Brian De La Cruz, Aaron Y. Zhao, Maitrey Gramopadhye +4cs.GR cs.CV cs.HC
In this study, we examined whether current 3D reconstruction methods can support the creation of realistic holographic representations of laboratory objects for educational use. In this regard, we compared four approaches: photogrammetry, a neural radiance field (NeRF)-based method, Gaussian splatting, and LiDAR. These methods were used to generate holographic models of common laboratory items and their fidelity was evaluated by graduate students. Participants assessed the models for shape, color, texture, and visual defects using a repeated-measures design. Across objects, the NeRF-based method produced the most consistently high-fidelity representations, particularly for transparent, reflective, or low-texture items that were difficult to capture with other approaches. Shape and color were generally reproduced more successfully than texture, suggesting that some visual properties remain more challenging to represent accurately in educational holograms. Beyond identifying the strengths and limitations of each reconstruction method, the study demonstrates a practical workflow for creating immersive learning objects that may support pre-laboratory preparation, spatial reasoning, and student engagement in AR/MR-based educational environments. These findings offer design-relevant insights for educators and researchers developing immersive digital learning experiences.
Omar Alsaiari, Nilufar Baghaei, Jason M. Lodge +3cs.AI
Feedback processes strongly influence student learning, yet their educational value depends on addressing two distinct challenges: providing high-quality, timely, and individualised feedback at scale, and supporting students to interpret, evaluate, and act on that feedback productively. Generative AI offers a credible means of addressing the provision challenge, but students' uptake of AI-generated feedback remains limited. We conducted a large-scale quasi-experimental sequential cohort study comparing three AI-mediated feedback workflows across 13,037 students and 51,296 student-authored resources. In Directed Feedback (n = 3,723), students received AI-generated feedback comments without structured support. In Self-Directed Feedback (n = 3,951), students could initiate optional AI-supported dialogue. In Enacted Feedback (n = 5,363), students were prompted to select feedback suggestions, evaluate their relevance, and engage in targeted AI-supported dialogue anchored to those selections. Enacted Feedback was associated with significantly higher uptake of AI-generated feedback, with an estimated probability of 26.2%, compared with 14.1% for Directed Feedback and 0.1% for Self-Directed Feedback. It was also associated with significantly higher self-assessment confidence and submitted-work quality than both comparison conditions. These findings suggest that the educational value of AI-generated feedback depends not only on the quality of feedback comments, but also on workflows that actively structure students' enactment of feedback literacy processes. The results have implications for the design of AI feedback systems that position learners as active participants in judgement, dialogue, and improvement rather than passive recipients of comments. Overall findings show that AI access alone is insufficient; purposeful workflow design is central to productive feedback use.
This innovative practice full paper describes an AI-powered knowledge graph platform that connects SQL errors to conceptual gaps in undergraduate and graduate database systems courses. Students learning Structured Query Language (SQL) frequently struggle with semantic errors that reflect conceptual misunderstandings rather than syntax mistakes. A query may execute yet return incorrect results due to gaps spanning related concepts; misusing NATURAL JOIN in place of an explicit subquery reflects intertwined misunderstandings of JOIN, GROUP BY, and HAVING. Autograding systems detect correctness but provide surface-level feedback without connecting errors to the conceptual structure of the course. Educational knowledge graph research has shown the value of structured concept representations for curriculum analysis and adaptive learning, but these approaches have not been applied to diagnosing SQL misconceptions from student submissions. We present a platform that automatically extracts course concepts and relations from instructional materials, links them to student submission traces through a graph database, and classifies errors at the concept level. We evaluate the platform across two database systems courses at two universities, one using real student submissions and one using simulated submissions, through an expert study with five participants and an automated evaluation using an LLM as a judge. Results show that 95.7% of extracted nodes were rated as at least somewhat valid and 63.8% of triplets were rated fully correct. Expert feedback confirmed that the generated graphs align with instructor mental models and that mapping errors to course concepts provides actionable diagnostic insight; evaluating impact on student learning remains future work.
Steve Woollaston, Brendan Flanagan, Yuko Toyokawa +1cs.CY cs.CL
Generative AI chatbots promise to transform English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing by providing immediate, personalised feedback. However, their pedagogical value depends on how learners engage with them - a process often treated as a "black box." This study uses Transition Network Analysis to model the temporal dynamics of Japanese EFL learners using "Penny," an LLM-powered writing chatbot. Analysis of over 4,500 writing sessions and 21,000 chatbot interactions reveals two dominant behavioural loops: a "Revision Loop," where feedback leads directly to successful error correction, and a "Chat Loop," where learners engage in sustained dialogue with the chatbot following feedback. Crucially, EFL proficiency significantly shapes interaction: high-proficiency learners engage more in open dialogue and negotiation with the chatbot, while low-proficiency learners rely more heavily on repetitive corrective feedback cycles. The findings demonstrate that AI-scaffolded writing is a non-linear, dialogic process and highlight the need for differentiated chatbot design to move beyond simple error correction and foster deeper cognitive engagement for all learners.
Student burnout is highly prevalent in higher education, with reported rates ranging from 12% to over 70% and consistently exceeding those of the working population - yet it is typically identified only retrospectively, after academic decline has already occurred. A contributing factor is that students have little structured visibility into their own study behaviour, and existing productivity tools record activity without interpreting it. This paper presents RIACT (Record, Insight, Analyze, Coach, Track), a web-based application that combines structured study session logging with a hybrid AI architecture to surface personalized insights and early burnout signals. Students log sessions by location and time; the system computes net focus time by accounting for breaks, detects burnout signals through transparent, deterministic rules operating on week-over-week behavioural comparisons, and uses a large language model - constrained to a fixed output schema - to contextualize patterns and generate personalized recommendations. The design embeds responsible AI principles throughout: warnings are governed by auditable rules rather than model judgement, all output is framed as an observation rather than a diagnosis and data collection is limited to self-logged behavioural fields. We describe the system's design rationale, situate it within the literature on student burnout and explainable AI in education and propose an evaluation framework for validating its behavioural signals against established burnout instruments.
Kristina Schaaff, Quintus Stierstorfer, Valerie Heckelcs.AI cs.HC
In this study, we present a large-scale descriptive analysis of the use of an AI-based learning assistant (Syntea) in higher education. Based on objective log data from 77,543 students enrolled in distance studies, we examine usage patterns across gender, age group, study cluster, degree, and study mode. To date, existing research on educational chatbots has largely relied on comparatively small samples and self-reported survey data, while large-scale evidence on actual usage behavior remains limited. Our findings show that Syntea is already embedded in the study routines of many learners, but that usage differs across demographic and structural contexts. By identifying these patterns, our study provides an empirical basis for the further development of AI-based learning support and contributes a large-scale analysis of educational chatbot usage in higher education.
Understanding speaker confidence is crucial in educational settings, as it can enhance personalised feedback and improve learning outcomes. This study introduces a novel framework for detecting speaker confidence by integrating human-engineered features with embeddings from the Whisper encoder. To address data limitations, a pseudo-labelling technique is employed to expand the labelled dataset, allowing the model to learn from both human-annotated and model-generated labels. The framework combines traditional speech features including pitch, volume, rate of speech, and the presence of disfluencies and stress, with Whisper embeddings, and uses a co-attention mechanism to fuse these representations and achieve an overall accuracy of 75%. This study contributes to advancing speech analysis, enabling applications that support personalised learning and speaking skill development.
Jesse Yusuf Chan, Mengyao Chen, Yang Hong +3cs.CY cs.AI
STEM education faces challenges in personalization and interdisciplinary integration. AI technology has brought new possibilities, but the mechanisms by which AI reshapes the STEM education ecosystem require systematic investigation. This study employs bibliometric methods to analyze 242 publications from 2015-2025, constructing knowledge maps to reveal the evolutionary trajectory. The findings show that the field has transformed from intelligent tutoring systems to inquiry-based learning and computational thinking cultivation driven by LLMs. AI's key contribution lies in providing intelligent scaffolding that lowers the threshold for understanding knowledge. In this sense, AI is a core driving force promoting its shift from knowledge transmission to capability development.
Effective peer feedback is essential for developing critical reflection in higher education, yet its impact is often limited by the inconsistent quality of student-generated comments. This paper presents the implementation and deployment of AICoFe (AI-based Collaborative Feedback), a system designed to bridge this gap through a human-centered AI approach. We describe a modular architecture that orchestrates a multi-LLM pipeline, utilizing GPT-4.1-mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Llama 3.1, to synthesize quantitative rubric data and qualitative observations into coherent, actionable feedback. Key to the system is a "teacher-in-the-loop" mediation workflow, where educators use specialized Learning Analytics dashboards to curate and refine AI-generated drafts before delivery. Furthermore, we detail the underlying data infrastructure, which employs a hybrid SQL and MongoDB strategy to ensure traceability and manage semi-structured feedback versions.
Alvaro Becerra, Diego Gomez, Ruth Coboscs.HC cs.AI cs.SE
Providing timely and actionable feedback on oral presentation slides is challenging in higher education, particularly in large classes where teachers cannot realistically deliver detailed formative feedback before students present. This paper introduces AISSA (AI-based Student Slides Analysis tool), a web-based system that combines large language models (LLMs) and Learning Analytics dashboards to support scalable, rubric-based feedback on presentation slides. AISSA allows students to upload their slide decks prior to an oral presentation and automatically receive quantitative scores and qualitative feedback based on teacher-defined evaluation rubrics. The system analyzes both slide-level features and slide content, generates structured feedback through an LLM (ChatGPT 5.2), and presents the results through interactive dashboards for students and teachers. We tested AISSA on a pilot deployment with 46 undergraduate students in a real academic setting. The results indicate that AISSA is technically reliable, economically feasible, and perceived by students as useful for iterative slide improvement. These findings suggest that combining LLM-based analysis with Learning Analytics dashboards is a promising approach for supporting formative feedback on presentation slides at scale.
Jennifer M. Reddig, Glen R. Smith, Sanaz Ahmadzadeh Siyahrood +16cs.CY cs.AI
AI-powered educational technologies have demonstrated measurable benefits for learners, but their design and evaluation have largely centered on K-12 contexts. As a result, many AI-supported learning systems remain poorly aligned with the needs, constraints, and goals of adult learners. To better understand how AI systems function in adult education, this paper examines the deployment of several AI learning technologies developed within a multidisciplinary, national research institute in the United States focused on adult learning and online education. Drawing on longitudinal deployment data, we conducted a reflexive thematic analysis to identify recurring challenges and design considerations across systems. These insights were synthesized into a set of 19 design guidelines intended to inform future AI-supported adult learning technologies. We demonstrate the utility of these guidelines through a heuristic evaluation of the deployed systems. Lastly, we present a guideline exploration tool that aids in the ideation of technologies by connecting the guidelines to stakeholder statements surfaced in the analysis process.
Sherzod Turaev, Mary John, Jaloliddin Rustamov +4cs.AI
Understanding learners' cognitive and affective states underpins adaptive educational systems and effective teaching. Although research links nonverbal cues to internal states, no framework calibrates them to evidence. We present the Nonverbal Syntax Framework, drawn from a systematic review of 908 studies and 17,043 cue-state mappings (Turaev et al., 2026). The framework addresses three challenges: terminological fragmentation (behaviors described inconsistently), evidence heterogeneity (single observations to replicated findings), and state ambiguity (similar patterns indicating multiple states). Normalization consolidated 5,537 state labels into 2,010 canonical states (63.7%) and 11,521 cues into 6,434 normalized cues (44.2%) across nine behavioral channels. Dual-evidence assessment separately evaluates Component Evidence (coverage of cues and states) and Relationship Evidence (independent studies per cue-state link). 52% of "Very High" relationships rest on one paper, so separation enables calibrated rather than overconfident inference from preliminary findings. The framework's four levels comprise a Cue Vocabulary of 6,434 indicators classified as observable/instrumental; State Clusters linking 2,010 states to indicative cues; State Profiles with multimodal behavioral signatures and actionable specifications; and Discriminative Analysis distinguishing 1,215 confusable state pairs. We identify 480 actionable R1-R4 relationships (three or more independent papers), the replicated core of six decades of research, covering 35.5% of mappings across 47 key learning states and 111 distinct indicators. The remaining 91.5% (9,653 single-paper findings) form exploratory hypotheses for replication. The framework gives researchers an empirical foundation for identifying gaps, practitioners evidence-based tools for state inference, and technologists validated features for multimodal detection.
Adaptive programming practice often relies on fixed libraries of worked examples and practice problems, which require substantial authoring effort and may not correspond well to the logical errors and partial solutions students produce while writing code. As a result, students may receive learning content that does not directly address the concepts they are working to understand, while instructors must either invest additional effort in expanding content libraries or accept a coarse level of personalization. We present an approach for knowledge-component (KC) guided educational content generation using pattern-based KCs extracted from student code. Given a problem statement and student submissions, our pipeline extracts recurring structural KC patterns from students' code through AST-based analysis and uses them to condition a generative model. In this study, we apply this approach to worked example generation, and compare baseline and KC-conditioned outputs through expert evaluation. Results suggest that KC-conditioned generation improves topical focus and relevance to learners' underlying logical errors, providing evidence that KC-based steering of generative models can support personalized learning at scale.