Conference: Demo and paper presentations at EARLI 2023

Conference: Demo and paper presentations at EARLI 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Conference, Feedback, Higher Education, Learning Analytics, Self-Regulation, Workshop
This year, the biannual EARLI conference took place between 21-26 August 2023 in Thessaloniki, Greece and EduTec member Ioana Jivet represented DIPF with two contributions. The 1.5-hour ICT demo Closing the Feedback Loop - A Moodle Plugin for (Semi-)automated Feedback introduced participants to the work of PhD student Tornike Giorgashvili, supervised by Hendrik Drachsler and Ioana Jivet, and the outcomes of the HIKOF project: LearnDashPlus, a Moodle plugin which helps teachers provide written feedback in large courses. This tool also prompts students to reflect on the feedback they received and allows teachers to explore if such feedback helps students to understand their learning behavior and improve their learning performance. Our tool is intended to work as an educational intervention and an instrument of dialogue between teachers and students and thus closing…
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Workshop: 5th CARLA Workshop at ECTEL 2023

Workshop: 5th CARLA Workshop at ECTEL 2023

Conference, Learning Analytics, Workshop
The fifth edition of Workshop on Culturally Aware Learning Analytics (CARLA) was organised by Ioana Jivet from Goethe University and DIPF together with Maren Scheffel from Ruhr University Bochum and Olga Viberg from KTH Stockholm. During the workshop, the participants were engaged in discussions around the design of educational technologies and rated the workshop positively. The rationale behind the workshop is that learning analytics (LA) have been implemented in various countries, often at a limited scale. We have also seen that LA have been used in different ways in different countries. This makes the transfer of LA solutions from one country to another challenging, due to varying contextual, technical, and cultural factors. In this workshop, we aim to identify and discuss possible cultural differences and also similarities–the factors that have…
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HyTea Consortium Meeting in Cologne

HyTea Consortium Meeting in Cologne

Artificial Intelligence, Competence development, Higher Education, Learning Analytics, Multimodal Learning Analytics, Project, Project meeting
How can software support presentation skills training? How can AI be used responsibly in this context? What to take from traditional presentation skills training and what to do completely different? In the HyTea consortium meeting, we discussed these questions but also many others and took important decisions on what to focus on in the HyTea project. We started preparing the needed knowledge needed for these critical decisions a few months ago when conducting interviews with presentation training experts. We asked them how they train presentation skills, how students should prepare a presentation and how they think AI or technology in general could support in presentation skills training. Furthermore, we also discussed concerns the experts had regarding AI usage in this context. In preparation of the consortium meeting, we synthesized all…
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Nina Mouhammad @ ECTEL 2023 Doctoral Consortium

Nina Mouhammad @ ECTEL 2023 Doctoral Consortium

Competence development, Conference, Higher Education
How often in the last few months did you listen to amazing presentations? And how often did you sit through rather boring ones? We have all been there, and it is probably safe to say that we would prefer more of the former and fewer of the latter. The good news is, presentation skills are not traits but skills and can therefore be trained. The challenge, however, is that training these skills requires quite some time and resources, which are often scarce in traditional educational settings. Technology-enhanced learning could fill this gap. And that is where Nina Mouhammad's PhD research, as part of the HyTea-project, is planned to contribute to. In her PhD, she will explore how technology can teach students to create presentation content that makes their presentations truly…
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Jane at the 13th Brazilian-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium

Jane at the 13th Brazilian-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium

Event, Invited talk
From 21-24 September, 2023, Jane was invited to present the project GREAT: Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation at the 13th Brazilian-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium in Bremen, Germany. Jane was invited to present in the Healthcare session of the Symposium via invitation only. Each Symposium brings together 60 scientists from a wide range of disciplines (30 each from Germany and Brazil). The conference format allows for the exchange of ideas across disciplinary as well as national boundaries and, provides opportuniites for future binational collaborations and networking. This is funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The aim of the talk was to make potential collaborations on the use of computer games to improve and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Jane participated in a 15-minute presentation followed…
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Exploring the Future of Chatbots in Education: Insights from DeGEval 2023

Exploring the Future of Chatbots in Education: Insights from DeGEval 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Conference, Invited talk, Lifelong Learning
We're excited to share highlights from the recent DeGEval 2023 conference in Magdeburg, where our DIPF Edutec team was part of. DeGEval: A Hub for Evaluation - DeGEval, or the Society for Evaluation, is renowned for bridging academia and industry. It's dedicated to enhancing education through rigorous evaluation methods. Sebastian Wollny's Presentation - At the conference, Sebastian Wollny, alongside Claudia Zaviska from BIBB, Anne Küttel from University of Saarland, and Ricarda Schlimbach from Hochschule Heilbronn, showcased DIPF research on chatbots in vocational education. Attendees showed keen interest and shared their own experiences. Sebastian also presented findings from his literature review titled "Are We There Yet? - A Systematic Literature Review on Chatbots in Education," shedding light on the latest developments. Ricarda Schlimbach's StudyBuddy -  Ricarda Schlimbach shone the spotlight on…
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Reflecting on the 10th German Learning Analytics Workshop at DELFI 2023: A Decade of Insights and Lessons Introduction

Reflecting on the 10th German Learning Analytics Workshop at DELFI 2023: A Decade of Insights and Lessons Introduction

Conference, Higher Education, Learning Analytics, School, Workshop
On September 11, 2023, the 10th Learning Analytics Workshop took place during the DELFI’23 and HDI’23 conferences in Aachen, Germany. This year marked a special milestone for the workshop as it celebrated "Ten years of learning analytics in German-speaking space: Success, failure and lessons learned." Co-organized by Ioana Jivet and featuring Hendrik Drachsler as a panelist, the workshop aimed to provide a comprehensive platform for sharing experiences, discussing research, and contemplating the future of learning analytics. A decade in review learning analytics has come a long way since its inception. Initially a niche area, it has now become an integral part of e-learning research, gaining prominence at international conferences like LAK and EDM. The recent pandemic-induced digitization in educational institutions has only accelerated this trend, making LA more visible and…
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Podium Royal’s’ Citizen Dialogue: AI – Fantastic Tool or Future Nightmare?

Podium Royal’s’ Citizen Dialogue: AI – Fantastic Tool or Future Nightmare?

Artificial Intelligence, Citizens science, Invited talk, Learning Analytics, Transfer Activity
A Reflective Look at 'Podium Royal's' Citizen Dialogue: AI - Fantastic Tool or Future Nightmare? On 5th September 2023, Heerlen's Royal Cinema had become more than just a movie house. It transformed into a dynamic platform for critical exchange, housing the latest 'Podium Royal.' This monthly meeting place had entertained a lively debate, scrutinizing AI's escalating prominence in our lives. The quaint interiors of the Royal Cinema echoed with the contemplations of concerned citizens. Artificial Intelligence or AI's omnipresence was the crux of the discussion. Visible in everyday activities, from supermarket self-scanners to self-driving cars, from online shopping algorithms to medical software detecting breast cancer – the omnipresence of AI was universally acknowledged. But this prevalence has also raised several unsettling thoughts - are we aligning with more totalitarian governments…
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Keynote: Teaching with AI?! School in the Era of ChatGPT and Chatbots

Keynote: Teaching with AI?! School in the Era of ChatGPT and Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence, Invited talk, Transfer Activity, Workshop
Last week, the University of Hildesheim hosted an enlightening keynote by Sebastian Wollny on the topic, "Unterricht mit KI?! Schule in Zeiten von ChatGPT und Chatbots" (Teaching with AI?! School in the Era of ChatGPT and Chatbots). This thought-provoking presentation unfolded a narrative that encompassed the history of chatbots, their profound influence on our daily lives, three pivotal areas for their application in education, and the evolving role of educators. The keynote was a pivotal event within the framework of the teacher training program, "Digitalisierung in der Unterrichtspraxis: Erprobte Konzepte und Tools für den Fachunterricht" (Digitalization in Teaching Practice: Tested Concepts and Tools for Subject Instruction). It brought together approximately 50 enthusiastic educators from across Lower Saxony, all eager to enhance their teaching through digital means. Aside from Sebastian Wollny's…
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New pub: Using Accessible Motion Capture in Educational Games for Sign Language Learning

New pub: Using Accessible Motion Capture in Educational Games for Sign Language Learning

Conference, Multimodal Learning Analytics
A new publication will be presented at the EC-TEL conference 2023 in Aveiro, Portugal. "Using Accessible Motion Capture in Educational Games for Sign Language Learning" https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-42682-7_74 Abstract Various studies show that multimodal interaction technologies, especially motion capture in educational environments, can significantly improve and support educational purposes such as language learning. In this paper, we introduce a prototype that implements finger tracking and teaches the user different letters of the German fingerspelling alphabet. Since most options for tracking a user’s movements rely on hardware that is not commonly available, a particular focus is laid on the opportunities of new technologies based on computer vision. These achieve accurate tracking with consumer webcams. In this study, the motion capture is based on Google MediaPipe. An evaluation based on user feedback shows that…
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