Sebastian Gombert

I started to work as a doctoral researcher at the Educational Technologies group, DIPF, in 2021. Before this, I studied Linguistic and Literary Computing at TU Darmstadt. I finished with a thesis on detecting semantic uncertainty in scientific writing using pre-trained transformer language models and conditional random fields. Besides this, I worked as a teaching assistant, software developer and junior research assistant in various contexts and was active in academic self-government. When I am not busy researching, I like producing electronic music, playing the drums and hiking.

• AI in Education / Educational Natural Language Processing
  • Short Answer Scoring
  • Essay Scoring
  • Rubric-based Approaches
• Learning Analytics
  • Feedback
  • Learner Modeling
• Research Infrastructures

• Master of Arts in Linguistic and Literary Computing, 2021, TU Darmstadt
• Bachelor of Arts in Digital Philology and Computer Science, 2019, TU Darmstadt

• 2014 - Developer @ Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH
• 2015-2017 - Developer @ Abius GmbH
• 2015-2020 - Co-founder @ mediacollective UG
• 2017 - IT Administrator @ Student Council FB2, TU Darmstadt
• 2016-2021 Teaching- and Junior Research Assistant @ Corpus- and Computational Linguistics, TU Darmstadt
• 2020 Teaching Assistant @ Ubiquitous Knowledge Processing Lab, TU Darmstadt
• 2020-2021 Developer @ AskAlbert / studiumdigitale, Goethe Universität Frankfurt

• Gombert, S., Sun, Z., Zehner, F., Lossjew, J., Wyrwich, T., Czinczel, B. K., ... & Drachsler, H. (2026). Report on the BEA 2026 Shared Task on Rubric-based Short Answer Scoring for German. In Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2026). Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Gombert, S., Hahn, S., Andersen, N., Camus, L., Sun, Z., Nguyen, N. N. H., ... & Drachsler, H. (2026). Rubrics as Semantic Subspaces: A Unified Approach to Rubric-based Constructed Response Scoring across Short Answers and Essays. In Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2026). Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Cong, L., Hahn, S., Gombert, S., Camus, L., Drachsler, H., & Kroehne, U. (2026). Estimating LLM Grading Ability and Response Difficulty in Automatic Short Answer Grading via Item Response Theory. In Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2026). Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Cong, L., Hahn, S., Gombert, S., Camus, L., Drachsler, H., Kroehne, U. (2027). Confidence Estimation in Automatic Short Answer Grading with LLMs. In: Blanchard, E.G., Chen, G., Chi, M., Isotani, S. (eds) Artificial Intelligence in Education. AIED 2026. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16582. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-29755-6_8
• Bernholt, S., Lossjew, J., & Gombert, S. (2026). Analyzing students’ conceptual understanding over the course of a teaching unit: Tracking changes in knowledge structures over time. Unterrichtswissenschaft. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42010-026-00244-0
• Cong, L., Hammerla, L., Hahn, S., Gombert, S., Drachsler, H., & Kroehne, U. (2026). Automatic Short Answer Grading with LLMs: From Memorization to Reasoning. In Proceedings of the LAK26: 16th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (pp. 75–84). ACM. LAK 2026: LAK26: 16th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3785022.3785031
• Gombert, S., Sun, Z., Zehner, F., Lossjew, J., Wyrwich, T., Czinczel, B. K., Bednorz, D., Kubsch, M., Di Mitri, D., Neumann, K., & Drachsler, H. (2026). Are rubrics all you need? Towards rubric-based automatic short answer scoring via guided rubric-answer alignment. In Proceedings of the LAK26: 16th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (pp. 272–282). ACM. LAK 2026: LAK26: 16th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference. https://doi.org/10.1145/3785022.3785064
• Domenichini, D., Strauß, S., Gombert, S., Rummel, N., Drachsler, H., Neumann, K., Chiarello, F., Fantoni, G., & Kubsch, M. (2025). Leveraging AI and network analysis to uncover learning trajectories of energy to Foster knowledge-in-use in science education. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 7(1). doi:10.1186/s43031-025-00150-y
• Wyrwich, T., Domenichini, D., Gombert, S., Kubsch, M., & Neumann, K. (2025). Characterizing students’ energy learning trajectories. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 7(1). doi:10.1186/s43031-025-00141-z
• Alfter, D., & Gombert, S. (2025). GRIPF at TSAR 2025 Shared Task Towards controlled CEFR level simplification with the help of inter-model interactions. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Text Simplification, Accessibility and Readability (TSAR 2025) (pp. 137-148).
• Gombert, S., Zehner, F., & Drachsler, H. (2025). TBA at BEA 2025 Shared Task: Transfer-Learning from DARE-TIES Merged Models for the Pedagogical Ability Assessment of LLM-Powered Math Tutors. In Proceedings of the 20th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications.
• Zehner, F., Shin, H. J., Kerzabi, E., Horbach, A., Gombert, S., Goldhammer, F., Zesch, T., & Andersen, N. Down the Cascades of Omethi: Hierarchical Automatic Scoring in Large-Scale Assessments. In Proceedings of the 20th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications.
• Kubsch, M., Strauß, S., Grimm, A., Gombert, S., Drachsler, H., Neumann, K., & Rummel, N. (2025). Self-regulated learning in the digitally enhanced science classroom: Toward an early warning system. Educational Psychology Review, 37(2). doi:10.1007/s10648-025-10011-9
• Borgards, L., Karademir, O., Strauß, S., Di Mitri, D., Kubsch, M., Brobeil, M., ... & Rummel, N. (2024, September). Achieving Tailored Feedback by Means of a Teacher Dashboard? Insights into Teachers’ Feedback Practices. In European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (pp. 75-80). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
• Fink, A., Gombert, S., Liu, T., Drachsler, H., & Frey, A. (2024). A hierarchical rater model approach for integrating automated essay scoring models. Zeitschrift für Psychologie.
• Vossen, L. P., Gasparini, I., Oliveira, E. H., Menzel, L., Gombert, S., Neumann, K., & Drachsler, H. (2024). Conceptual Map Assessment Through Structure Classification. In Proceedings of the First Workshop on Automated Evaluation of Learning and Assessment Content co-located with the 25th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2024).
• Van Vossen, L. P., Gasparini, I., Oliveira, E. H., Czinczel, B., Harms, U., Menzel, L., ... & Drachsler, H. (2024, July). The Influence of Diverse Educational Contexts on Concept Map Structures. In 7th International Workshop on Culturally-Aware Tutoring Systems (CATS2024) (p. 24).
• Karademir, O., Borgards, L., Di Mitri, D., Strauß, S., Kubsch, M., Brobeil, M., ... & Drachsler, H. (2024). Following the impact chain of the LA cockpit: an intervention study investigating a teacher dashboard’s effect on student learning. Journal of Learning Analytics, 11(2), 215-228.
• Gombert, S., Menzel, L., Di Mitri, D., & Drachsler, H. (2024, June). Predicting Item Difficulty and Item Response Time with Scalar-mixed Transformer Encoder Models and Rational Network Regression Heads. In Proceedings of the 19th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2024) (pp. 483-492).
• Karademir, O., Di Mitri, D., Schneider, J., Jivet, I., Allmang, J., Gombert, S., … Drachsler, H. (2024). I don’t have time! But keep me in the loop: Co-designing requirements for a learning analytics cockpit with teachers. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12997
• Gombert, S., Fink, A., Giorgashvili, T., Jivet, I., Di Mitri, D., Yau, J., Frey, A., & Drachsler, H. (2024). From the automated assessment of student essay content to highly informative feedback: A case study. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-023-00387-6
• Kube, D., Gombert, S., John, N., Weidlich, J., Kreijns, K., & Drachsler, H. (2024). Escaping binary gender roles: Gender diversity dynamics in a CSCL‐Escape game. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12942
• Kube, D., Gombert, S., Suter, B., Weidlich, J., Kreijns, K., & Drachsler, H. (2023). Hacking gender in computer-supported collaborative learning: The experience of being in mixed-gender teams at a computer science hackathon. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12905
• Menzel, L., Gombert, S., Weidlich, J., Fink, A., Frey, A., & Drachsler, H. (2023). Why You Should Give Your Students Automatic Process Feedback on Their Collaboration: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment. In Responsive and Sustainable Educational Futures. EC-TEL 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14200. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42682-7_14
• Gombert, S., Di Mitri, D., Karademir, O., Kubsch, M., Kolbe, H., Tautz, S., Grimm, A., Bohm, I., Neumann, K., & Drachsler, H. (2022). Coding energy knowledge in constructed responses with explainable NLP models. In Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12767
• Gombert, S. (2022). Methods and perspectives for the automated analytic assessment of free-text responses in formative scenarios. In Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium at the Seventeenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2022), Toulouse, France, September 12th-16th, 2022
• Daniele Di Mitri, Sebastian Gombert, & Onur Karademir (2022). Reflecting on the Actionable Components of a Model for Augmented Feedback. In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Multimodal Immersive Learning Systems (MILeS 2022) At the Seventeenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2022), Toulouse, France, September 12th-16th, 2022 (pp. 45–50). CEUR-WS.org.
• Böttger, F., Cetinkaya, U., Di Mitri, D., Gombert, S., Shingjergji, K., Iren, D., & Klemke, R. (2022). Privacy-Preserving and Scalable Affect Detection in Online Synchronous Learning. In Educating for a New Future: Making Sense of Technology-Enhanced Learning Adoption. EC-TEL 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13450. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16290-9_4
• Menzel, L., Gombert, S., Di Mitri, D., & Drachsler, H. (2022). Superpowers in the Classroom: Hyperchalk is an Online Whiteboard for Learning Analytics Data Collection. In Educating for a New Future: Making Sense of Technology-Enhanced Learning Adoption. EC-TEL 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13450. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16290-9_37
• Gombert, S. (2021). Twin BERT Contextualized Sentence Embedding Space Learning and Gradient-Boosted Decision Tree Ensembles for Scene Segmentation in German Literature. In Proceedings of the Shared Task on Scene Segmentation co-located with the 17th Conference on Natural Language Processing (KONVENS 2021), Düsseldorf, Germany, September 6th, 2021 (Vol. 3001, pp. 42–48). CEUR-WS.org.
• Gombert, S., & Bartsch, S. (2021). TUDA-CCL at SemEval-2021 Task 1: Using Gradient-boosted Regression Tree Ensembles Trained on a Heterogeneous Feature Set for Predicting Lexical Complexity. In Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Semantic Evaluation (SemEval-2021) (pp. 130-137). Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Gombert, S. & Bartsch, S. (2020). MultiVitaminBooster at PARSEME Shared Task 2020: Combining Window- and Dependency-Based Features with Multilingual Contextualised Word Embeddings for VMWE Detection. In Proceedings of the Joint Workshop on Multiword Expressions and Electronic Lexicons (pp. 149–155). Association for Computational Linguistics.

• Fink, A., Gombert, S., Liu, T., & Frey, A., (2024, April). The integration of automated essay scoring models using hierarchical rater models. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), Philadelphia, USA.
• Menzel, L., Jivet, I., Gombert, S., Drachsler, H., Giorgashvili, T., Schmitz, M. (2024). 2nd Workshop on Highly Informative Learning Analytic (HILA), Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference 2024, Kyoto, Japan.
• Fink, A., Gombert, S., & Frey, A. (2023). Using natural language processing to automate the assessment of student essay content. Paper presented at the Frontier Research in Educational Measurement - FREMO 2023, Oslo, Norway.
• Fink, A., Gombert, S., & Frey, A. (2023). Automatisierte Inhaltsanalyse von Essays mittels Transformern [Automated analysis of essay content using transformer models]. Paper presented at the 16th meeting of the Methods and Evaluation Division of the DGPs, Constance, Germany.
• Gombert, S., & Karademir, O. (2023). KI in der Bildung: Chancen und Risiken für die Gesellschaft. @ Common Purpose.
• Gombert, S., & Kube, D. (2023). Virtueller Kaffeetalk zum Thema ChatGPT in der Bildung. @ Digitaltag 2023.
• Gombert, S., & Menzel, L. (2023). Hyperchalk - How to Implement Self-hosted Whiteboard Tasks. @ Seventeenth EATEL Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning.
• Gombert, S., Menzel, L., & Di Mitri, D. (2023). Large Language Models for Feedback Generation. @ Seventeenth EATEL Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning.
• Karademir, O., Gombert, S., & Di Mitri, D. (2023). Teacher Dashboard Supported by AI-generated Feedback. @ Seventeenth EATEL Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning.
• Di Mitri, D., Schmitz, M., Jivet, I., Gombert, S., Ahmad, A., Drachsler, H. (2023). Hi, LA! - Highly Informative Learning Analytics. @ 13th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference.
• Fink, A., Frey, A., Liu, T., & Gombert, S. (2022). Nutzung von Natural Language Processing zur automatisierten Kodierung von Essays in digital gestützten Großveranstaltungen an Hochschulen. @ 52nd Conference of the German Psychological Society (DGPs).
• Gombert, S. (2022). Workshop: Assessing constructed responses with explainable natural language processing. @ Sixteenth EATEL Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning.
• Gombert, S., Bhattacharya, S., Di Mitri, D., Drachsler, H. (2022). Interpretierbare maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung für die Identifikation konzeptionellen Wissens in energiephysikbezogenen deutschsprachigen Kurzantworten. @ Symposium: Komplexität nicht nur bewältigen, sondern zu Nutze machen: Log- und Textdaten im Educational Assessment. 9. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung.