Abstract

As data literacy competencies become more common in university-level curriculum, understanding how students are really feeling when they first encounter new software and data concepts is of increasing importance to student success. Using sentiment analysis, this article seeks to understand some of those students’ reactions, or sentiments, to using ArcGIS and geospatial data in a university classroom environment and how those reactions evolve as more experience is gained. Over the course of three weeks and six workshops, a librarian taught students how to use ArcGIS in order for them to complete course assignments. Each week the librarian provided a form that included two free-text response questions. The VADER sentiment analysis tool was applied to all text responses, rating each response with a compound score on a scale between +1 (positive sentiment) and –1 (negative sentiment). The analysis showed that the range of respondent sentiment narrowed throughout the three weeks. Voyant Tools, an online tool for quick text analysis, was also used to count the unique and frequently used words in the survey’s two free-text questions.

摘要

随着数据素养能力在大学课程中越来越普遍，了解学生在初次接触新软件和数据概念时的真实感受对学生成功的重要性日益增加。本文使用情感分析来了解这些学生对在大学教室环境中使用ArcGIS和地理空间数据的反应或情感，以及随着获得更多的经验这些反应如何演变。在为期三周的时间和六个工作坊的过程中，一名图书管理员教给学生如何使用ArcGIS来完成课程分配。馆员每周提供一张包含两个自由文本回答问题的表格。VADER情绪分析工具已应用于所有文字回复，使用+1（积极情绪）和–1（消极情绪）之间的综合评分对每个响应进行评分。分析表明，在整个三周中，受访者的情感范围有所缩小。Voyant Tools是一种用于快速文本分析的在线工具，还用于计算调查的两个自由文本问题中唯一且经常使用的单词。