Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated feedback in educational settings has garnered considerable attention due to its potential to enhance learning outcomes. However, a comprehensive understanding of the linguistic characteristics of AI-generated feedback, including readability, lexical richness, and adaptability across varying challenge levels, remains limited. This study delves into the linguistic and structural attributes of feedback generated by Google's Gemini 1.5-flash text model for computer science multiple-choice questions (MCQs). A dataset of over 1,200 MCQs was analyzed, considering three difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard) and three feedback tones (supportive, neutral, challenging). Key linguistic metrics, such as length, readability scores (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level), vocabulary richness, and lexical density, were computed and examined. A fine-tuned RoBERTa-based multi-task learning (MTL) model was trained to predict these linguistic properties, achieving a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 2.0 for readability and 0.03 for vocabulary richness. The findings reveal significant interaction effects between feedback tone and question difficulty, demonstrating the dynamic adaptation of AI-generated feedback within diverse educational contexts. These insights contribute to the development of more personalized and effective AI-driven feedback mechanisms, highlighting the potential for improved learning outcomes while underscoring the importance of ethical considerations in their design and deployment.

Learning a reward model (RM) from human preferences has been an important component in aligning large language models (LLMs). The canonical setup of learning RMs from pairwise preference data is rooted in the classic Bradley-Terry (BT) model that accepts binary feedback, i.e., the label being either Response 1 is better than Response 2, or the opposite. Such a setup inevitably discards potentially useful samples (such as "tied" between the two responses) and loses more fine-grained information (such as "slightly better"). In this paper, we propose a framework for learning RMs under ordinal feedback which generalizes the case of binary preference feedback to any arbitrary granularity. Specifically, we first identify a marginal unbiasedness condition, which generalizes the assumption of the BT model in the existing binary feedback setting. The condition validates itself via the sociological concept of the wisdom of the crowd. Under the condition, we develop a natural probability model for pairwise preference data under ordinal feedback and analyze its properties. We prove the statistical benefits of ordinal feedback in terms of reducing the Rademacher complexity compared to the case of binary feedback. The proposed learning objective and the theory also extend to hinge loss and direct policy optimization (DPO). In particular, the theoretical analysis may be of independent interest when applying to a seemingly unrelated problem of knowledge distillation to interpret the bias-variance trade-off therein. The framework also sheds light on writing guidance for human annotators. Our numerical experiments validate that fine-grained feedback leads to better reward learning for both in-distribution and out-of-distribution settings. Further experiments show that incorporating a certain proportion of samples with tied preference boosts RM learning.

The rapid spread of digital technologies has produced data-driven feedback loops, wearable devices, social media networks, and mobile applications that shape user behavior, motivation, and mental well-being. While these systems encourage self-improvement and the development of healthier habits through real-time feedback, they also create psychological risks such as technostress, addiction, and loss of autonomy. The present study also aims to investigate the positive and negative psychological consequences of feedback mechanisms on users' behaviour and well-being. Employing a descriptive survey method, the study collected data from 200 purposely selected users to assess changes in behaviour, motivation, and mental well-being related to health, social, and lifestyle applications. Results indicate that while feedback mechanisms facilitate goal attainment and social interconnection through streaks and badges, among other components, they also enhance anxiety, mental weariness, and loss of productivity due to actions that are considered feedback-seeking. Furthermore, test subjects reported that their actions are unconsciously shaped by app feedback, often at the expense of personal autonomy, while real-time feedback minimally influences professional or social interactions. The study shows that data-driven feedback loops deliver not only motivational benefits but also psychological challenges. To mitigate these risks, users should establish boundaries regarding their use of technology to prevent burnout and addiction, while developers need to refine feedback mechanisms to reduce cognitive load and foster more inclusive participation. Future research should focus on designing feedback mechanisms that promote well-being without compromising individual freedom or increasing social comparison.

Abstract--Learning from Demonstration (LfD) is a powerful type of machine learning that can allow novices to teach and program robots to complete various tasks. However, the learning process for these systems may still be difficult for novices to interpret and understand, making effective teaching challenging. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) aims to address this challenge by explaining a system to the user. In this work, we investigate XAI within LfD by implementing an adaptive explanatory feedback system on an inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm. The feedback is implemented by demonstrating selected learnt trajectories to users. The system adapts to user teaching by categorizing and then selectively sampling trajectories shown to a user, to show a representative sample of both successful and unsuccessful trajectories. The system was evaluated through a user study with 26 participants teaching a robot a navigation task. The results of the user study demonstrated that the proposed explanatory feedback system can improve robot performance, teaching efficiency and user understanding of the robot.

Abstract--Contribution: This paper identifies four critical ethical considerations for implementing generative AI tools to provide automated feedback to students. Background: Providing rich feedback to students is essential for supporting student learning. Recent advances in generative AI, particularly with large language models (LLMs), provide the opportunity to deliver repeatable, scalable and instant automatically generated feedback to students, making abundant a previously scarce and expensive learning resource. A visualisation of Bloom's revised taxonomy, modified from [6]. Intended Outcomes: The goal of this work is to enable the use of AI systems to automate mundane assessment and feedback tasks, without introducing a "tyranny of the majority", where HE release of powerful language technology tools based on generative language modelling (e.g., ChatGPT, GPT-are going to use AI tools in their working lives, we should 4(o), Claude, Gemini, Llama; [1]-[3]), marked a significant aim to train them in their use. For example, While assessment is a clear space of development for days after the release of ChatGPT, students, educators, and this type of educational technology, we argue that the real the public alike discovered the potential of the application potential of generative language modelling can be found in for assisting with a range of teaching and learning tasks, but student feedback. E. D. Lindsay is with the UNESCO Centre for Problem Based Learning M. Zhang is with the Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, A.C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 København SV, Denmark. A. Johri is the Director of the Technocritical Research on AI, Learning J. Bjerva is with the Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Manuscript revised on July 31, 2024. Hence, this current state has common patterns of student answers and standardize responses effectively locked some engineering courses into a focus, to them, rather than having to make bespoke responses to where a particular set of questions are iterated over.

The proliferation of robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery highlights the need for advanced training tools such as cost-effective robotic endotrainers. Current surgical robots often lack haptic feedback, which is crucial for providing surgeons with a real-time sense of touch. This absence can impact the surgeon's ability to perform delicate operations effectively. To enhance surgical training and address this deficiency, we have integrated a cost-effective haptic feedback system into a robotic endotrainer. This system incorporates both kinesthetic (force) and tactile feedback, improving the fidelity of surgical simulations and enabling more precise control during operations. Our system incorporates an innovative, cost-effective Force/Torque sensor utilizing optoelectronic technology, specifically designed to accurately detect forces and moments exerted on surgical tools with a 95% accuracy, providing essential kinesthetic feedback. Additionally, we implemented a tactile feedback mechanism that informs the surgeon of the gripping forces between the tool's tip and the tissue. This dual feedback system enhances the fidelity of training simulations and the execution of robotic surgeries, promoting broader adoption and safer practices.

We claim that LLMs can be paired with formal analysis methods to provide accessible, relevant feedback for HRI tasks. While logic specifications are useful for defining and assessing a task, these representations are not easily interpreted by non-experts. Luckily, LLMs are adept at generating easy-to-understand text that explains difficult concepts. By integrating task assessment outcomes and other contextual information into an LLM prompt, we can effectively synthesize a useful set of recommendations for the learner to improve their performance.

One-on-one tutoring is widely acknowledged as an effective instructional method, conditioned on qualified tutors. However, the high demand for qualified tutors remains a challenge, often necessitating the training of novice tutors (i.e., trainees) to ensure effective tutoring. Research suggests that providing timely explanatory feedback can facilitate the training process for trainees. However, it presents challenges due to the time-consuming nature of assessing trainee performance by human experts. Inspired by the recent advancements of large language models (LLMs), our study employed the GPT-4 model to build an explanatory feedback system. This system identifies trainees' responses in binary form (i.e., correct/incorrect) and automatically provides template-based feedback with responses appropriately rephrased by the GPT-4 model. We conducted our study on 410 responses from trainees across three training lessons: Giving Effective Praise, Reacting to Errors, and Determining What Students Know. Our findings indicate that: 1) using a few-shot approach, the GPT-4 model effectively identifies correct/incorrect trainees' responses from three training lessons with an average F1 score of 0.84 and an AUC score of 0.85; and 2) using the few-shot approach, the GPT-4 model adeptly rephrases incorrect trainees' responses into desired responses, achieving performance comparable to that of human experts.

Automated explanatory feedback systems play a crucial role in facilitating learning for a large cohort of learners by offering feedback that incorporates explanations, significantly enhancing the learning process. However, delivering such explanatory feedback in real-time poses challenges, particularly when high classification accuracy for domain-specific, nuanced responses is essential. Our study leverages the capabilities of large language models, specifically Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPT), to explore a sequence labeling approach focused on identifying components of desired and less desired praise for providing explanatory feedback within a tutor training dataset. Our aim is to equip tutors with actionable, explanatory feedback during online training lessons. To investigate the potential of GPT models for providing the explanatory feedback, we employed two commonly-used approaches: prompting and fine-tuning. To quantify the quality of highlighted praise components identified by GPT models, we introduced a Modified Intersection over Union (M-IoU) score. Our findings demonstrate that: (1) the M-IoU score effectively correlates with human judgment in evaluating sequence quality; (2) using two-shot prompting on GPT-3.5 resulted in decent performance in recognizing effort-based (M-IoU of 0.46) and outcome-based praise (M-IoU of 0.68); and (3) our optimally fine-tuned GPT-3.5 model achieved M-IoU scores of 0.64 for effort-based praise and 0.84 for outcome-based praise, aligning with the satisfaction levels evaluated by human coders. Our results show promise for using GPT models to provide feedback that focuses on specific elements in their open-ended responses that are desirable or could use improvement.

While bio-inspired and biomimetic systems draw inspiration from living materials, biohybrid systems incorporate them with synthetic devices, allowing the exploitation of both organic and artificial advantages inside a single entity. In the challenging development of centimeter-scaled mobile robots serving unstructured territory navigations, biohybrid systems appear as a potential solution in the forms of terrestrial insect-machine hybrid systems, which are the fusion of living ambulatory insects and miniature electronic devices. Although their maneuver can be deliberately controlled via artificial electrical stimulation, these hybrid systems still inherit the insects' outstanding locomotory skills, orchestrated by a sophisticated central nervous system and various sensory organs, favoring their maneuvers in complex terrains. However, efficient autonomous navigation of these hybrid systems is challenging. The struggle to optimize the stimulation parameters for individual insects limits the reliability and accuracy of navigation control. This study overcomes this problem by implementing a feedback control system with an insight view of tunable navigation control for an insectmachine hybrid system based on a living darkling beetle. Via a thrust controller for acceleration and a proportional controller for turning, the system regulates the stimulation parameters based on the instantaneous status of the hybrid robot. While the system can provide an overall success rate of ~71% for path-following navigations, fine-tuning its control parameters could further improve the outcome's reliability and precision to up to ~94% success rate and ~1/2 body length accuracy, respectively. Such tunable performance of the feedback control system provides flexibility to navigation applications of insect-machine hybrid systems. Keywords Biohybrid systems; Insect-machine hybrid systems; Zophobas morio; Autonomous navigation; Feedback control; Path-following 1. Introduction Terrestrial insect-scale mobile robots have become prominent candidates for post-disaster search-and-rescue missions. Their tiny size and light weight would help them easily penetrate deep into the rubbles of collapsed buildings without causing additional collapses. While there are growing efforts to achieve insect-level autonomy in these robots, it is still a challenge to match their natural-born counterparts, i.e., living ambulatory insects. While control autonomy was achieved in various insect-scale mobile robots (Chen et al. 2020; de Rivaz et al. 2018; Goldberg et al. 2018; St. Pierre and Bergbreiter 2019; Yang et al. 2020), power autonomy was demonstrated only in a few platforms, like HAMR-F (Goldberg et al. 2018) or Robeetle (Yang et al. 2020). Furthermore, although inverted and vertical climbing was demonstrated (Chen et al. 2020; de Rivaz et al. 2018), maneuvering across complex terrains is still a conundrum for these artificial robots.