Learning Management
Online Learning for Vibration Suppression in Physical Robot Interaction using Power Tools
Solak, Gokhan, Ajoudani, Arash
Strong and persistent vibration is harmful for both human and machine health. In humans, long exposure to vibrating power tools may induce health problems, such as the hand-arm vibration syndrome [1]. Instead in machines, vibration undermines the precision in control applications and may lead to mechanical wear [2, 3]. For these reasons, vibration suppression is an important capability for employing collaborative robots in new environments such as construction sites [4] where the vibration is a common phenomenon. This work builds on our preliminary results [5], in which we studied the feedforward vibration suppression in human-robot collaboration (HRC). The main outcome of our study was that feedforward force control increases the vibration suppression performance while maintaining a compliant impedance profile, in comparison to the variable impedance control (VIC) approach which was previously used in HRC literature for dealing with vibrations [6, 7]. We successfully applied the BMFLC algorithm [8] in our high-dof robotic arm for learning and suppressing the vibration online. In this work, we extend both our theoretical approach and experiments.
Designing for Self-Regulation in Informal Programming Learning: Insights from a Storytelling-Centric Approach
Alghamdi, Sami Saeed, Bull, Christopher, Kharrufa, Ahmed
--Many people learn programming independently from online resources and often report struggles in achieving their personal learning goals. Learners frequently describe their experiences as isolating and frustrating, challenged by abundant uncertainties, information overload, and distraction, compounded by limited guidance. At the same time, social media serves as a personal space where many engage in diverse self-regulation practices, including help-seeking, using external memory aids (e.g., self-notes), self-reflection, emotion regulation, and self-motivation. For instance, learners often mark achievements and set milestones through their posts. In response, we developed a system consisting of a web platform and browser extensions to support self-regulation online. The design aims to add learner-defined structure to otherwise unstructured experiences and bring meaning to curation and reflection activities by translating them into learning stories with AI-generated feedback. We position storytelling as an integrative approach to design that connects resource curation, reflective and sensemaking practice, and narrative practices learners already use across social platforms. We recruited 15 informal programming learners who are regular social media users to engage with the system in a self-paced manner; participation concluded upon submitting a learning story and survey. We used three quantitative scales and a qualitative survey to examine users' characteristics and perceptions of the system's support for their self-regulation. User feedback suggests the system's viability as a self-regulation aid. Learners particularly valued in-situ reflection, automated story feedback, and video annotation, while other features received mixed views. We highlight perceived benefits, friction points, and design opportunities for future AI-augmented self-regulation tools. Many people interested in programming take a self-directed approach to learning, drawing on a wide range of informal online resources ( e.g., [1]-[4]). According to a 2024 Stack Overflow survey, programming learners engage more frequently with open-ended, nonlinear materials such as forums, tutorials, technical documentation, and social media platforms (e.g., Y ouTube, Twitch, and X) than with textbooks or structured e-learning courses (i.e., MOOCs) [5].
Failure Risk Prediction in a MOOC: A Multivariate Time Series Analysis Approach
Ayady, Anass El, Devanne, Maxime, Forestier, Germain, Mawas, Nour El
MOOCs offer free and open access to a wide audience, but completion rates remain low, often due to a lack of personalized content. To address this issue, it is essential to predict learner performance in order to provide tailored feedback. Behavioral traces-such as clicks and events-can be analyzed as time series to anticipate learners' outcomes. This work compares multivariate time series classification methods to identify at-risk learners at different stages of the course (after 5, 10 weeks, etc.). The experimental evaluation, conducted on the Open University Learning Analytics Dataset (OULAD), focuses on three courses: two in STEM and one in SHS. Preliminary results show that the evaluated approaches are promising for predicting learner failure in MOOCs. The analysis also suggests that prediction accuracy is influenced by the amount of recorded interactions, highlighting the importance of rich and diverse behavioral data.
Awesome-OL: An Extensible Toolkit for Online Learning
Liu, Zeyi, Hu, Songqiao, Han, Pengyu, Liu, Jiaming, He, Xiao
In recent years, online learning has attracted increasing attention due to its adaptive capability to process streaming and non-stationary data. To facilitate algorithm development and practical deployment in this area, we introduce Awesome-OL, an extensible Python toolkit tailored for online learning research. Awesome-OL integrates state-of-the-art algorithm, which provides a unified framework for reproducible comparisons, curated benchmark datasets, and multi-modal visualization. Built upon the scikit-multiflow open-source infrastructure, Awesome-OL emphasizes user-friendly interactions without compromising research flexibility or extensibility.
A Comprehensive Review of AI-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Applications and Challenges
Zerkouk, Meriem, Mihoubi, Miloud, Chikhaoui, Belkacem
AI-based Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have significant potential to transform teaching and learning. As efforts continue to design, develop, and integrate ITS into educational contexts, mixed results about their effectiveness have emerged. This paper provides a comprehensive review to understand how ITS operate in real educational settings and to identify the associated challenges in their application and evaluation. We use a systematic literature review method to analyze numerous qualified studies published from 2010 to 2025, examining domains such as pedagogical strategies, NLP, adaptive learning, student modeling, and domain-specific applications of ITS. The results reveal a complex landscape regarding the effectiveness of ITS, highlighting both advancements and persistent challenges. The study also identifies a need for greater scientific rigor in experimental design and data analysis. Based on these findings, suggestions for future research and practical implications are proposed.
Multimodal Fine-grained Reasoning for Post Quality Evaluation
Guo, Xiaoxu, Liang, Siyan, Cui, Yachao, Zhou, Juxiang, Wang, Lei, Cao, Han
Accurately assessing post quality requires complex relational reasoning to capture nuanced topic-post relationships. However, existing studies face three major limitations: (1) treating the task as unimodal categorization, which fails to leverage multimodal cues and fine-grained quality distinctions; (2) introducing noise during deep multimodal fusion, leading to misleading signals; and (3) lacking the ability to capture complex semantic relationships like relevance and comprehensiveness. To address these issues, we propose the Multimodal Fine-grained Topic-post Relational Reasoning (MFTRR) framework, which mimics human cognitive processes. MFTRR reframes post-quality assessment as a ranking task and incorporates multimodal data to better capture quality variations. It consists of two key modules: (1) the Local-Global Semantic Correlation Reasoning Module, which models fine-grained semantic interactions between posts and topics at both local and global levels, enhanced by a maximum information fusion mechanism to suppress noise; and (2) the Multi-Level Evidential Relational Reasoning Module, which explores macro- and micro-level relational cues to strengthen evidence-based reasoning. We evaluate MFTRR on three newly constructed multimodal topic-post datasets and the public Lazada-Home dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that MFTRR significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, achieving up to 9.52% NDCG@3 improvement over the best unimodal method on the Art History dataset.
Ranking-Based At-Risk Student Prediction Using Federated Learning and Differential Features
Yoneda, Shunsuke, Švábenský, Valdemar, Li, Gen, Deguchi, Daisuke, Shimada, Atsushi
Digital textbooks are widely used in various educational contexts, such as university courses and online lectures. Such textbooks yield learning log data that have been used in numerous educational data mining (EDM) studies for student behavior analysis and performance prediction. However, these studies have faced challenges in integrating confidential data, such as academic records and learning logs, across schools due to privacy concerns. Consequently, analyses are often conducted with data limited to a single school, which makes developing high-performing and generalizable models difficult. This study proposes a method that combines federated learning and differential features to address these issues. Federated learning enables model training without centralizing data, thereby preserving student privacy. Differential features, which utilize relative values instead of absolute values, enhance model performance and generalizability. To evaluate the proposed method, a model for predicting at-risk students was trained using data from 1,136 students across 12 courses conducted over 4 years, and validated on hold-out test data from 5 other courses. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method addresses privacy concerns while achieving performance comparable to that of models trained via centralized learning in terms of Top-n precision, nDCG, and PR-AUC. Furthermore, using differential features improved prediction performance across all evaluation datasets compared to non-differential approaches. The trained models were also applicable for early prediction, achieving high performance in detecting at-risk students in earlier stages of the semester within the validation datasets.
Bridging MOOCs, Smart Teaching, and AI: A Decade of Evolution Toward a Unified Pedagogy
-- Over the past decade, higher education ha s evolved through three distinct paradigms: the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the integration of Smart Teaching technologies into classrooms, and the rise of AI - enhanced learning . Each paradigm is intended to address specific challenges in traditional education: MOOCs enable ubiquitous access to learning resources; Smart Teaching supports real - time interaction with data - driven insights; and generative AI offers personalized feedback and on - demand content generation. However, the se paradigms are often implemented in isol ation due to the ir disparate technological origins and policy - driven adoption . This paper examines the origins, strengths, and limitations of each paradigm, and advocates a unified pedagogical perspective that synthesizes their complementary affordances. W e propose a three - layer instructional framework that combines the scalability of MOOCs, the responsiveness of Smart Teaching, and the adaptivity of AI . To demonstrate its feasibility, we present a curriculum design for a project - based course . The findings highlight the framework's potential to enhance learner engagement, support instructors, and enable personalized yet scalable learning. T he landscape of higher education h as undergone multiple waves of digital transformation over the past decade .
Imitating Mistakes in a Learning Companion AI Agent for Online Peer Learning
Moribe, Sosui, Ushiama, Taketoshi
In recent years, peer learning has gained attention as a method that promotes spontaneous thinking among learners, and its effectiveness has been confirmed by numerous studies. This study aims to develop an AI Agent as a learning companion that enables peer learning anytime and anywhere. However, peer learning between humans has various limitations, and it is not always effective. Effective peer learning requires companions at the same proficiency levels. In this study, we assume that a learner's peers with the same proficiency level as the learner make the same mistakes as the learner does and focus on English composition as a specific example to validate this approach.
Extension OL-MDISF: Online Learning from Mix-Typed, Drifted, and Incomplete Streaming Features
Zhuo, Shengda, Wu, Di, He, Yi, Huang, Shuqiang, Wu, Xindong
Online learning, where feature spaces can change over time, offers a flexible learning paradigm that has attracted considerable attention. However, it still faces three significant challenges. First, the heterogeneity of real-world data streams with mixed feature types presents challenges for traditional parametric modeling. Second, data stream distributions can shift over time, causing an abrupt and substantial decline in model performance. Additionally, the time and cost constraints make it infeasible to label every data instance in a supervised setting. To overcome these challenges, we propose a new algorithm Online Learning from Mix-typed, Drifted, and Incomplete Streaming Features (OL-MDISF), which aims to relax restrictions on both feature types, data distribution, and supervision information. Our approach involves utilizing copula models to create a comprehensive latent space, employing an adaptive sliding window for detecting drift points to ensure model stability, and establishing label proximity information based on geometric structural relationships. To demonstrate the model's efficiency and effectiveness, we provide theoretical analysis and comprehensive experimental results. This extension serves as a standalone technical reference to the original OL-MDISF method. It provides (i) a contextual analysis of OL-MDISF within the broader landscape of online learning, covering recent advances in mixed-type feature modeling, concept drift adaptation, and weak supervision, and (ii) a comprehensive set of experiments across 14 real-world datasets under two types of drift scenarios. These include full CER trends, ablation studies, sensitivity analyses, and temporal ensemble dynamics. We hope this document can serve as a reproducible benchmark and technical resource for researchers working on nonstationary, heterogeneous, and weakly supervised data streams.