Application of Cytoscape to the analysis of diagrams of mechanisms underlying patient problems

In problem based learning (PBL) tutorials in a medical context, students solve authentic patient problems with the educational aim to develop their reasoning capacity. A key activity to facilitate development of their reasoning capacity in a tutorial is the construction of diagrams of mechanisms that explain patient problems. These diagrams are networks of discrete elements (such as headache) of patient problems. Analysis of these diagrams may yield insights into students' reasoning styles. To achieve this aim, we employed an application called Cytoscape, which is capable of visualising and analysing networks, to study these diagrams. In this preliminary study, we showed that Cytoscape can be used to analyze these diagrams of mechanisms produced in PBL tutorials. We found that students tend to reason in a hierarchical manner. Parameters are also defined that can be used to identify incorrect and missing links in their reasoning processes.