An Ontology-Based Framework for Psychological Monitoring in Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

BackgroundEspecially in the current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown it entailed, technology became crucial. Machines need to be able to interpret and represent human behavior, to improve human interaction with technology. This holds for all domains but even more so for the domain of student behavior in relation to education and psychological well-being.MethodsThis work presents the theoretical framework of a psychologically driven computing ontology, CCOnto, describing situation-based human behavior in relation to psychological states and traits. In this manuscript, we use and apply CCOnto as a theoretical and formal description system to categorize psychological factors that influence student behavior during the COVID-19 situation. By doing so, we show the added value of ontologies, i.e., their ability to automatically organize information from unstructured human data by identifying and categorizing relevant psychological concepts.ResultsThe already existing CCOnto was modified to automatically categorize university students’ state and trait markers related to different aspects of student behavior, including learning, worrying, health, and socially based on psychological theorizing and psychological data conceptualization.DiscussionThe paper discusses the potential advantages of using ontologies for describing and modeling psychological research questions. The handling of dataset completion, unification, and its explanation by means of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models is also discussed.

Topics and changing characteristics of knowledge organization research in the 21st century: a content analysis

“…, 2015). Ontologies about education can be categorized into four main categories: curriculum modeling and management, describing learning domains, describing e-learning services, and describing learning data, which are used to develop lesson plans, assess learning effectiveness, exchange learning profiles, predict learning styles (Bolock et al. , 2021).…”

“…It is found that KO involves 16 research methods, the most common of which are model development and validation (e.g. Bolock et al. , 2021; Strassner and Diab, 2016; Wang et al.…”

“…As in biology, Gene ontologies are commonly used to provide biological interpretation of sets for biological, medical, and clinical purposes, including computational analysis of large-scale molecular biology and genetics experiments and annotation of large biomedical datasets (Hoehndorf et al, 2015). Ontologies about education can be categorized into four main categories: curriculum modeling and management, describing learning domains, describing e-learning services, and describing learning data, which are used to develop lesson plans, assess learning effectiveness, exchange learning profiles, predict learning styles (Bolock et al, 2021).…”

“…Moreover, LD licenses like CC0 1.0 Universal, ODC-BY, PPDL, ODC-ODbl, BY-NC-ND (Barbosa et al, 2021) and publishing tools like D2R Server, Virtuoso Unoversal Server, Tails Platform, Triplify are widely accepted (Kl ımek et al, 2019). Bolock et al, 2021;Strassner and Diab, 2016;Wang et al, 2014), case study (e.g. El-Sherbini, 2018Niininen et al, 2017), and theoretical analysis (e.g.…”

Achieving Inclusivity by Design: Social and Contextual Information in Medical Knowledge

“…Dramatic and sudden changes in working and learning environments accompanied the pandemic, with many workplaces and classrooms becoming fully or partially remote during lockdowns, with consequently reduced quantities of social encounters and potentially reduced access to social support. In one study, an ontology-driven representation of individual psychological states and traits was used to characterise learner well-being during the pandemic [27]. An online psychological survey used a mix of measures including big five personality traits, depression screening, state and trait anxiety measures, feelings towards the pandemic, worries about mental and physical health, sentiments about social distancing, perceived difficulties identifying and representing emotions, changes in behavioural patterns, and general emotions.…”