New Pub: From Nervous to Noteworthy: Evaluating SPEAKS

New Pub: From Nervous to Noteworthy: Evaluating SPEAKS

Competence development, Conference, Conference, Higher Education
Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, but it’s also a skill every professional needs. Many students leave higher education feeling unprepared to speak confidently in front of an audience. Traditional courses exist, but providing enough guidance to every student is time- and resource-intensive. This is where SPEAKS comes in. SPEAKS (Speech content Preparation for Effective and Authentic Knowledge Sharing) is an educational software designed to guide students through preparing the content of their speeches. The tool and its evaluation were presented at ECEL 2025 in a paper authored by Nina Mouhammad, Jan Schneider, Roland Klemke and Daniele Di Mitri as part of the HyTea-project, highlighting its potential to support students in developing better speech content and becoming more confident regarding public speaking. The tool uses a fully scripted, chat-based interface with…
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GREAT Project – European Conference on Games Based Learning 2025

GREAT Project – European Conference on Games Based Learning 2025

Conference
On 2.10.2025, Jane Yau presented on behalf of the GREAT project team the following paper virtually - THE REACH OF DIGITAL GAMES AND THEIR POTENTIAL AS GLOBAL COMMUNICATION TOOLS   Abstract: This paper examines the potential of digital games as communication tools to reach global audiences, extending beyond established cultural and geopolitical divides. It shows the empirical data gathered in our EU and UKRI-funded Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) project, where we collaborated with several organizations to investigate this potential. Namely, a significant case study called Play2Act was undertaken in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which forms the focus of this paper. The aims of this study were to find out how much of the world’s population could be reached via digital games and how…
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PhD Defense: A Triumph in Learning Analytics: Congratulations, Dr. Atezaz Ahmad!

PhD Defense: A Triumph in Learning Analytics: Congratulations, Dr. Atezaz Ahmad!

Award, PhD defense
The entire EduTec team warmly congratulates Atezaz Ahmad on his remarkable journey, as he has successfully defended his PhD thesis and now holds the distinguished title of Dr. Atezaz Ahmad. In a compelling and rigorous defense, Atezaz presented his groundbreaking research, titled: “Uncharted Territories: Learning Analytics Indicators from a Learning Design Perspective”. His PhD dissertation explores the intersection of Learning Design (LD) and Learning Analytics (LA) and addresses the long-standing challenge of their limited alignment. While LD focuses on structuring meaningful learning activities, LA provides data-driven insights into learning processes and outcomes, yet their connection has often remained fragmented. To bridge this gap, the thesis introduces the Learning Analytics and Design Alignment (LADA) framework, a comprehensive reference model that explicitly links LD principles with LA practices by connecting learning goals, activities,…
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Current Trends and Future Possibilities for Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Psychomotor Skills

Current Trends and Future Possibilities for Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Psychomotor Skills

Summer School, Workshop
At the 19th EATEL Summer School on Technology-Enhanced Learning (JTELSS 2025) in Rethymno, Crete, Greece, Gianluca Romano and Jan Schneider conducted the workshop "Current Trends and Future Possibilities for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) for Psychomotor Skills". A Dive into ITS for Psychomotor Skills This engaging workshop offered participants a comprehensive introduction to the ITS framework, specifically focusing on its application in the psychomotor domain. Attendees were immersed in discussions about the critical components of ITS, including feedback mechanisms, technological innovations, and the role of artificial intelligence. One of the key takeaways was the exploration of how feedback can be delivered through various modalities—be it visual, auditory, or haptic. Participants learned how these different forms of feedback can enhance the learning experience, making it more interactive and effective. Harnessing Technology and…
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ML2MT at the “AI and the Future of Society” Symposium

ML2MT at the “AI and the Future of Society” Symposium

Artificial Intelligence, Conference, Event
At the final symposium “AI and the Future of Society” on April 23, 2025, the ML2MT project team presented key outcomes from their research on human-machine collaboration. Moving beyond traditional AI, the project explored how machines and humans can mutually benefit and learn from each other in a continuous loop. The results of this interdisciplinary project span multiple domains: In medicine, AI systems were found not only to assist diagnoses but also to promote reflection among professionals, encouraging deeper awareness of their decision-making processes. In education, adaptive AI tools were developed to analyze student feedback and help teachers identify learning gaps more effectively. In human-AI interaction, systems were designed to remember and apply user feedback, improving efficiency and reducing the need for repetitive input. Looking ahead, the project will focus…
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Best Senior Reviewer Award Presented to Hendrik Drachsler

Best Senior Reviewer Award Presented to Hendrik Drachsler

Award, Conference, Team
At the LAK 2025 conference in Dublin, Ireland, Hendrik Drachsler was honored with the Best Senior Reviewer Award. We congratulate Hendrik for this high level of recognition for his outstanding contributions to the scientific peer-reviewing process! The Best Senior Reviewer award is not just a statement of appreciation, it represents a commitment to academic integrity, knowledge exchange and high-quality research. At a time when the peer review process is under increasing pressure, recognizing and valuing reviewers is a crucial step in maintaining the credibility and advance of Learning Analytics as a discipline. Especially in fast-moving fields like Learning Analytics and AI in education there has been a rapid increase of academic publications, which has created a large bottleneck in the peer review process. Many journals and conferences struggle to find…
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GREAT Consortium Meeting in Frankfurt – 27-28.02.2025

GREAT Consortium Meeting in Frankfurt – 27-28.02.2025

Event, Project meeting
The GREAT project team met for the 3rd in-person consortium meeting at the DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany on 27-28 February 2025. At the project coordinating institute, Hendrik Drachsler (project coordinator) and Jane Yau (project manager) welcomed collaborating partners: Joaquin Alonso, Dai Griffiths (UNIR, Spain) Anna Merry (Frederick University, Cyprus) Paul Watson, Paul Hollins, Rebecca Harris, Anchal Garg, Celestine Iwendi (University of Bolton, England) Jude Ower, Joost Schuur (PlanetPlay, England) Katharina Koller, Claudia Fabian (Centre for Social Innovation, Austria) Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen (Serious Games Interactive, Denmark) The two-day event included elaborate discussions on strategies to achieve the remaining project goals, targets and key performance indicators, as well as upcoming case studies and publications to undertake in order to help us achieve our…
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PhD Defense: Achieving Gender Equity in STEM Education With CSCL

PhD Defense: Achieving Gender Equity in STEM Education With CSCL

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Gender, PhD defense
Our treasured colleague, Dana Kube, successfully defended her PhD thesis on November 29th at the Open University in Heerlen, Netherlands. We warmly congratulate Dr. Kube for her great academic achievements and advancements in the field of CSCL and gender research! In her dissertation titled “Gender & CSCL – Exploring the Relation of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and Gender Bias in Research and Practice”, Dana emphasizes that gender equity is not just a goal, but a necessity for sustainable development and illustrates the role of gender in research and practice. It remains a challenge to understand which aspects of gender are most important in research, and how to interpret findings in the context of pervasive gender stereotypes and biases. This issue is especially pressing in the field of STEM, where gender…
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PhD Defense: A Bridge between Learning Analytics and Learning Design

PhD Defense: A Bridge between Learning Analytics and Learning Design

Book, Event, Higher Education, Learning Analytics, Learning Design, Multimodal Learning Analytics, PhD defense, Publication, School
We warmly congratulate our esteemed associate partner, DR. Marcel Schmitz, on successfully defending his PhD thesis on November 29, 2024. Marcel is a senior lecturer and researcher in Data Intelligence and the Applied Data Science & Artificial Intelligence program at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences. In his dissertation, titled “Towards Learning Analytics-Supported Learning Design”, he focused on how education can be better personalized by incorporating learning analytics already in the design and course planning. His dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr. Hendrik Drachsler (DIPF | Leibniz Institute & Goethe University Frankfurt), with co-supervisors Prof. Dr. Maren Scheffel (Ruhr University Bochum) and Dr. Roger Bemelmans (Zuyd University of Applied Sciences). Marcel's dissertation provides actionable strategies not only for higher education but also for other educational sectors. His work envisions a future…
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PhD Defense on Software Infrastructure for Contextualized Learning Analytics in Online Education

PhD Defense on Software Infrastructure for Contextualized Learning Analytics in Online Education

Learning Analytics, PhD defense
We warmly congratulate our esteemed alumni George-Petru Ciordas-Hertel on the successful defense of his PhD thesis this past Tuesday, 05.11.2024!  Way to go, Dr. George! We are proud of you for achieving this milestone! At universities we have seen a big shift to online education in the past ten years, as universities have continuously integrated technology into educational environments. This development has brought students and educators new possibilities, but also challenges. A promising method is Learning Analytics (LA), which uses data to gain insights into learning behaviors and enhance educational outcomes. In his dissertation, George highlights a critical limitation in traditional learning analytics: they often overlook significant aspects of learners’ digital and physical environments. His research proposes that integrating contextual information from these environments could make LA even more effective.…
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