Andromeda is an interactive visualization tool that projects high-dimensional data into a scatterplot-like visualization using Weighted Multidimensional Scaling (WMDS). The visualization can be explored through surface-level interaction (viewing data values), parametric interaction (altering underlying parameterizations), and observation-level interaction (directly interacting with projected points). This thesis presents analyses on the collaborative utility of Andromeda in a middle school class and the insights college-level students generate when using Andromeda. The first study discusses how a middle school class collaboratively used Andromeda to explore and compare their engineering designs. The students analyzed their designs, represented as high-dimensional data, as a class. This study shows promise for introducing collaborative data analysis to middle school students in conjunction with other technical concepts such as the engineering design process. Participants in the study on college-level students were given a version of Andromeda, with access to different interactions, and were asked to generate insights on a dataset. By applying a novel visualization evaluation methodology on students' natural language insights, the results of this study indicate that students use different vocabulary supported by the interactions available to them, but not equally. The implications, as well as limitations, of these two studies are further discussed. / Master of Science / Data is often high-dimensional. A good example of this is a spreadsheet with many columns. Visualizing high-dimensional data is a difficult task because it must capture all information in 2 or 3 dimensions. Andromeda is a tool that can project high-dimensional data into a scatterplot-like visualization. Data points that are considered similar are plotted near each other and vice versa. Users can alter how important certain parts of the data are to the plotting algorithm as well as move points directly to update the display based on the user-specified layout. These interactions within Andromeda allow data analysts to explore high-dimensional data based on their personal sensemaking processes. As high dimensional thinking and exploratory data analysis are being introduced into more classrooms, it is important to understand the ways in which students analyze high-dimensional data. To address this, this thesis presents two studies. The first study discusses how a middle school class used Andromeda for their engineering design assignments. The results indicate that using Andromeda in a collaborative way enriched the students' learning experience. The second study analyzes how college-level students, when given access to different interaction types in Andromeda, generate insights into a dataset. Students use different vocabulary supported by the interactions available to them, but not equally. The implications, as well as limitations, of these two studies are further discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/112073 |
| Date | 04 October 2022 |
| Creators | Taylor, Mia Rachel |
| Contributors | Computer Science and Applications, North, Christopher L., Yang, Yalong, House, Leanna L. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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