Higher Education Archives - EduTec Science

Nov142023 by Atezaz AhmadNo Comments

Conference: Paper presentation at IC3K 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Conference, Conference, General education, Higher Education, Learning Analytics, Learning Design, New Pub, Publication, Technical paper

The purpose of the IC3K is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners on the areas of Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management. IC3K is composed of three co-located conferences (KDIR, KEOD and KMIS), each specialized in at least one of the aforementioned main knowledge areas. Our paper titled "LAxplore: An NLP-Based Tool for Distilling Learning Analytics and Learning Design Instruments out of Scientific Publications" was accepted at the 15th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval (KDIR). Atezaz Ahmad presented the paper at the conference online. ABSTRACT: Each year, the amount of research publications is increasing. Staying on top of the state of the art is a pressing issue. The field of Learning Analytics (LA) is no exception, with the rise of digital education systems that are…

Nov142023 by Dana KubeNo Comments

Unveiling Gender Bias in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: Insights from a CS Hackathon Study

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Digitalisation, Event, Gender, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Design, New Pub, Open access, Publication, Research topic

Gender stereotypes about women and men are prevalent in computer science (CS). The study's goal was to investigate the role of gender bias in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), group work in a CS context, by elaborating on gendered experiences in the perception of individual and team performance in mixed-gender teams in a hackathon. We applied an exploratory mixed-method approach using quantitative survey data, including collective self-esteem scales, at several time points during the hackathon, which was analysed with clustering and descriptive statistics and complemented with qualitative coding of interviews with participants. The Figure shows that, for both clusters, the self-esteem scores are predominantly located in the upper half of the scale, indicating a generally high (collective) self-esteem among all our participants. Nonetheless, all respective scores were lower for the women-dominated…

Nov132023 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Social Presence and Psychological Distance

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Empirical Study, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Design, New Pub, Publication

Social presence –the sense that others are 'real' and 'there'– is a key variable in understanding interpersonal dynamics in online learning environments. As students are separated in time and place, social cues are diminished and communication is affected. This is particularly relevant for social learning scenarios like computer-supported collaborative learning. Despite its relevance and decades of research, there are still many gaps in our understanding of social presence. In order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of social presence, it would be valuable to better understand how this experience fits within larger psychological frameworks. One particularly well-established psychological framework is Construal Level Theory by Trope & Liberman (2010). It posits that our mental representations of objects, events, and persons (i.e. construals) are affected by the psychological distance between us…

Oct232023 by Joshua WeidlichNo Comments

New Pub: Development and initial validation of an instrument to measure student feedback literacy

Empirical Study, Feedback, Higher Education, Journal, Open access, Publication

To ensure quality higher education, students should routinely receive feedback on their academic endeavors. Alongside the question of what makes feedback effective, there is also an emerging research literature about empowering students to understand and utilize that feedback effectively. These abilities and attitudes of students have recently been subsumed under the concept of feedback literacy. The concept of feedback literacy was conceived by Carless and Boud (2018) as “the understandings, capacities, and dispositions needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies.” Since then, a vibrant research literature has developed theoretical frameworks, explored dimensions of feedback literacy, and investigated whether feedback literacy can systematically be enhanced, etc. However, what is still missing are larger-scale rigorous investigations of the extent to which feedback literacy actually…

Sep292023 by Ioana JivetNo Comments

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…

Sep272023 by Nina MouhammadNo Comments

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…

Sep262023 by Daniel BiedermannNo Comments

New publication: Use of digital self-control tools in higher education

Empirical Study, Higher Education, Open access, Publication, Research topic, Self-Regulation, Target group

Digital Self-Control Tools in Higher Education: A Dive into Effectiveness and Perception While the accessibility to information and the myriad of online learning resources offer a wealth of benefits, the potential for distraction can hinder academic progress. Addressing this paradox, our educational technologies research group has delved into the realm of digital self-control tools (DSCTs) to better understand their utilization, effectiveness, and perception among higher education students. Our findings have been published in the article "Use of digital self-control tools in higher education – a survey study" in the journal "Education and Information Technologies". A widespread issue among students today is the struggle between immediate gratification and the pursuit of long-term academic goals. Distractions such as social media browsing and video watching can often compete with essential study time. The…

Sep252023 by Nina MouhammadNo Comments

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…

Sep122023 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New pub: Why You Should Give Your Students Automatic Process Feedback on Their Collaboration

Computer-supported collaborative learning, Conference, Feedback, Higher Education, Journal, Learning Analytics

In the ever-changing landscape of education, innovation is the key to ensuring that every student has access to quality learning experiences. A transformative approach is Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), in which enables students to harness the power of teamwork to achieve learning outcomes that often exceed those they could reach individually. One of the strengths of CSCL is that it can give participant feedback on the quality of their collaborative work. This feedback not only aids individual growth but also enhances the group's overall dynamic. Traditionally, providing such feedback was a manual and time-intensive task, making it impractical for larger classes or scalable education programs. That's where this newly published paper comes into play. CSCL The paper “Why You Should Give Your Students Automatic Process Feedback on Their Collaboration: Evidence…

Sep112023 by Prof. Dr. Hendrik DrachslerNo Comments

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…