Mutlu Cukurova

CY
h-index42
25papers
506citations
Novelty32%
AI Score49

25 Papers

AIOct 28, 2022
An Artificial Intelligence driven Learning Analytics Method to Examine the Collaborative Problem solving Process from a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

Fan Ouyang, Weiqi Xu, Mutlu Cukurova

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) enables student groups to complete learning tasks, construct knowledge, and solve problems. Previous research has argued the importance to examine the complexity of CPS, including its multimodality, dynamics, and synergy from the complex adaptive systems perspective. However, there is limited empirical research examining the adaptive and temporal characteristics of CPS which might lead to an oversimplified representation of the real complexity of the CPS process. To further understand the nature of CPS in online interaction settings, this research collected multimodal process and performance data (i.e., verbal audios, computer screen recordings, concept map data) and proposed a three-layered analytical framework that integrated AI algorithms with learning analytics to analyze the regularity of groups collaboration patterns. The results detected three types of collaborative patterns in groups, namely the behaviour-oriented collaborative pattern (Type 1) associated with medium-level performance, the communication - behaviour - synergistic collaborative pattern (Type 2) associated with high-level performance, and the communication-oriented collaborative pattern (Type 3) associated with low-level performance. The research further highlighted the multimodal, dynamic, and synergistic characteristics of groups collaborative patterns to explain the emergence of an adaptive, self-organizing system during the CPS process.

CYMay 9, 2022
A Transparency Index Framework for AI in Education

Muhammad Ali Chaudhry, Mutlu Cukurova, Rose Luckin

Numerous AI ethics checklists and frameworks have been proposed focusing on different dimensions of ethical AI such as fairness, explainability, and safety. Yet, no such work has been done on developing transparent AI systems for real-world educational scenarios. This paper presents a Transparency Index framework that has been iteratively co-designed with different stakeholders of AI in education, including educators, ed-tech experts, and AI practitioners. We map the requirements of transparency for different categories of stakeholders of AI in education and demonstrate that transparency considerations are embedded in the entire AI development process from the data collection stage until the AI system is deployed in the real world and iteratively improved. We also demonstrate how transparency enables the implementation of other ethical AI dimensions in Education like interpretability, accountability, and safety. In conclusion, we discuss the directions for future research in this newly emerging field. The main contribution of this study is that it highlights the importance of transparency in developing AI-powered educational technologies and proposes an index framework for its conceptualization for AI in education.

CVApr 7, 2023
Generative AI for learning: Investigating the potential of synthetic learning videos

Daniel Leiker, Ashley Ricker Gyllen, Ismail Eldesouky et al.

Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have captured worldwide attention. Tools such as Dalle-2 and ChatGPT suggest that tasks previously thought to be beyond the capabilities of AI may now augment the productivity of creative media in various new ways, including through the generation of synthetic video. This research paper explores the utility of using AI-generated synthetic video to create viable educational content for online educational settings. To date, there is limited research investigating the real-world educational value of AI-generated synthetic media. To address this gap, we examined the impact of using AI-generated synthetic video in an online learning platform on both learners content acquisition and learning experience. We took a mixed-method approach, randomly assigning adult learners (n=83) into one of two micro-learning conditions, collecting pre- and post-learning assessments, and surveying participants on their learning experience. The control condition included a traditionally produced instructor video, while the experimental condition included a synthetic video with a realistic AI-generated character. The results show that learners in both conditions demonstrated significant improvement from pre- to post-learning (p<.001), with no significant differences in gains between the two conditions (p=.80). In addition, no differences were observed in how learners perceived the traditional and synthetic videos. These findings suggest that AI-generated synthetic learning videos have the potential to be a viable substitute for videos produced via traditional methods in online educational settings, making high quality educational content more accessible across the globe.

AIDec 28, 2025
Problems With Large Language Models for Learner Modelling: Why LLMs Alone Fall Short for Responsible Tutoring in K--12 Education

Danial Hooshyar, Yeongwook Yang, Gustav Šíř et al.

The rapid rise of large language model (LLM)-based tutors in K--12 education has fostered a misconception that generative models can replace traditional learner modelling for adaptive instruction. This is especially problematic in K--12 settings, which the EU AI Act classifies as high-risk domain requiring responsible design. Motivated by these concerns, this study synthesises evidence on limitations of LLM-based tutors and empirically investigates one critical issue: the accuracy, reliability, and temporal coherence of assessing learners' evolving knowledge over time. We compare a deep knowledge tracing (DKT) model with a widely used LLM, evaluated zero-shot and fine-tuned, using a large open-access dataset. Results show that DKT achieves the highest discrimination performance (AUC = 0.83) on next-step correctness prediction and consistently outperforms the LLM across settings. Although fine-tuning improves the LLM's AUC by approximately 8\% over the zero-shot baseline, it remains 6\% below DKT and produces higher early-sequence errors, where incorrect predictions are most harmful for adaptive support. Temporal analyses further reveal that DKT maintains stable, directionally correct mastery updates, whereas LLM variants exhibit substantial temporal weaknesses, including inconsistent and wrong-direction updates. These limitations persist despite the fine-tuned LLM requiring nearly 198 hours of high-compute training, far exceeding the computational demands of DKT. Our qualitative analysis of multi-skill mastery estimation further shows that, even after fine-tuning, the LLM produced inconsistent mastery trajectories, while DKT maintained smooth and coherent updates. Overall, the findings suggest that LLMs alone are unlikely to match the effectiveness of established intelligent tutoring systems, and that responsible tutoring requires hybrid frameworks that incorporate learner modelling.

CLNov 11, 2025
Benchmarking Educational LLMs with Analytics: A Case Study on Gender Bias in Feedback

Yishan Du, Conrad Borchers, Mutlu Cukurova

As teachers increasingly turn to GenAI in their educational practice, we need robust methods to benchmark large language models (LLMs) for pedagogical purposes. This article presents an embedding-based benchmarking framework to detect bias in LLMs in the context of formative feedback. Using 600 authentic student essays from the AES 2.0 corpus, we constructed controlled counterfactuals along two dimensions: (i) implicit cues via lexicon-based swaps of gendered terms within essays, and (ii) explicit cues via gendered author background in the prompt. We investigated six representative LLMs (i.e. GPT-5 mini, GPT-4o mini, DeepSeek-R1, DeepSeek-R1-Qwen, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Llama-3-8B). We first quantified the response divergence with cosine and Euclidean distances over sentence embeddings, then assessed significance via permutation tests, and finally, visualised structure using dimensionality reduction. In all models, implicit manipulations reliably induced larger semantic shifts for male-female counterfactuals than for female-male. Only the GPT and Llama models showed sensitivity to explicit gender cues. These findings show that even state-of-the-art LLMs exhibit asymmetric semantic responses to gender substitutions, suggesting persistent gender biases in feedback they provide learners. Qualitative analyses further revealed consistent linguistic differences (e.g., more autonomy-supportive feedback under male cues vs. more controlling feedback under female cues). We discuss implications for fairness auditing of pedagogical GenAI, propose reporting standards for counterfactual evaluation in learning analytics, and outline practical guidance for prompt design and deployment to safeguard equitable feedback.

CVApr 1
Gaze to Insight: A Scalable AI Approach for Detecting Gaze Behaviours in Face-to-Face Collaborative Learning

Junyuan Liang, Qi Zhou, Sahan Bulathwela et al.

Previous studies have illustrated the potential of analysing gaze behaviours in collaborative learning to provide educationally meaningful information for students to reflect on their learning. Over the past decades, machine learning approaches have been developed to automatically detect gaze behaviours from video data. Yet, since these approaches often require large amounts of labelled data for training, human annotation remains necessary. Additionally, researchers have questioned the cross-configuration robustness of machine learning models developed, as training datasets often fail to encompass the full range of situations encountered in educational contexts. To address these challenges, this study proposes a scalable artificial intelligence approach that leverages pretrained and foundation models to automatically detect gaze behaviours in face-to-face collaborative learning contexts without requiring human-annotated data. The approach utilises pretrained YOLO11 for person tracking, YOLOE-26 with text-prompt capability for education-related object detection, and the Gaze-LLE model for gaze target prediction. The results indicate that the proposed approach achieves an F1-score of 0.829 in detecting students' gaze behaviours from video data, with strong performance for laptop-directed gaze and peer-directed gaze, yet weaker performance for other gaze targets. Furthermore, when compared to other supervised machine learning approaches, the proposed method demonstrates superior and more stable performance in complex contexts, highlighting its better cross-configuration robustness. The implications of this approach for supporting students' collaborative learning in real-world environments are also discussed.

CYDec 9, 2025
Examining Student Interactions with a Pedagogical AI-Assistant for Essay Writing and their Impact on Students Writing Quality

Wicaksono Febriantoro, Qi Zhou, Wannapon Suraworachet et al.

The dynamic nature of interactions between students and GenAI, as well as their relationship to writing quality, remains underexplored. While most research has examined how general-purpose GenAI can support writing, fewer studies have investigated how students interact with pedagogically designed systems across different phases of the writing process. To address this gap, we evaluated a GenAI-driven essay-writing assistant (EWA) designed to support higher education students in argumentative writing. Drawing on 1,282 interaction logs from 32 undergraduates during a two-hour writing session, Sequential Pattern Mining and K-Means clustering were used to identify behavioral patterns. Two clusters emerged: Cluster 1 emphasized outline planning and essay structure, while Cluster 2 focused on content development. A Mann-Whitney U test revealed a moderate effect size (r = 0.36) in the essay Organization dimension, with Cluster 1 showing higher scores. Qualitative analysis indicated that students with better performance actively wrote and shared essay sections with EWA for feedback, rather than interacted passively by asking questions. These findings suggest implications for teaching and system design. Teachers can encourage active engagement, while future EWAs may integrate automatic labeling and monitoring to prompt students to move from questioning to writing, enabling fuller benefits from GenAI-supported learning.

CYMar 24, 2024
The Interplay of Learning, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Vision for Hybrid Intelligence

Mutlu Cukurova

This paper presents a multi-dimensional view of AI's role in learning and education, emphasizing the intricate interplay between AI, analytics, and the learning processes. Here, I challenge the prevalent narrow conceptualisation of AI as tools, as exemplified in generative AI tools, and argue for the importance of alternative conceptualisations of AI for achieving human-AI hybrid intelligence. I highlight the differences between human intelligence and artificial information processing, the importance of hybrid human-AI systems to extend human cognition, and posit that AI can also serve as an instrument for understanding human learning. Early learning sciences and AI in Education research (AIED), which saw AI as an analogy for human intelligence, have diverged from this perspective, prompting a need to rekindle this connection. The paper presents three unique conceptualisations of AI: the externalization of human cognition, the internalization of AI models to influence human mental models, and the extension of human cognition via tightly coupled human-AI hybrid intelligence systems. Examples from current research and practice are examined as instances of the three conceptualisations in education, highlighting the potential value and limitations of each conceptualisation for education, as well as the perils of overemphasis on externalising human cognition. The paper concludes with advocacy for a broader approach to AIED that goes beyond considerations on the design and development of AI, but also includes educating people about AI and innovating educational systems to remain relevant in an AI-ubiquitous world.

CLJan 3, 2024
Predicting challenge moments from students' discourse: A comparison of GPT-4 to two traditional natural language processing approaches

Wannapon Suraworachet, Jennifer Seon, Mutlu Cukurova

Effective collaboration requires groups to strategically regulate themselves to overcome challenges. Research has shown that groups may fail to regulate due to differences in members' perceptions of challenges which may benefit from external support. In this study, we investigated the potential of leveraging three distinct natural language processing models: an expert knowledge rule-based model, a supervised machine learning (ML) model and a Large Language model (LLM), in challenge detection and challenge dimension identification (cognitive, metacognitive, emotional and technical/other challenges) from student discourse, was investigated. The results show that the supervised ML and the LLM approaches performed considerably well in both tasks, in contrast to the rule-based approach, whose efficacy heavily relies on the engineered features by experts. The paper provides an extensive discussion of the three approaches' performance for automated detection and support of students' challenge moments in collaborative learning activities. It argues that, although LLMs provide many advantages, they are unlikely to be the panacea to issues of the detection and feedback provision of socially shared regulation of learning due to their lack of reliability, as well as issues of validity evaluation, privacy and confabulation. We conclude the paper with a discussion on additional considerations, including model transparency to explore feasible and meaningful analytical feedback for students and educators using LLMs.

AIJan 8
What Students Ask, How a Generative AI Assistant Responds: Exploring Higher Education Students' Dialogues on Learning Analytics Feedback

Yildiz Uzun, Andrea Gauthier, Mutlu Cukurova

Learning analytics dashboards (LADs) aim to support students' regulation of learning by translating complex data into feedback. Yet students, especially those with lower self-regulated learning (SRL) competence, often struggle to engage with and interpret analytics feedback. Conversational generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) assistants have shown potential to scaffold this process through real-time, personalised, dialogue-based support. Further advancing this potential, we explored authentic dialogues between students and GenAI assistant integrated into LAD during a 10-week semester. The analysis focused on questions students with different SRL levels posed, the relevance and quality of the assistant's answers, and how students perceived the assistant's role in their learning. Findings revealed distinct query patterns. While low SRL students sought clarification and reassurance, high SRL students queried technical aspects and requested personalised strategies. The assistant provided clear and reliable explanations but limited in personalisation, handling emotionally charged queries, and integrating multiple data points for tailored responses. Findings further extend that GenAI interventions can be especially valuable for low SRL students, offering scaffolding that supports engagement with feedback and narrows gaps with their higher SRL peers. At the same time, students' reflections underscored the importance of trust, need for greater adaptivity, context-awareness, and technical refinement in future systems.

CVMay 24, 2024
Biometrics and Behavior Analysis for Detecting Distractions in e-Learning

Álvaro Becerra, Javier Irigoyen, Roberto Daza et al.

In this article, we explore computer vision approaches to detect abnormal head pose during e-learning sessions and we introduce a study on the effects of mobile phone usage during these sessions. We utilize behavioral data collected from 120 learners monitored while participating in a MOOC learning sessions. Our study focuses on the influence of phone-usage events on behavior and physiological responses, specifically attention, heart rate, and meditation, before, during, and after phone usage. Additionally, we propose an approach for estimating head pose events using images taken by the webcam during the MOOC learning sessions to detect phone-usage events. Our hypothesis suggests that head posture undergoes significant changes when learners interact with a mobile phone, contrasting with the typical behavior seen when learners face a computer during e-learning sessions. We propose an approach designed to detect deviations in head posture from the average observed during a learner's session, operating as a semi-supervised method. This system flags events indicating alterations in head posture for subsequent human review and selection of mobile phone usage occurrences with a sensitivity over 90%.

CYJan 9, 2025
A Novel Approach to Scalable and Automatic Topic-Controlled Question Generation in Education

Ziqing Li, Mutlu Cukurova, Sahan Bulathwela

The development of Automatic Question Generation (QG) models has the potential to significantly improve educational practices by reducing the teacher workload associated with creating educational content. This paper introduces a novel approach to educational question generation that controls the topical focus of questions. The proposed Topic-Controlled Question Generation (T-CQG) method enhances the relevance and effectiveness of the generated content for educational purposes. Our approach uses fine-tuning on a pre-trained T5-small model, employing specially created datasets tailored to educational needs. The research further explores the impacts of pre-training strategies, quantisation, and data augmentation on the model's performance. We specifically address the challenge of generating semantically aligned questions with paragraph-level contexts, thereby improving the topic specificity of the generated questions. In addition, we introduce and explore novel evaluation methods to assess the topical relatedness of the generated questions. Our results, validated through rigorous offline and human-backed evaluations, demonstrate that the proposed models effectively generate high-quality, topic-focused questions. These models have the potential to reduce teacher workload and support personalised tutoring systems by serving as bespoke question generators. With its relatively small number of parameters, the proposals not only advance the capabilities of question generation models for handling specific educational topics but also offer a scalable solution that reduces infrastructure costs. This scalability makes them feasible for widespread use in education without reliance on proprietary large language models like ChatGPT.

HCApr 15, 2025
Evaluating Trust in AI, Human, and Co-produced Feedback Among Undergraduate Students

Audrey Zhang, Yifei Gao, Wannapon Suraworachet et al.

As generative AI models, particularly large language models (LLMs), transform educational feedback practices in higher education (HE) contexts, understanding students' perceptions of different sources of feedback becomes crucial for their effective implementation and adoption. This study addresses a critical gap by comparing undergraduate students' trust in LLM, human, and human-AI co-produced feedback in their authentic HE context. More specifically, through a within-subject experimental design involving 91 participants, we investigated factors that predict students' ability to distinguish between feedback types, their perceptions of feedback quality, and potential biases related to the source of feedback. Findings revealed that when the source was blinded, students generally preferred AI and co-produced feedback over human feedback regarding perceived usefulness and objectivity. However, they presented a strong bias against AI when the source of feedback was disclosed. In addition, only AI feedback suffered a decline in perceived genuineness when feedback sources were revealed, while co-produced feedback maintained its positive perception. Educational AI experience improved students' ability to identify LLM-generated feedback and increased their trust in all types of feedback. More years of students' experience using AI for general purposes were associated with lower perceived usefulness and credibility of feedback. These insights offer substantial evidence of the importance of source credibility and the need to enhance both feedback literacy and AI literacy to mitigate bias in student perceptions for AI-generated feedback to be adopted and impact education.

AIApr 9
Neural-Symbolic Knowledge Tracing: Injecting Educational Knowledge into Deep Learning for Responsible Learner Modelling

Danial Hooshyar, Gustav Šír, Yeongwook Yang et al.

The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, particularly large language models (LLMs), has increased interest in intelligent tutoring systems. However, LLMs often show limited adaptivity and struggle to model learners' evolving knowledge over time, highlighting the need for dedicated learner modelling approaches. Although deep knowledge tracing methods achieve strong predictive performance, their opacity and susceptibility to bias can limit alignment with pedagogical principles. To address this, we propose Responsible-DKT, a neural-symbolic deep knowledge tracing approach that integrates symbolic educational knowledge (e.g., mastery and non-mastery rules) into sequential neural models for responsible learner modelling. Experiments on a real-world dataset of students' math interactions show that Responsible-DKT outperforms both a neural-symbolic baseline and a fully data-driven PyTorch DKT model across training settings. The model achieves over 0.80 AUC with only 10% of training data and up to 0.90 AUC, improving performance by up to 13%. It also demonstrates improved temporal reliability, producing lower early- and mid-sequence prediction errors and the lowest prediction inconsistency rates across sequence lengths, indicating that prediction updates remain directionally aligned with observed student responses over time. Furthermore, the neural-symbolic approach offers intrinsic interpretability via a grounded computation graph that exposes the logic behind each prediction, enabling both local and global explanations. It also allows empirical evaluation of pedagogical assumptions, revealing that repeated incorrect responses (non-mastery) strongly influence prediction updates. These results indicate that neural-symbolic approaches enhance both performance and interpretability, mitigate data limitations, and support more responsible, human-centered AI in education.

CYJun 20, 2025
AI-based Multimodal Biometrics for Detecting Smartphone Distractions: Application to Online Learning

Alvaro Becerra, Roberto Daza, Ruth Cobos et al.

This work investigates the use of multimodal biometrics to detect distractions caused by smartphone use during tasks that require sustained attention, with a focus on computer-based online learning. Although the methods are applicable to various domains, such as autonomous driving, we concentrate on the challenges learners face in maintaining engagement amid internal (e.g., motivation), system-related (e.g., course design) and contextual (e.g., smartphone use) factors. Traditional learning platforms often lack detailed behavioral data, but Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA) and biosensors provide new insights into learner attention. We propose an AI-based approach that leverages physiological signals and head pose data to detect phone use. Our results show that single biometric signals, such as brain waves or heart rate, offer limited accuracy, while head pose alone achieves 87%. A multimodal model combining all signals reaches 91% accuracy, highlighting the benefits of integration. We conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of deploying these models for real-time support in online learning environments.

CYJan 3, 2024
Harnessing Transparent Learning Analytics for Individualized Support through Auto-detection of Engagement in Face-to-Face Collaborative Learning

Qi Zhou, Wannapon Suraworachet, Mutlu Cukurova

Using learning analytics to investigate and support collaborative learning has been explored for many years. Recently, automated approaches with various artificial intelligence approaches have provided promising results for modelling and predicting student engagement and performance in collaborative learning tasks. However, due to the lack of transparency and interpretability caused by the use of "black box" approaches in learning analytics design and implementation, guidance for teaching and learning practice may become a challenge. On the one hand, the black box created by machine learning algorithms and models prevents users from obtaining educationally meaningful learning and teaching suggestions. On the other hand, focusing on group and cohort level analysis only can make it difficult to provide specific support for individual students working in collaborative groups. This paper proposes a transparent approach to automatically detect student's individual engagement in the process of collaboration. The results show that the proposed approach can reflect student's individual engagement and can be used as an indicator to distinguish students with different collaborative learning challenges (cognitive, behavioural and emotional) and learning outcomes. The potential of the proposed collaboration analytics approach for scaffolding collaborative learning practice in face-to-face contexts is discussed and future research suggestions are provided.

CLApr 7
Dialogue Act Patterns in GenAI-Mediated L2 Oral Practice: A Sequential Analysis of Learner-Chatbot Interactions

Liqun He, Shijun, Chen et al.

While generative AI (GenAI) voice chatbots offer scalable opportunities for second language (L2) oral practice, the interactional processes related to learners' gains remain underexplored. This study investigates dialogue act (DA) patterns in interactions between Grade 9 Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and a GenAI voice chatbot over a 10-week intervention. Seventy sessions from 12 students were annotated by human coders using a pedagogy-informed coding scheme, yielding 6,957 coded DAs. DA distributions and sequential patterns were compared between high- and low-progress sessions. At the DA level, high-progress sessions showed more learner-initiated questions, whereas low-progress sessions exhibited higher rates of clarification-seeking, indicating greater comprehension difficulty. At the sequential level, high-progress sessions were characterised by more frequent prompting-based corrective feedback sequences, consistently positioned after learner responses, highlighting the role of feedback type and timing in effective interaction. Overall, these findings underscore the value of a dialogic lens in GenAI chatbot design, contribute a pedagogy-informed DA coding framework, and inform the design of adaptive GenAI chatbots for L2 education.

CYMar 12
The Future of Feedback: How Can AI Help Transform Feedback to Be More Engaging, Effective, and Scalable?

Jennifer Meyer, Olaf Köller, Thorben Jansen et al.

With digital learning environments becoming more prevalent, the ease with which generative AI enables the scalable production of real-time, automated feedback holds the potential to reshape learning and teaching experiences. This meeting report synthesizes the interdisciplinary perspectives of 50 scholars from educational psychology, computer science, science education, and the learning sciences on the use of generative AI for feedback and its promises and risks in educational practice. We highlight points of convergence in the scholarship, identify areas of debate and unresolved challenges, and outline open questions and future directions for research and educational practice that emerged from structured small-group activities designed to bridge disciplinary barriers.

CYNov 24, 2025
Towards Synergistic Teacher-AI Interactions with Generative Artificial Intelligence

Mutlu Cukurova, Wannapon Suraworachet, Qi Zhou et al.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used in education, posing significant challenges for teachers adapting to these changes. GenAI offers unprecedented opportunities for accessibility, scalability and productivity in educational tasks. However, the automation of teaching tasks through GenAI raises concerns about reduced teacher agency, potential cognitive atrophy, and the broader deprofessionalisation of teaching. Drawing findings from prior literature on AI in Education, and refining through a recent systematic literature review, this chapter presents a conceptualisation of five levels of teacher-AI teaming: transactional, situational, operational, praxical and synergistic teaming. The framework aims to capture the nuanced dynamics of teacher-AI interactions, particularly with GenAI, that may lead to the replacement, complementarity, or augmentation of teachers' competences and professional practice. GenAI technological affordances required in supporting teaming, along with empirical studies, are discussed. Drawing on empirical observations, we outline a future vision that moves beyond individual teacher agency toward collaborative decision-making between teachers and AI, in which both agents engage in negotiation, constructive challenge, and co-reasoning that enhance each other's capabilities and enable outcomes neither could realise independently. Further discussion of socio-technical factors beyond teacher-AI teaming is also included to streamline the synergy of teachers and AI in education ethically and practically.

CLOct 20, 2025
Towards Mining Effective Pedagogical Strategies from Learner-LLM Educational Dialogues

Liqun He, Manolis Mavrikis, Mutlu Cukurova

Dialogue plays a crucial role in educational settings, yet existing evaluation methods for educational applications of large language models (LLMs) primarily focus on technical performance or learning outcomes, often neglecting attention to learner-LLM interactions. To narrow this gap, this AIED Doctoral Consortium paper presents an ongoing study employing a dialogue analysis approach to identify effective pedagogical strategies from learner-LLM dialogues. The proposed approach involves dialogue data collection, dialogue act (DA) annotation, DA pattern mining, and predictive model building. Early insights are outlined as an initial step toward future research. The work underscores the need to evaluate LLM-based educational applications by focusing on dialogue dynamics and pedagogical strategies.

CLJul 19, 2025
Explainable Collaborative Problem Solving Diagnosis with BERT using SHAP and its Implications for Teacher Adoption

Kester Wong, Sahan Bulathwela, Mutlu Cukurova

The use of Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) model and its variants for classifying collaborative problem solving (CPS) has been extensively explored within the AI in Education community. However, limited attention has been given to understanding how individual tokenised words in the dataset contribute to the model's classification decisions. Enhancing the explainability of BERT-based CPS diagnostics is essential to better inform end users such as teachers, thereby fostering greater trust and facilitating wider adoption in education. This study undertook a preliminary step towards model transparency and explainability by using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to examine how different tokenised words in transcription data contributed to a BERT model's classification of CPS processes. The findings suggested that well-performing classifications did not necessarily equate to a reasonable explanation for the classification decisions. Particular tokenised words were used frequently to affect classifications. The analysis also identified a spurious word, which contributed positively to the classification but was not semantically meaningful to the class. While such model transparency is unlikely to be useful to an end user to improve their practice, it can help them not to overrely on LLM diagnostics and ignore their human expertise. We conclude the workshop paper by noting that the extent to which the model appropriately uses the tokens for its classification is associated with the number of classes involved. It calls for an investigation into the exploration of ensemble model architectures and the involvement of human-AI complementarity for CPS diagnosis, since considerable human reasoning is still required for fine-grained discrimination of CPS subskills.

CLJul 19, 2025
Exploring Human-AI Complementarity in CPS Diagnosis Using Unimodal and Multimodal BERT Models

Kester Wong, Sahan Bulathwela, Mutlu Cukurova

Detecting collaborative problem solving (CPS) indicators from dialogue using machine learning techniques is a significant challenge for the field of AI in Education. Recent studies have explored the use of Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) models on transcription data to reliably detect meaningful CPS indicators. A notable advancement involved the multimodal BERT variant, AudiBERT, which integrates speech and acoustic-prosodic audio features to enhance CPS diagnosis. Although initial results demonstrated multimodal improvements, the statistical significance of these enhancements remained unclear, and there was insufficient guidance on leveraging human-AI complementarity for CPS diagnosis tasks. This workshop paper extends the previous research by highlighting that the AudiBERT model not only improved the classification of classes that were sparse in the dataset, but it also had statistically significant class-wise improvements over the BERT model for classifications in the social-cognitive dimension. However, similar significant class-wise improvements over the BERT model were not observed for classifications in the affective dimension. A correlation analysis highlighted that larger training data was significantly associated with higher recall performance for both the AudiBERT and BERT models. Additionally, the precision of the BERT model was significantly associated with high inter-rater agreement among human coders. When employing the BERT model to diagnose indicators within these subskills that were well-detected by the AudiBERT model, the performance across all indicators was inconsistent. We conclude the paper by outlining a structured approach towards achieving human-AI complementarity for CPS diagnosis, highlighting the crucial inclusion of model explainability to support human agency and engagement in the reflective coding process.

HCNov 28, 2024
Adult learners recall and recognition performance and affective feedback when learning from an AI-generated synthetic video

Zoe Ruo-Yu Li, Caswell Barry, Mutlu Cukurova

The widespread use of generative AI has led to multiple applications of AI-generated text and media to potentially enhance learning outcomes. However, there are a limited number of well-designed experimental studies investigating the impact of learning gains and affective feedback from AI-generated media compared to traditional media (e.g., text from documents and human recordings of video). The current study recruited 500 participants to investigate adult learners recall and recognition performances as well as their affective feedback on the AI-generated synthetic video, using a mixed-methods approach with a pre-and post-test design. Specifically, four learning conditions, AI-generated framing of human instructor-generated text, AI-generated synthetic videos with human instructor-generated text, human instructor-generated videos, and human instructor-generated text frame (baseline), were considered. The results indicated no statistically significant difference amongst conditions on recall and recognition performance. In addition, the participants affective feedback was not statistically significantly different between the two video conditions. However, adult learners preferred to learn from the video formats rather than text materials.

HCMay 21, 2023
M2LADS: A System for Generating MultiModal Learning Analytics Dashboards in Open Education

Álvaro Becerra, Roberto Daza, Ruth Cobos et al.

In this article, we present a Web-based System called M2LADS, which supports the integration and visualization of multimodal data recorded in learning sessions in a MOOC in the form of Web-based Dashboards. Based on the edBB platform, the multimodal data gathered contains biometric and behavioral signals including electroencephalogram data to measure learners' cognitive attention, heart rate for affective measures, visual attention from the video recordings. Additionally, learners' static background data and their learning performance measures are tracked using LOGCE and MOOC tracking logs respectively, and both are included in the Web-based System. M2LADS provides opportunities to capture learners' holistic experience during their interactions with the MOOC, which can in turn be used to improve their learning outcomes through feedback visualizations and interventions, as well as to enhance learning analytics models and improve the open content of the MOOC.

HCMay 22, 2021
A systematic review of physical-digital play technology and developmentally relevant child behaviour

Pablo E. Torres, Philip I. N. Ulrich, Veronica Cucuiat et al.

New interactive physical-digital play technologies are shaping the way children plan. These technologies refer to digital play technologies that engage children in analogue forms of behaviour, either alone or with others. Current interactive physical-digital play technologies include robots, digital agents, mixed or augmented reality devices, and smart-eye based gaming. Little is known, however, about the ways in which these technologies could promote or damage child development. This systematic review was aimed at understanding if and how these physical-digital play technologies promoted developmentally relevant behaviour in typically developing 0 to 12 year-olds. Psychology, Education, and Computer Science databases were searched producing 635 paper. A total of 31 papers met the inclusion criteria, of which 17 were of high enough quality to be included for synthesis. Results indicate that these new interactive play technologies could have a positive effect on children's developmentally relevant behaviour. The review indicated specific ways in which different behaviour were promoted. Providing information about own performance promoted self-monitoring. Slowing interactivity, play interdependency, and joint object accessibility promoted collaboration. Offering delimited choices promoted decision making. Problem solving and physical activity were promoted by requiring children to engage in them to keep playing. Four principles underpinned the ways in which physical digital play technologies afforded child behaviour. These included social expectations framing play situations, the directiveness of action regulations (inviting, guiding or forcing behaviours), the technical features of play technologies (digital play mechanics and physical characteristics), and the alignment between play goals, play technology and the play behaviours promoted.