This version of the Graphical Interface of Knowledge Structure (GIKS) software is an open education resource funded by the National Science Foundation (June 2022 – May 2025) titled “Further Development of an Open Educational Resource to Improve Architectural Engineering Students Conceptual Knowledge When Writing to Learn” URL: Award Abstract # 2215807
With GIKS, the instructor sets up an essay prompt and then provides the link to their students. The students write and submit their essay and then compare the network of their essay to the expert network to reflect on the conceptual structure of the content to prepare to revise and resubmit their essay.
This GIKS version adds a group-average network feature to the instructor's dashboard that can be displayed in real time during class time to support classroom review and critique of students’ group-level conceptual structure especially to identify misconceptions and can be used by the instructor outside of class time for formative assessment.
This version of GIKS runs on the Azure cloud, thus students; IDs are be kept confidential for the research purposes of the grant. To do this, the system generates unique five-digit IDs (e.g., dkjw8). Thus, to use GIKS in the regular classroom, the instructor must manually keep up with which GIKS ID is assigned to which student. As an open education resource, the source code is free to download to your internal cloud and can be modified by you to use your existing student IDs.
To try GIKS as a student please follow this link:
Setting up a writing prompt is a multi-step process, as shown below:
Here is the link to the link to the GIKS User Manual.
Roy B. Clariana (PI), rbc4@psu.edu, web presence https://sites.psu.edu/rclariana
Adrian Barb (co-PI, web design), adrian@psu.edu
Ryan Solnosky (co-PI, content and instruction specialist), rls5008@psu.edu
To find more about this project, please follow this link: Link to Publications and Presentations