U-TRACER: uma ferramenta de visualização da informação sobre o uso das Tecnologias da Comunicação no Ensino Superior Público Português

• Autor(a) principal: Pinto, Marta
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Raposo, Rui, Ramos, Fernando
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/id.v6i1.4061

U-TRACER is a tool aiming to give visibility to the data collected within project TRACER, data concerning the use of Communication Technologies in Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions. Data was provided by institutions and its teachers, through two online questionnaires. The dissemination of the data is done through U-TRACER tool which adopts information visualization solutions, allowing interaction with the information in order to generate graphical results according to the interests of the users. The tool consists of two main areas, the Backoffice (BO) prepared to collect data, and the Frontoffice area (FO) which gives visibility to data collected in BO. The conceptualization of the FO was developed with the participation of higher education professionals in focus groups, testing the reading effectiveness of the graphs and the usability testing of the U-Tracer prototype. These tests resulted in the proposal of interaction features and visual displays, including recommendations for the improvement to the BO and FO. Participants who tested the U- TRACER reported being overall satisfied with the tool, however suggesting improvements which are to be implemented. The limited number of information visualization tools that display information about higher education institutions, justifies the interest of the U-TRACER which joins other pioneering projects such as U-MAP and U-Multirank that also involve collection and representation of data provided by HE institutions, making them public and accessible through an information visualization web platform.