Sergio Gutierrez-Santos

Birkbeck, University of London · Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

While it is commonly accepted that Learning Analytics (LA) tools can support teachers' awareness and classroom orchestration, not all forms of pedagogy are congruent to the types of data generated by digital technologies or the algorithms used to analyse them. One such pedagogy that has been so far underserved by LA is exploratory learning, exempli...

This paper describes how graph-based modelling can be used to explore interactions associated with a change in students' affective state when they are working with an exploratory learning environment (ELE). We report on a user study with an ELE that is able to detect students' affective states from their interactions and speech. The data collected...

The paper is available at http://rdcu.be/GqPq This paper describes the design and ecologically valid evaluation of a learner model that lies at the heart of an intelligent learning environment called iTalk2Learn. A core objective of the learner model is to adapt formative feedback based on students' affective states. Types of adaptation include w...

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an affect-aware intelligent support component that is part of a learning environment known as iTalk2Learn. The intelligent support component is able to tailor feedback according to a student's affective state, which is deduced both from speech and interaction. The affect prediction is used to d...

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an affect-aware intelligent support component that is part of a learning environment known as iTalk2Learn. The intelligent support component is able to tailor feedback according to a student's affective state, which is deduced both from speech and interaction. The affect prediction is used to d...

We present and evaluate a web-based architecture for monitoring student-system interaction indicators in Exploratory Learning Environments (ELEs),using as our case study a microworld for secondary school algebra. We discuss the challenging role of teachers in exploratory learning settings and motivate the need for visualisation and notification too...

We present and evaluate a web-based architecture for monitoring student-system interaction indicators in Exploratory Learning Environments (ELEs), using as our case study a microworld for secondary school algebra. We discuss the challenging role of teachers in exploratory learning settings and motivate the need for visualisation and notification to...

We present our approach to designing and evaluating tools that can assist teachers in classroom settings where students are using Exploratory Learning Environments (ELEs), using as our case study the MiGen system, which targets 11-14 year old students' learning of algebra. We discuss the challenging role of teachers in exploratory learning settings...

This paper describes a computer-based tool that helps teachers group their students for collaborative activities in the context of secondary school math teaching, the challenge being to organize groups of students based on their recent work, so that their collaboration results in meaningful interactions. The complexity of the exploratory learning t...

This paper describes a computer-based tool that helps teachers group their students for collaborative activities in the classroom, the challenge being to organise groups of students based on their recent work so that their collaboration results in meaningful interactions. Students first work on an exploratory task individually, and then the compute...

It is widely acknowledged that many children have difficulty learning fractions. Accordingly, we are developing the iTalk2Learn system (www.italk2learn.eu), which aims to facilitate the robust learning of fractions by children in primary and early secondary education. The iTalk2Learn system integrates structured, practice-based tasks with explorato...

We describe a Wizard-of-Oz study that investigates the impact of different types of feedback on students' affective states. Our results indicate the importance of matching carefully the affective state with appropriate feedback in order to help students transition into more positive states. For example when students were confused affect boosts and...

Affective states play a significant role in students' learning behaviour. Positive affective states can enhance learning, while negative ones can inhibit it. This paper describes the development of an affective state reasoner that is able to adapt the feedback type according to students' affective states in order to evoke positive affective states...

Students' interaction data from learning environments has an inherent temporal dimension, with successive events being related through the"next event"relationship. Exploratory learning environments (ELEs), in particular, can generate very large volumes of such data, making their interpretation a challenging task. Using two mathematical microworlds...

Log files from adaptive Exploratory Learning Environments can contain prohibitively large quantities of data for visualisation and analysis. Moreover, it is hard to know in advance what data is required for analytical purposes. Using a microworld for secondary algebra as a case study, we discuss how students' interaction data can be transformed int...

Log files from adaptive Exploratory Learning Environments can contain prohibitively large quantities of data for visualisation and analysis. Moreover, it is hard to know in advance what data is required for analytical purposes. Using a microworld for secondary algebra as a case study, we discuss how students' interaction data can be transform...

Affective states play a significant role in students’ learning behaviour. Positive affective states can enhance learning, whilst negative affective states can inhibit it. This paper describes a Wizard-of-Oz study which investigates whether the way feedback is presented should change according to the affective state of a student, in order to encoura...

Affective states play a significant role in students' learning behaviour. Positive affective states can enhance learning, while negative affective states can inhibit it. This paper describes a Wizard-of-Oz study that investigates the impact of different types of feedback on students' affective states. Our results indicate the importance of providin...

Affective states play a significant role in students’ learning behaviour. Positive affective states can enhance learning, while negative ones can inhibit it. This paper describes the development of an affective state reasoner that is able to adapt the feedback type according to students’ affective states in order to evoke positive affective states...

We describe a Wizard-of-Oz study that investigates the impact of different types of feedback on students’ affective states. Our results indicate the importance of matching carefully the affective state with appropriate feedback in order to help students transition into more positive states. For example when students were confused affect boosts and...

The ‘FLIP Learning’ (Flexible, Intelligent and Personalised Learning) is an Exploratory Learning Environment (ELE) for teaching elementary programming to beginners using JavaScript. This paper presents the subsystem that is used to generate individualised real-time support to students depending on their initial misconceptions. The subsystem is inte...

The work described in this paper investigates the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to support young children’s exploration and reflection as they are working with interactive learning environments. We describe a unique ecologically valid Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) study in a classroom equipped with computers, two of which were set up to allo...

Affect plays a significant role in students’ learning behaviour. Positive affective states can enhance learning, while negative ones can inhibit it. This paper describes how we provide intelligent support in a learning platform based on affect states. We discuss two components: an affective state detector to perceive affective states in speech duri...

Learning programming is an inherently exploratory activity. Supporting this process is not a trivial task and requires resources. This paper proposes the utilisation of an intelligent Exploratory Learning Environment to enhance teaching and learning in this context with minimal cost.

The 'FLIP Learning' (Flexible, Intelligent and Personalised Learning) is an Exploratory Learning Environment (ELE) for teaching elementary programming to beginners using JavaScript. This paper presents the subsystem that is used to generate individualised real-time support to students depending on their initial misconceptions. The subsystem is inte...

This paper presents a tool that has been developed to support teaching of computer programming in practical laboratory sessions. The tool has been implemented as a plugin for the Eclipse IDE and can be deployed in a distributed manner to provide real-time monitoring of the students' activity.

The work described in this paper investigates the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to support young children’s exploration and reflection as they are working with interactive learning environments. We describe a unique ecologically valid Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) study in a classroom equipped with computers, two of which were set up to allo...

Emotions play a significant role in students’ learning behaviour. Positive emotions can enhance learning, whilst negative emotions can inhibit it. This paper describes a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) study which investigates the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) together with an emotion detector able to classify emotions from speech to support y...

The 'FLIP Learning' (Flexible, Intelligent and Personalised Learning) is an Exploratory Learning Environment (ELE) for teaching elementary programming to beginners using JavaScript. This paper presents a sub-system in FLIP that can be used to generate individualised real-time support to students depending on their initial misconceptions. The sub-sy...

The new forms of interaction afforded by innovative technology and open-ended environments provide promising opportunities for exploratory learning. Exploratory environments, however, require appropriate support to lead to meaningful learning outcomes. This paper focuses on the design and validation of intelligent exploratory environments. The goal...

The MiGen project is designing and developing an intelligent exploratory environment to support 11-14-year-old students in their learning of algebraic generalization. Deployed within the classroom, the system also provides tools to assist teachers in monitoring students' activities and progress. This paper describes the design of these Teacher Assi...

This paper charts the design and application of a system to support 11–14 year old students’ learning of algebraic generalisation, presenting students with the means to develop their understanding of the meaning of generality, see its power for mathematics and develop algebraic ways of thinking. We focus squarely on design, while taking account of...

Exploratory learning environments (ELEs) can have a positive effect on learning as long as they have proper support. However, the difficulty of supporting exploration and unstructured interaction means that there are few systems with intelligent computer-based support. The paper presents a divide-and-conquer strategy to approach the difficult tasks...

Exploratory Learning Environments allow learners to use different strategies for solving the same problem. However, not all possible strategies are known in advance to the designer or teacher and, even if they were, considerable time and effort would be required to introduce them in the knowledge base. We have previously proposed a learner modellin...

Similar to other exploratory learning activities, ensuring that students' interactions with a mathematical microworld are effective requires a significant pedagogic support. This paper presents the design of the intelligent support func-tionalities of a mathematical microworld: eXpresser, that supports 11–14 year old students to develop algebraic w...

Educational technologies have experienced an impressive change in recent years. This, in turn, is having a clear impact on educational practices and processes. Two important consequences for lifelong learning experts are the new possibilities of reusing learning material from different sources, and the need of adapting learning resources to differe...

The design of learner modelling components for Exploratory Learning Environments (ELEs) presents a significant challenge, partic-ularly when pertaining to ill-defined tasks and knowledge domain. We argue that representing a learner's knowledge just in relation to concepts is not adequate in such cases. We focus particularly on microworlds and prese...

Ensuring that students’ interactions with Exploratory Learning Environments are effective in terms of learning requires a significant pedagogic support from teachers. The challenge therefore is to develop intelligent systems which would be entrusted to support either the student directly when appropriate, or provide information to teachers, assisti...

Detecting and automating repetitive patterns in users’ actions has several applications. One of them, often overlooked, is supporting learning. This paper presents an approach for detecting repetitive actions in students who are interacting with an exploratory environment for mathematical generalisation. The approach is based on the use of two slid...

In exploratory learning environments, learners can use different strategies to solve a problem. To the designer or teacher, however, not all these strategies are known in advance and, even if they were, introducing them in the knowledge base would involve considerable time and effort. In previous work, we have proposed a case-based knowledge repres...

This paper focuses on microworlds, a special type of Exploratory Learning Environment, where students freely interact with the system to create their own models and constructions. Most microworlds developed so far provide integrated scaffolds to help students’ learning process, but the nature of the interaction makes it difficult to design, develop...

This paper presents a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to provide adaptive support in microworlds. Interaction in microworlds is complex and unstructured, making the analysis of student behaviour difficult and the provision of computer-based feedback challenging. Our approach starts with the ellicitation of expected solutions to microworld tasks...

This paper presents a methodology for the design of intelligent learning environments. We recognise that in the educational technology field, theory development and system-design should be integrated and rely on an iterative process that addresses: (a) the difficulty to elicit precise, concise, and operationalised knowledge from ‘experts’ and (b) t...

One of the difficulties that self-directed learners face on their learning process is choosing the right learning resources. One of the goals of adaptive educational systems is helping students in finding the best set of learning resources for them. Adaptive systems try to infer the students’ characteristics and store them in a user model whose info...

Exploratory Learning Environments (ELE) are virtual environments that adhere to constructivist theories of learning emphasizing learner control. However, research suggests that lack of sufficient explicit support may undermine their effectiveness. Advanced technologies provide opportunities to supply learners with the right information at the right...

In the complex world of e-learning, there are many aspects to consider: administrative issues (e.g. keeping track of the courses of a student), technical issues (e.g. packaging learning content in a platform-independent way), and academic issues. This chapter concentrates on one of the latter, namely the problem of adaptive sequencing. This problem...

Exploratory learning allows learners to solve a problem using different strategies. However, only a limited number of these strategies is known in advance and can be introduced by the designer and/or teacher. In previous work we have proposed a case-based knowledge representation, modelling the learner behaviour as simple cases and collection of ca...

This paper presents a system that connects students with complementary profiles, so they can interchange knowledge and help each other. The profile of the students is built by a modified intelligent tutoring system. Every time the user profile is updated, a gateway updates the profile stored in the user’s personal terminal using a web-service based...

In the last years, there is a rising interest in exploratory learning environments, due to their positive effects on learning. However, their lack of structure makes the provision of intelligent support and feedback a very challenging problem. This workshop tries to shed some light on several of the aspects of this complicated issue. This preface m...

In this paper, we seek to broaden the sense in which the word ‘dynamic’ is applied to computational media. Focussing exclusively on the problem of design, the paper describes work in progress, which aims to build a computational system that supports students’ engagement with mathematical generalisation in a collaborative classroom environment by he...

Book synopsis: This publication covers papers presented at the Artificial Intelligence in Education conference 2009 (AIED). AIED2009 is part of an ongoing series of biennial international conferences for top quality research in intelligent systems and cognitive science for educational computing applications. The conference provides opportunities fo...

This paper presents a method for the design of intelligent support for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) systems. In particular it deals with challenges that arise from the need to elicit precise, concise, and operationalised knowledge from ‘experts’ as a means of informing the design of intelligent components of TEL systems. We emphasise that the...

Book synopsis: Brand New Book. This publication covers papers presented at the Artificial Intelligence in Education conference 2009 (AIED). AIED2009 is part of an ongoing series of biennial international conferences for top quality research in intelligent systems and cognitive science for educational computing applications. The conference provides...

In this paper, we seek to broaden the sense in which the word ‘dynamic’ is applied to computational media. Focusing exclusively on the problem of design, the paper describes work in progress, which aims to build a computational system that supports students’ engagement with mathematical generalisation in a collaborative classroom environment by hel...

We present a brief description of the design of a diagram- based system that supports the development of thinking about mathe- matical generalisation. Within the software, the user constructs a depen- dency graph that explicitly shows the relationships between components of a task. Using this dependency graph, the user manipulates graphical visuali...

Expressing generality, recognising and analysing patterns and articulating structure is a complex task and one that is invariably problematic for students. Nonetheless, very few systems exist that support learners explicitly in the process of mathematical generalisation. We have addressed this by developing a novel environment that supports users i...

Exploratory learning environments give a lot of freedom to learners to explore a task on their own. Although this can have a positive effect on their learning, the lack of structure makes it difficult to provide intelligent support on these system. Besides, the open nature of these systems makes it harder to compare how support is provided in diffe...

Although the notion of generality is central in mathematics and science, beingable to identify and express general patterns and/or articulate structures is one of the main difficulties for children when they learn mathematics. This paper presents a step towards a set of tools that addresses this problem by encouraging students to connect between ac...

This paper presents an approach to create adaptive web-based educative systems that can be automatically audited by means of standard web testing tools. The auditing tool takes the role of a learner interacting with the system, checking that no errors are present. The tool can communicate with the exercises to know the correct answers to them; a co...

This chapter provides an overview of the use of swarm-intelligence techniques in the field of e-learning. Swarm intelligence is an artificial intelligence technique inspired by the behavior of social insects. Taking into account that the Internet connects a high number of users with a negligible delay, some of those techniques can be combined with...

This paper describes the process of translating an adaptive sequencing strategy designed using Sequencing Graphs to the semantics of IMS Learning Design. The relevance of this contribution is twofold. First, it combines the expressive power and flexibility of Sequencing Graphs, and the interoperability capabilities of IMS. Second, it shows some imp...

A data mining and visualization tool for the discovery of student trails in web-based educational systems is presented and described. The tool uses graphs to visualize results, allowing non-expert users, such as course instructors, to interpret its output. Several experiments have been conducted, using real data collected from a web-based intellige...

Few systems exist that support learners explicitly in the process of learning mathematical generalisation. This paper presents the eXpresser, part of a new system that seeks to address this issue by providing the user with a microworld for the construction and analysis of general patterns. The design includes the provision of sophisticated intellig...

Few systems exist that support learners explicitly in the process of learning mathematical generalisation. This paper presents the eXpresser, part of a new system that seeks to address this issue by providing the user with a microworld for the construction and analysis of general patterns. After a brief description of its main features, we discuss...

A swarm may be defined as a population of interacting elements that is able to optimize some global objective through collaborative search of a space (Kennedy, 2001). The elements may be very simple machines or very complex living beings, but there are two restrictions to be observed: They are limited to local interactions; usually the interaction...

E-learning has evolved very rapidly in recent years, from a first stage in which a set of documents were simply made available to the students in an electronic platform, to current tools that integrate not only academic but also administrative aspects in educational institutions. Today, learning is possible virtually anywhere, anytime and new scena...

The IMS Learning Design specification aims at capturing the complete learning flow of courses, without being restricted to a particular pedagogical model. Such flow description for a course, called a Unit of Learning, must be able to be reproduced in different systems using a so called run-time environment. In the last few years there has been seve...

This paper describes a possible application of swarm intelligence techniques in e-learning: an auditing tool for pedagogical planning. Swarm intelligence techniques can be applied to a web system thanks to the fact that the available online material can be organized in a graph by means of hyperlinks. In this case, the swarm that moves on the graph...

Web-based education (WBE) has seen in recent years a significant increase both in its functionality as well as possible scenarios. After a first stage in which these systems offered mainly content management and course management capabilities, systems now offer solutions that cover pedagogical aspects such as activity sequencing. This chapter prese...

This paper describes an initiative aimed at adapting swarm intelligence techniques (in particular, Ant Colony Optimization) to an e-learning environment, thanks to the fact that the available online ma- terial can be organized in a graph by means of hyperlinks of educational topics. In this case, the agents that move on the graph are students who u...

E-learning has evolved very rapidly in recent years, from a first stage in which a set of documents were simply made available to the students in an electronic platform, to current tools that integrate not only academic but also administrative aspects in educational institutions. Today, learning is possible virtually anywhere, anytime and new scena...

In this document a platform for the development of ITSs is presented. The objective of this architecture is to provide a tutoring platform with a modular structure suitable to accommodate different sequencing paradigms through a common functional interface. The platform has been tested with positive results.

One of the challenges of adaptive hypermedia educational (AHE) systems is that of adapting the sequencing of learning units presented to the student. One approach is to model the set of possible sequencings with a graph, but the process of designing and maintaining the graph may be tedious and error-prone. This paper presents some ideas to overcome...

An adaptive tutoring system for an Operating System course is presented. The architecture, based on sequencing graphs, that supports an adaptive sequencing of the learning units is described. The content structure is presented as well. The system is now in use in regular university courses and results of this experience will be published in the fut...

A web-based intelligent tutoring system with some swarm intelligence capabilities is presented. It is based on a for- mer one which led to good results in experiments with real students. Adaptation to the students, necessary for a more efective learning experience is achieved through two means: the use of sequencing graphs and swarm in- telligence...

An adaptive tutoring system is presented based on hierarchical graphs that capture the sequencing of a set of learning objects depending on how students interact with them. The use of hierarchy allows the definition of complex transition structures over arbitrarily large sets of objects. Using this approach a tutoring tool has been designed and tes...

One of the main challenges when developing Elearning systems is the capability to adapt the learning experience to different users. This adaptability requires a flexible scheme for sequencing the learning material to different students. Content sequencing has been recently included in standard- ization efforts such as SCORM or IMS, namely IMS Sim-...

Not Available