Coggle

What is it?

Coggle is an online diagram making tool with collaborative features that allow groups, teams or individuals to create and/or collaborate in making mindmaps and flowcharts.

This application can allow students to work collaboratively or individually to complete a variety of tasks, including:

Creating structured notes,
Sharing information with their peers and teacher,
Assessing understanding
Presenting researched information.

After they have completed a task using Coggle, the application allows you to save your creations in many different formats such as images (.png & .jpg) and PDF's.

Overview of Benefits

Collaboration Features

Once a user has created a mindmap or flow chart, they are able to send a link to others that allows them to collaborate in real-time on a task. In collaboration with this, users can also communicate via an inbuilt message chat to share their thoughts and what they are creating. This feature can allow students to work in different groups both in person and around the classroom to complete a variety of tasks.

User-Friendly Interface

The application offers a simple to use interface, where the user can simply drag or click on branches of their creations to edit them; whilst also including more advanced interaction inputs through keyboard commands. This allows users to choose an input style that best suits them in task completion.

Great for Visual Learners

This application offers a range of visual customization options, which allows the user to build visually appealing and easy to follow mindmaps, utilising the range of colours and line types available. This use of elements makes it great to use for visual learners and can be implemented into differentiation for their learning.

Overview of Weaknesses

Cost of Use

One of the main issues with the implementation of this application is the cost associated with use. When using the free option, the user is limited to 3 private diagrams, only half of the customisation options and a limit online collaboration (i.e. not allowing customisation via a link). This makes it an application that teachers need to pay monthly for if they aim to get the maximum use and collaboration out of it.

Privacy Issues

If you are using a free account, after your 3rd private diagram you have to use the public feature. This allows the general public to find and use diagrams through a basic search on the internet or by typing 'site:coggle.it' followed by a query. In the classroom, this may cause privacy issues with students work or details being published online.

Accessibility

Although the application has many benefits for the user, it lacks accessibility options for users that require other inputs than images and words. This tool would benefit greatly if it gave the option for users to directly input voice and draw information. In the classroom, these additions could help the teacher create a more inclusive and creative classroom.

Links to Learning Theories

Under the SAMR model, Coggle can be identified a modification tool; as it builds upon the basic idea of mind maps and flow charts; whilst also adding functions such as the communication bar, collaborative editing and the ability to search for others creations. These additional functions make it possible for students to work collaboratively online to communicate and create using the information they have learnt, which puts the students in a situation where they need to practice effective communication and critical thinking to build a cohesive outcome. Given this, teachers should use this tool for a mix of low to medium ranged thinking activities for students to help them build towards more complex understandings and applications in the future.

In terms of Bloom's taxonomy, this tool can be capable of both ‘application’ and ‘understanding’; as students can create mind maps and flowcharts, that they can couple with their knowledge to both build better content understanding and application through integration in their learning.

How to use it in the classroom

Explanation of Use in the Classroom

When teaching students about the law and the courts in Australia, one of the most important concepts to understand is the structure of the Australia court system and who is responsible for certain cases. Given this, I found using Coggle's visual features extremely beneficial for students in understanding and visualising when certain civics concepts relate as well as are needed.

For example, when teaching a class about the structure of the Australian court system, I would get each student to use a laptop or device to access coggle to create a flowchart looking at the system with the following requirements:

The flowchart must follow a hierarchy order, with the High Court of Australia at the top and lower courts below it.
The flowchart must use different colours to differentiate each level of court.
Provide a description of the court and what cases they typically deal with.
Provide an example of a case for each court type from a list given by the teacher.

Through using Coggle to create this, the students will have access to a personalised flowchart that they can use throughout the course to help them understand the law and justice system better. The teacher can also ask the students to send a copy of this for assessment purposes and checking their understanding of the topic.

Curriculum Code for Class Example

The key features of Australia's court system and the role of a particular court (e.g. a supreme court, a magistrates' court, the Family Court of Australia) and the types of cases different courts hear (ACHCK077)

Example

Below is an example of a Coggle flowchart that a student could have made in the class example above.

Coggle - Simple Collaborative Mind Maps. (2020). Retrieved 2 May 2020, from https://coggle.it/

Joshua Van Breukelen