Instructional Material
Representing Pedagogic Content Knowledge Through Rough Sets
A teacher's knowledge base consists of knowledge of mathematics content, knowledge of student epistemology, and pedagogical knowledge. It has severe implications on the understanding of student's knowledge of content, and the learning context in general. The necessity to formalize the different content knowledge in approximate senses is recognized in the education research literature. A related problem is that of coherent formalizability. Existing responsive or smart AI-based software systems do not concern themselves with meaning, and trained ones are replete with their own issues. In the present research, many issues in modeling teachers' understanding of content are identified, and a two-tier rough set-based model is proposed by the present author for the purpose of developing software that can aid the varied tasks of a teacher. The main advantage of the proposed approach is in its ability to coherently handle vagueness, granularity and multi-modality. An extended example to equational reasoning is used to demonstrate these. The paper is meant for rough set researchers intending to build logical models or develop meaning-aware AI-software to aid teachers, and education research experts.
Explainable Generative AI (GenXAI): A Survey, Conceptualization, and Research Agenda
Generative AI (GenAI) marked a shift from AI being able to recognize to AI being able to generate solutions for a wide variety of tasks. As the generated solutions and applications become increasingly more complex and multi-faceted, novel needs, objectives, and possibilities have emerged for explainability (XAI). In this work, we elaborate on why XAI has gained importance with the rise of GenAI and its challenges for explainability research. We also unveil novel and emerging desiderata that explanations should fulfill, covering aspects such as verifiability, interactivity, security, and cost. To this end, we focus on surveying existing works. Furthermore, we provide a taxonomy of relevant dimensions that allows us to better characterize existing XAI mechanisms and methods for GenAI. We discuss different avenues to ensure XAI, from training data to prompting. Our paper offers a short but concise technical background of GenAI for non-technical readers, focusing on text and images to better understand novel or adapted XAI techniques for GenAI. However, due to the vast array of works on GenAI, we decided to forego detailed aspects of XAI related to evaluation and usage of explanations. As such, the manuscript interests both technically oriented people and other disciplines, such as social scientists and information systems researchers. Our research roadmap provides more than ten directions for future investigation.
Active Learning for Control-Oriented Identification of Nonlinear Systems
Lee, Bruce D., Ziemann, Ingvar, Pappas, George J., Matni, Nikolai
Model-based reinforcement learning is an effective approach for controlling an unknown system. It is based on a longstanding pipeline familiar to the control community in which one performs experiments on the environment to collect a dataset, uses the resulting dataset to identify a model of the system, and finally performs control synthesis using the identified model. As interacting with the system may be costly and time consuming, targeted exploration is crucial for developing an effective control-oriented model with minimal experimentation. Motivated by this challenge, recent work has begun to study finite sample data requirements and sample efficient algorithms for the problem of optimal exploration in model-based reinforcement learning. However, existing theory and algorithms are limited to model classes which are linear in the parameters. Our work instead focuses on models with nonlinear parameter dependencies, and presents the first finite sample analysis of an active learning algorithm suitable for a general class of nonlinear dynamics. In certain settings, the excess control cost of our algorithm achieves the optimal rate, up to logarithmic factors. We validate our approach in simulation, showcasing the advantage of active, control-oriented exploration for controlling nonlinear systems.
Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life 2.0: Educating University Students from Different Majors
Kasinidou, Maria, Kleanthous, Styliani, Busso, Matteo, Rodas, Marcelo, Otterbacher, Jahna, Giunchiglia, Fausto
The integration With the surge in data-centric AI and its increasing capabilities, AI of AI into everyday life will only increase as new applications applications have become a part of our everyday lives. However, are developed for use in our homes, schools, governments, social misunderstandings regarding their capabilities, limitations, and lives, and workplaces. But despite the progress made, we have associated advantages and disadvantages are widespread. Consequently, also seen how serious the consequences of misunderstanding or in the university setting, there is a crucial need to educate failing to question AI decisions can be - leading to issues such as not only computer science majors but also students from various disciplines viral misinformation [8], biased systems that disproportionately about AI. In this experience report, we present an overview impact marginalized communities [1], and serious concerns about of an introductory course that we offered to students coming from data privacy. This situation highlights the need to bridge the gap different majors. Moreover, we discuss the assignments and quizzes between AI's everyday presence and people's lack of knowledge, so of the course, which provided students with a firsthand experience we can clear up misconceptions, reduce fears, and embrace a more of AI processes and insights into their learning patterns. Additionally, informed relationship with the AI that is shaping our future [4].
Deep Learning for Educational Data Science
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to penetrate ever deeper into modern life, one particular family of machine learning algorithms--namely, deep neural networks--have come to be seen as the solution to many of the challenges that have stumped more classical algorithms in the past. Modeled loosely on the structure of biological neural networks, artificial neural networks consist of chains of simple mathematical transformations that can model complex non-linear decision boundaries in large problem spaces. In particular, deep neural networks--artificial neural networks that consist of multiple layers of transformations--allow for sufficient complexity to tackle tasks in a wide variety of fields. These models are collectively and more colloquially referred to as deep learning. A growing body of education researchers are now also turning their attention to leveraging the power of deep learning algorithms for the tasks of improving and understanding human learning. Researchers in educational data science, a field consisting of various interrelated research communities such as Educational Data Mining (EDM), Learning Analytics (LA), and AI in Education (AIED), have been involved in this endeavor.
gnss_lib_py: Analyzing GNSS Data with Python
Knowles, Derek, Kanhere, Ashwin Vivek, Neamati, Daniel, Gao, Grace
This paper presents gnss lib py, a Python library used to parse, analyze, and visualize data from a variety of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) data sources. The gnss lib py library's ease of use, modular capabilities, testing coverage, and extensive documentation make it an attractive tool not only for scientific and industry users wanting a quick, out-of-the-box solution but also for advanced GNSS users developing new GNSS algorithms. Metadata Metadata for the gnss lib py library is included in the ancillary data table 1. 1. Motivation and significance Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are used globally for positioning, navigation, and timing across industries such as transportation, agriculture, power systems, and finance [1]. Several countries and political entities have developed global and regional satellite constellations such as GPS and WAAS (United States), GLONASS (Russia), BeiDou (China), Galileo (the European Union), QZSS (Japan), and IRNSS (India). GNSS technology, policy, and services are an active research area with established research journals and technical conferences.
Agile and versatile bipedal robot tracking control through reinforcement learning
Li, Jiayi, Ye, Linqi, Cheng, Yi, Liu, Houde, Liang, Bin
The remarkable athletic intelligence displayed by humans in complex dynamic movements such as dancing and gymnastics suggests that the balance mechanism in biological beings is decoupled from specific movement patterns. This decoupling allows for the execution of both learned and unlearned movements under certain constraints while maintaining balance through minor whole-body coordination. To replicate this balance ability and body agility, this paper proposes a versatile controller for bipedal robots. This controller achieves ankle and body trajectory tracking across a wide range of gaits using a single small-scale neural network, which is based on a model-based IK solver and reinforcement learning. We consider a single step as the smallest control unit and design a universally applicable control input form suitable for any single-step variation. Highly flexible gait control can be achieved by combining these minimal control units with high-level policy through our extensible control interface. To enhance the trajectory-tracking capability of our controller, we utilize a three-stage training curriculum. After training, the robot can move freely between target footholds at varying distances and heights. The robot can also maintain static balance without repeated stepping to adjust posture. Finally, we evaluate the tracking accuracy of our controller on various bipedal tasks, and the effectiveness of our control framework is verified in the simulation environment.
Apprentice Tutor Builder: A Platform For Users to Create and Personalize Intelligent Tutors
Smith, Glen, Gupta, Adit, MacLellan, Christopher
Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are effective for improving students' learning outcomes. However, their development is often complex, time-consuming, and requires specialized programming and tutor design knowledge, thus hindering their widespread application and personalization. We present the Apprentice Tutor Builder (ATB) , a platform that simplifies tutor creation and personalization. Instructors can utilize ATB's drag-and-drop tool to build tutor interfaces. Instructors can then interactively train the tutors' underlying AI agent to produce expert models that can solve problems. Training is achieved via using multiple interaction modalities including demonstrations, feedback, and user labels. We conducted a user study with 14 instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of ATB's design with end users. We found that users enjoyed the flexibility of the interface builder and ease and speed of agent teaching, but often desired additional time-saving features. With these insights, we identified a set of design recommendations for our platform and others that utilize interactive AI agents for tutor creation and customization.
Multimodal Emotion Recognition by Fusing Video Semantic in MOOC Learning Scenarios
Zhang, Yuan, Tao, Xiaomei, Ai, Hanxu, Chen, Tao, Gan, Yanling
In the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) learning scenario, the semantic information of instructional videos has a crucial impact on learners' emotional state. Learners mainly acquire knowledge by watching instructional videos, and the semantic information in the videos directly affects learners' emotional states. However, few studies have paid attention to the potential influence of the semantic information of instructional videos on learners' emotional states. To deeply explore the impact of video semantic information on learners' emotions, this paper innovatively proposes a multimodal emotion recognition method by fusing video semantic information and physiological signals. We generate video descriptions through a pre-trained large language model (LLM) to obtain high-level semantic information about instructional videos. Using the cross-attention mechanism for modal interaction, the semantic information is fused with the eye movement and PhotoPlethysmoGraphy (PPG) signals to obtain the features containing the critical information of the three modes. The accurate recognition of learners' emotional states is realized through the emotion classifier. The experimental results show that our method has significantly improved emotion recognition performance, providing a new perspective and efficient method for emotion recognition research in MOOC learning scenarios. The method proposed in this paper not only contributes to a deeper understanding of the impact of instructional videos on learners' emotional states but also provides a beneficial reference for future research on emotion recognition in MOOC learning scenarios.
On Fixing the Right Problems in Predictive Analytics: AUC Is Not the Problem
Baker, Ryan S., Bosch, Nigel, Hutt, Stephen, Zambrano, Andres F., Bowers, Alex J.
Recently, ACM FAccT published an article by Kwegyir-Aggrey and colleagues (2023), critiquing the use of AUC ROC in predictive analytics in several domains. In this article, we offer a critique of that article. Specifically, we highlight technical inaccuracies in that paper's comparison of metrics, mis-specification of the interpretation and goals of AUC ROC, the article's use of the accuracy metric as a gold standard for comparison to AUC ROC, and the article's application of critiques solely to AUC ROC for concerns that would apply to the use of any metric. We conclude with a re-framing of the very valid concerns raised in that article, and discuss how the use of AUC ROC can remain a valid and appropriate practice in a well-informed predictive analytics approach taking those concerns into account. We conclude by discussing the combined use of multiple metrics, including machine learning bias metrics, and AUC ROC's place in such an approach. Like broccoli, AUC ROC is healthy, but also like broccoli, researchers and practitioners in our field shouldn't eat a diet of only AUC ROC.