News - Page 5 of 39 - EduTec Science

Sep172025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: Design, Development and Evaluation of HILA

Artificial Intelligence, Keynote, Learning Analytics, Publication

How can AI-supported learning analytics be integrated into educational processes in a significant way? How can they be designed, tested and further developed to effectively improve teaching and learning practices? These questions were addressed by Hendrik Drachsler in his keynote at the Learning AID 2024 in Bochum, which has recently been published in the conference proceeding “Learning Analytics, Artificial Intelligence und Data Mining in der Hochschulbildung”. In his keynote, Hendrik stresses the importance of content-specific applications that address genuine educational needs and are supported by empirical evidence demonstrating their effectiveness. The key to fostering adaptive and sustainable learning experiences is to understand and accommodate learners’ individual needs. Hendrik argues that technological progress alone is not sufficient to improve education. His ongoing research shows that AI-supported learning analytics can only bring…

Sep122025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Heartfelt Welcome to our New Colleague Sricharan Sammeta

Team

We’re happy to extend a warm welcome to a new addition to our extended team, Sricharan Sammeta, who has just started this September for the Educational Computer Science unit of DIPF and will be working closely with us. Sricharan completed his Master of Engineering in Mechatronics at the Technische Hochschule Rosenheim, where he focused on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve complex engineering and data-driven challenges. Over the past years, he has worked on projects that involved implementing core machine learning and AI concepts - from deep learning and generative AI to MLOps and multi-agent LLM systems. His work has focused on transforming advanced AI methods into scalable, real-world applications using platforms like AWS and GCP. During his time at DIPF, Sricharan plans to develop AI-powered tools designed…

Sep122025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Big Welcome to our New Colleague Hruday Kumar Kolla

Team

We’re delighted to welcome Hruday Kumar Kolla to the Educational Technologies team at DIPF! Hruday joined us this September as an AI Software Developer, working under the guidance of Prof. Hendrik Drachsler. Hruday brings a rich background in artificial intelligence and software development. He completed his Master’s degree at the University of Siegen, where he also conducted his thesis at Bosch, focusing on unsupervised AI for defect detection. Over the past four years in Germany, he has explored a wide range of AI use cases, gaining hands-on experience across industries. Before joining DIPF, Hruday spent over a year at Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen as an intern and working student, developing AI-based web applications and working on cloud deployment strategies. Now at DIPF, Hruday is excited to apply his expertise to the…

Sep122025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Warm Welcome to our New Colleague Leon Camus

Team

We happily introduce Leon Camus, who has joined our team this September as a doctoral researcher. Leon’s research journey began during his Bachelor's studies, where he explored short answer grading in educational contexts. He continued this line of work during his Master's in Computer Science at TU Darmstadt, focusing on the implementation and enhancement of short answer grading systems with integrated feedback mechanisms. Throughout his academic career, Leon has gained extensive experience in digital learning environments—designing, extending and applying them in various educational settings. His expertise spans natural language processing, educational technology and automated assessment. Building on his foundation in natural language procesing, his PhD research focuses on automatic annotation of textual data. We look forward to accompanying you on your academic journey and welcome you to the EduTec team!

Jul282025 by Sebastian GombertNo Comments

New Pub: TBA at BEA 2025 Shared Task: Transfer-Learning from DARE-TIES Merged Models for the Pedagogical Ability Assessment of LLM-Powered Math Tutors

New Pub

In the BEA 2025 Shared Task on Pedagogical Ability Assessment of AI-Powered Tutors, the goal was to evaluate how well LLM-based math tutors support students. The task focused on four aspects of feedback: spotting mistakes identifying where the mistake happens giving guidance providing actionable suggestions For our submission, we built on FLAN-T5 models with a multi-step training pipeline. In addition to standard fine-tuning, we used model merging (DARE-TIES) to leverage information across all four labels – and saw clear improvements over plain fine-tuning. Our models achieved F1 scores between 52 and 69 and accuracies between 62% and 87%, ranking 11th, 8th, 11th, and 9th across the four tracks. Link to the paper: Link

Jul212025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: How Feedback Literacy Moderates Student Perceptions of Feedback

Feedback, Higher Education, Journal, New Pub

Whether or not students receive effective feedback can have a big impact on their overall learning process. The more qualitative and personalized the feedback is, the more effective it is in supporting the students with their individual learning goals. The latest developments in learning analytics and artificial intelligence have made it possible to provide a large number of students with personalized feedback automatically and simultaneously. Despite these technical advances, there is still much to be learned about the ability of students to use this feedback for their scholastic benefit. So far, only a limited number of studies have examined the impact of feedback literacy on students' perceptions of feedback, which is particularly true for technology-enhanced learning environments. A newly published paper addresses this issue and focuses on how students interpret…

Jun272025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: How Learners Interpret and Respond to Feedback in Learning Analytics Dashboards

Feedback, Journal, New Pub, Self-Regulation

Online learning platforms can generate a great amount of data about how students engage in the learning process. This data is used to develop learning analytics dashboards as feedback tools to assist students in self-regulating their learning. But how do students use these tools to self-reflect? And how can they use the information provided by learning analytics dashboards (LAD) in a meaningful way? In a new publication these questions are explored using the data from an experimental study with 417 students, which investigated how the students interpret and respond to feedback from LADs. In the study, the students were divided into 2 groups: A treatment group was given personalized self-regulated learning (SRL) feedback from the LAD on the basis of interactions and progress; A control group was given minimal feedback…

Jun252025 by Atezaz AhmadNo Comments

🎮 Can Games Really Help Shape Climate Policy 🌏 ? A Look into Innovative Business Models 🕹️

Project

As climate change demands urgent and inclusive dialogue, one question becomes more important than ever: How do we bridge the gap between citizens and policymakers ⁉️ One unexpected answer: games 🎮 🕹️ D6.3 Business Models (report from the GREAT project) dives into how companies like SGI and PlanetPlay are using serious games to do just that. These aren’t just entertainment tools — they are platforms for climate engagement, policy exploration, and collective learning. But how can such efforts be sustained? What business models work? And how do you prove value to both players and funders? 🧠 What’s Inside the Report? Business strategies behind game-based climate engagement using three robust frameworks are evaluated: - Business Model Canvas - Value Proposition Canvas - Lean Canvas The project team go beyond theory — using case studies and…

Jun122025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

New Pub: Tracking students’ progression in developing understanding of energy using AI technologies

Artificial Intelligence, Journal, Publication, School

[caption id="attachment_7553" align="alignright" width="400"] Instructional unit, with pre- and post-test, as well as lesson-set-level assessment[/caption] In physics education, some students fail to have the foundational knowledge of energy concepts needed to engage in societal debates on climate change and energy transformation. A newly published study highlights the potential of AI to identify students with different learning trajectories and to help bridge the knowledge gaps. The researchers used a digital workbook designed to teach energy concepts to collect detailed interaction data from over 500 students. After applying exclusion criteria, data from 172 students were analyzed to identify their productive and unproductive learning curves. [caption id="attachment_7554" align="alignleft" width="400"] Example single choice pretest item[/caption] By using machine learning, specifically random forest models, and natural language processing (NLP), the researchers were able to classify…

Jun52025 by Heather WehnerNo Comments

A Warm Welcome to Our Guest Researcher Yildiz Uzun

New Pub

We are delighted to welcome Yildiz Uzun as a guest researcher in our team! Yildiz is a PhD student at the Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education (IOE), University College London (UCL). Her research explores how students regulate their learning with the support of learning analytics feedback in the form of a dashboard, with a particular focus on how they engage with this feedback. She also examines how engagement with analytics feedback can be scaffolded and enhanced through the integration of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant. During her visit to DIPF, she will collaborate with Prof. Hendrik Drachsler and the EduTec team to advance her current AI-driven feedback process by analysing student queries to the AI assistant, evaluating the pedagogical quality of AI responses and identifying ways to optimise conversational systems…