
This research was supported by CAPES and
FAPESP (processes 2004/08233-5 and 2005/56629-8).
4. References
[1] S. K. Card, J. D. Mackinlay and B. Shneiderman.
Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to
Think. Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 1999.
[2] J. D. Mackinlay. “Automating the Design of Graphical
Presentations of Relational Information”. ACM Transactions
on Graphics, 5(2), 1986, pp. 110-141.
[3] B. Shneiderman. “Dynamic Queries for Visual
Information Seeking”. IEEE Software, 11(6), 1994, pp. 70-
77.
[4] L. A. S. Romani. InterMap: Tool for Visualizing
Interaction in Distance Learning Environments on Web.
Master thesis. Institute of Computing, State University of
Campinas, Brazil, 2000. http://teleduc.nied.unicamp.br/
pagina/publicacoes/lromani_disser.pdf (15/November/2006)
(In Portuguese).
[5] L. France, J.-M. Heraud, J.-C. Marty, T. Carron. “Help
through visualization to compare learners’ activities to
recommended learning scenarios”. Proceedings of the Fifth
IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning
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[6] R. Mazza, C. Milani. “Exploring Usage Analysis in
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Workshop on Usage analysis in learning systems. 12th
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in
Education (AIED). Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005, pp.
65-72.
[7] R. Mazza, V. Dimitrova. “Generation of Graphical
Representations of Student Tracking Data in Course
Management Systems”. 9th IEEE International Conference
on Information Visualisation, London, 2005, pp. 253-258.
[8] C. G. Silva. Learning Management Systems’ database
exploration by means of Information Visualization-based
query tools. Doctoral thesis. Institute of Computing, State
University of Campinas, Brazil, 2006.
http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~celmar/tese (05/April/2007) (In
Portuguese).
[9] J. D. Ullman. Principles of database systems (second
edition). Computer Science Press, 1982.
[10] H. V. Rocha et al. “TelEduc Project: Technology
Research and Development for Distance Learning”. IX
ABED (Brazilian Association of Distance Education)
International Congress of Distance Learning, 2002.
http://teleduc.nied.unicamp.br/pagina/publicacoes/premio_ab
ed2002.pdf (29/January/2007) (In Portuguese).