Über Open ENA

A small team. An open horizon.

Open ENA brings together learning science, quantitative ethnography, artificial intelligence, and educational technology.

We are building a transparent and approachable path into Epistemic Network Analysis—one where methods, interface decisions, and future capabilities can be inspected rather than hidden.

Why open

Openness is more than access.

It means making the path from evidence to interpretation visible: what the model receives, what the computation does, what the figure shows, and what it cannot claim.

Bildung, Forschung und dauerhaft kostenloser Zugang

Open ENA ist eine nichtkommerzielle Plattform für Bildungs- und Forschungszwecke und wird für immer kostenlos bleiben.

Explore Open ENA

The team

A shared commitment to understandable research tools.
Portrait of Dr. Peter HU Dongpin

Dr. Peter HU Dongpin

The Education University of Hong Kong

Educational researcher · Application developer

His work spans technology-enhanced learning, learning analytics, artificial intelligence in education, network analysis, and content and language integrated learning.

EdUHK profile
Portrait of Ludwig Jianxing Yu

Ludwig Jianxing Yu

3D ENA Research Group · Hong Kong

ENA variants · Dimensionality-reduction algorithms

He has played a pioneering role in advancing ENA variants such as 3D ENA and dimensionality-reduction algorithms for ENA. As the key developer of 3D ENA 1.0, he combines computer science and psychology to develop interactive research tools.

3D ENA team profile
Portrait of Prof. Sandy TU Yun-Fang

Prof. Sandy TU Yun-Fang

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Assistant Professor · Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education

Her work spans artificial intelligence in digital learning, cognitive and social networks, data literacy, data visualization, and graph analysis.

Taiwan Tech profile
Portrait of Ms. Shirleen XU Qiaolin

Ms. Shirleen XU Qiaolin

Meredith College, North Carolina, USA

Open ENA team

A member of the Open ENA team affiliated with Meredith College, North Carolina, USA.

Project publications

Selected work across three-dimensional ENA, data literacy, and the development of open, web-based analysis tools.
Project cover artwork showing JavaScript syntax and a prominent JS chip connecting a smoked-glass development environment to a browser-based epistemic network tool

Forthcoming conference paper · 2026

Design and development from rENA to jENA: Accelerating the creation of web-based Open ENA tools

Hu, D., Hamilton, E., Tu, Y. F., & Xu, Q. (2026, November). Design and development from rENA to jENA: Accelerating the creation of web-based Open ENA tools. [Conference paper]. International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography.

ICQE 2026 · Publication details forthcoming
Project cover artwork showing a large smoked-glass code editor and an overlapping browser-based epistemic network preview

Journal article · 2025

Effects on the learning achievement, approaches to learning, and multi-stage reflection quality of students with different levels of digital self-efficacy in a data literacy course: An ARCS-based self-reflective online learning model

Tu, Y. F., Hwang, G. J., & Hu, D. (2025). Effects on the learning achievement, approaches to learning, and multi-stage reflection quality of students with different levels of digital self-efficacy in a data literacy course: An ARCS-based self-reflective online learning model. Computers & Education, 238, 105397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2025.105397

View journal article
Project cover artwork showing a curated three-dimensional epistemic network suspended inside a transparent glass coordinate volume

Conference paper · 2024

Development of ENA 3D: A tool for epistemic network analysis in three-dimensional space

Yu, J., Hu, D., & Wang, C. H. (2024). Development of ENA 3D: A tool for epistemic network analysis in three-dimensional space. In Y. J. Kim & Z. Swiecki (Eds.), Advances in quantitative ethnography (Communications in Computer and Information Science, Vol. 2278, pp. 152–165). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76335-9_11

View conference paper

Würdigung der ursprünglichen Beiträge

Open ENA baut auf der Theorie und den Methoden von Quantitative Ethnography (QE) und Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) auf. Wir danken der University of Wisconsin–Madison, Professor David Williamson Shaffer sowie den Forschenden, Entwickelnden und Mitwirkenden des Epistemic Analytics Lab am Wisconsin Center for Education Research für ihre grundlegende und fortlaufende Arbeit an QE, ENA und webENA.

Theoretische Grundlagen: QE und ENA

Quantitative Ethnography (QE) verbindet ein qualitatives Verständnis menschlicher Tätigkeiten in ihrem jeweiligen Kontext mit quantitativer Analyse. (Shaffer, 2017)

Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) modelliert Verbindungen zwischen kodierten Elementen, die in bedeutungsvollen Kontexten gemeinsam auftreten. Aus diesen Verbindungen entstehen Netzwerke, deren Strukturen sich visualisieren und statistisch vergleichen lassen. (Shaffer et al., 2016)

Auf der Grundlage dieser Arbeiten führt Open ENA kodierte Daten, Modelleinstellungen und Netzwerkvergleiche in einem Arbeitsablauf im Browser zusammen. Forschende müssen die Ergebnisse im Zusammenhang mit der Forschungsfrage, den Grundlagen der Kodierung und dem ursprünglichen qualitativen Material interpretieren. (Shaffer & Ruis, 2017)

Herkunft des Designs und Bezug zu webENA

Das Open-ENA-Team hat webENA verwendet und als Referenz herangezogen, um das anfängliche Erscheinungsbild und Layout dieser Plattform zu gestalten. Wir erkennen ausdrücklich an, dass diese Designreferenz vom ursprünglichen ENA-Team und dessen Arbeit an webENA in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, stammt.

Auch Forschung zur visuellen Gestaltung und Interpretation fließt in die Visualisierung von ENA-Netzwerken ein. (Tan et al., 2022)

Open ENA ist eine unabhängige Plattform, die vom Open-ENA-Team gepflegt wird.

Literatur und frühere Arbeiten

  • Shaffer, D. W. (2017). Quantitative ethnography. Cathcart Press. https://www.quantitativeethnography.org/
  • Shaffer, D. W., Collier, W., & Ruis, A. R. (2016). A tutorial on epistemic network analysis: Analyzing the structure of connections in cognitive, social, and interaction data. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(3), 9–45. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.33.3
  • Shaffer, D. W., & Ruis, A. R. (2017). Epistemic network analysis: A worked example of theory-based learning analytics. In C. Lang, G. Siemens, A. F. Wise, & D. Gašević (Eds.), Handbook of learning analytics (pp. 175–187). Society for Learning Analytics Research. https://doi.org/10.18608/hla17.015
  • Tan, Y., Hinojosa, C., Marquart, C., Ruis, A. R., & Shaffer, D. W. (2022). Epistemic network analysis visualization. In B. Wasson & S. Zörgő (Eds.), Advances in quantitative ethnography (pp. 129–143). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93859-8_9