April 2025 - EduTec Science

Apr232025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Job Openings for Research Assistants in the Field of AI

We currently have 2 job offers open for a total of three new members to join our team: 1 Research Assistant for a PhD in the Field of AI for Processing and Analyzing Text-Based Data in Education Full-time, temporary for 3 years at DIPF in Frankfurt with the following tasks: Processing and analyzing text-based data from learning management systems, assessment systems and qualitative data sources such as interview transcripts Implementation, further development and adaptation of AI models and research prototypes for the annotation and scoring of text data, in particular for the optimization of AI-supported teaching and learning in school and university contexts Participation in scientific conferences, organization of workshops as well as giving lectures and scientific publications Developing your own scientific research question and independent research activities in the…

Apr232025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: On-Your Marks, Ready? Exploring the User Experience of a VR Application for Runners

Multimodal Learning Analytics, Publication

Do you wish to be a better runner and ready to get going? Becoming a better runner is more than just choosing the right pair of running shoes and increasing your physical ability to perform a successful run. You also need to be mentally prepared to increase your running productivity. Here is where Virtual Reality (VR) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help. Up until now, there have been limited options available for mental training using technologies like sensors and actuators. These technologies have primarily been used to improve physical training. A newly published study explores the possibilities that VR and CBT have to create a technology-based mental training for athletes. Our team carried out a formative study to explore the user experience by incorporating CBT techniques into VR technology,…

Apr152025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: Enhancing User Onboarding in Virtual Reality Educational Applications

Multimodal Learning Analytics, Publication

Learning in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment can be a captivating and immersive experience for students. Despite the potential that VR has to help students learn in new and exciting ways, many students may also struggle during their initial interactions with a given VR environment. Whether or not effective user onboarding takes place can be the make or break of an application’s success. A new publication sheds light on this key challenge of effective onboarding by exploring how pre-training methods impact the onboarding experience in VR educational applications. 36 people, primarily university students, participated in a study to understand how different approaches affected their ability to navigate VR environments and their overall satisfaction. The findings show that pre-training helps users get an orientation and slightly boosts satisfaction, but it falls…

Apr142025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

Zhifan Sun Joins the Team

Team

We happily announce that Zhifan Sun has joined the EduTec team as a PhD candidate. Zhifan will be working in the ML2MT project (From Machine Learning to Machine Teaching – Making Machines AND Humans Smarter). Zhifan has a Master of Science in speech and language processing from the University of Edinburgh. Before joining our team, he collected further academic experience as a research intern at the UKP Lab of the Technical University of Darmstadt. His research interests include Natural Language Processing (NLP), linguistics and applying NLP to educational technology. We look forward to working with you in the years to come. Welcome, Zhifan!

Apr22025 by Daniele Di MitriNo Comments

Daniele Di Mitri Joins German UDS as Professor of Multimodal Learning Technologies

Alumni, Job announcements, Team

As of April 1st, 2025, Daniele Di Mitri has taken on a new position as a Professor in Multimodal Learning Technologies at the German University of Digital Science (German UDS). This newly established private non-profit university, located in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany, is dedicated to pioneering digital education. In this role, Daniele will be setting up a new research group focused on multimodal learning technologies and coordinating the new master's program in Advanced Digital Realities. German UDS represents an innovative model in higher education, offering fully digital bachelor's, master's and MBA programs. Every course is delivered online, allowing students from anywhere in the world to access a German education through a flexible, MOOC-like structure that supports self-paced learning. This approach aims to redefine higher education by embracing digital transformation, reducing geographical…