A practical use case and IRR based validation of concept maps coding scheme

ABSTRACT: Concept maps have been used to measure student learning and performance comparisons before and after interventions. However, these concept maps may vary in structure and content. The complexity of the maps are difficult to measure when multiple concepts are embedded within individuals nodes. A systematic coding scheme is evaluated for objectivity and reliability using 22 undergraduate researchers. The findings suggest that the coding scheme is suitable and will allow multiple different researchers to generate similar bi-partite graphs from the notional concept maps generated. Additional work is needed to ensure that the semantic content is not invalidated through the coding scheme.