Situating multimodal learning analytics

The digital age has introduced a host of new challenges and opportunities for the learning sciences community. These challenges and opportunities are particularly abundant in multimodal learning analytics (MMLA), a research methodology that aims to extend work from Educational Data Mining (EDM) and Learning Analytics (LA) to multimodal learning environments by treating multimodal data. Recognizing the short-term opportunities and longterm challenges will help develop proof cases and identify grand challenges that will help propel the field forward. To support the field's growth, we use this paper to describe several ways that MMLA can potentially advance learning sciences research and touch upon key challenges that researchers who utilize MMLA have encountered over the past few years

Quantifying cognitive function in concussed athletes before and after acute exercise using a choice reaction time task

Following a concussion, cognitive deficits have been shown to last longer than symptom resolution. Currently clinicians rely heavily on symptom emergence following the fundamental exercises of the return to play (RTP) protocol, which may leave athletes at risk of returning to play too early if cognitive deficits have not been detected. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exercise on choice reaction time (CRT) both at rest and following an acute exercise in 3 populations: non-concussed (NC), recently concussed (RC), and post-concussion syndrome (PCS) individuals. A CRT task in the form of an iPad application measured each individual’s decision-making capabilities at four blocks: (1) 10 minutes prior to exercise, (2) Immediately prior to exercise, (3) immediately post exercise, and (4) 5 minutes post exercise. Participants were also fitted with an eye-tracking system during CRT task performance at rest in order to assess higher levels of cognitive processing. Results demonstrated a facilitative effect of learning and exercise arousal on CRT task performance in both NC and PCS but not in RC. Average RT in RC was not significantly different from NC while average RT in PCS was found to be significantly higher than NC. Gaze behaviour was significantly worse in PCS compared to NC while RC and NC were not significantly different. The absence of symptoms does not inherently mean that cognitive performance under acute physical stress has completely recovered in recently concussed individuals. On the other hand, PCS individuals continue to experience concussion-related symptoms, but appear to display partially recovered cognitive performance. Findings from the current study encourage the use of cognitive assessments following acute exercise during the RTP protocol in order to detect possibly lingering cognitive deficits

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 32

This is the thirty-second issue of NASA's USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 34 journal or conference papers published in Russian and of 4 Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to 18 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas include: adaptation, aviation medicine, biological rhythms, biospherics, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, exobiology, habitability and environmental effects, human performance, hematology, mathematical models, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, operational medicine, and reproductive system

Assess Compassion in Higher Education? Why and How would we do that?

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in LINK, following peer review. http://www.herts.ac.uk/link/volume-2,-issue-1/assess-compassion-in-higher-education-how-and-why-would-we-do-thatAbstract: This article reports the effects (on students' social and learning experiences) of supporting students in the use of explicitly compassionate interactional strategies during their weekly seminar interactions. Also reported is the impact of this practice on individual performances in critical thinking in seminars. Methods: Findings of a cross disciplinary search on compassion were used to design a compassion focussed pedagogy (a CfP) for the university seminar. This pedagogy was then trialled, through action research, in two departments in a UK HEI. N=97 Humanities under and post graduate students and n=60 Business undergraduates participated in subject seminars that were run using the CfP. Template analysis was used to identify themes in the qualitative data sets: field notes of observed behaviours in seminars run with and without the CfP, films of assessed CfP seminars (n=48 students), and interviews and focus groups (n=33 students). In a final participating business module of ethnically diverse students, statistical analysis explored the effects of the CfP on individual critical thinking performances (n=38). Findings: Overall, students were attitudinally inclined to increase efforts over time to enhance their own and others' social and learning experiences in seminars through compassionate behavioural interventions during discussions; they achieved, or failed to achieve this, in observable ways that were seen and agreed to be appropriate to assess as credit bearing towards their under and post graduate degrees by five out of five external examiners. Students found eye contact – inclusive, excluding or avoidant – was critical to mediating the spread of participation in their seminars. Findings also suggested, tentatively, the potential of the CfP to substantially change the national attainment gap in terms of critical thinking in seminars.Final Published versio

Effects of Normobaric Hypoxia on Oculomotor Dynamics of Aviator Students during a Simulated Flight Task

Hypoxia occurs when the body\u27s tissues are unable to obtain adequate oxygen supply and is the primary environmental factor present when pilots are exposed to increasing altitude levels. Hypoxia leads to impaired vision, cognition, and motor control function, which can negatively affect performance and become deadly if a pilot becomes incapacitated. Thus, objective identification of early-onset hypoxia is critical to increase the time of useful consciousness and prevent physiological episodes. Of the few studies utilizing eye-tracking, there is disagreement and mixed results concerning saccadic eye metrics as a means to measure and detect hypoxia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate saccadic velocity changes driven by acute normobaric hypoxia. Using a noninvasive infrared-based eye-tracking device, we recorded saccadic average peak velocity during flight tasks at simulated altitudes of 0 ft, 12,500 ft, and 19,000 ft. No changes were observed in saccadic average peak velocity among different altitude exposures. As time on task increased, saccadic average peak velocity decreased, suggesting that eye metrics can serve as an indicator of mental fatigue

Teaching practices mediating the effect of teachers’ psychological stress, and not physiological on their visual focus of attention

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between teachers’ (N = 53) physiological and psychological stress and their visual focus of attention as well as the mediating effect of teaching practices on this association in authentic classroom settings. Data were collected using multimodal methods of measurement: salivary cortisol levels for physiological stress, a self-reported questionnaire for psychological stress, observed teaching practices during one school day, and eye-tracking video recordings of classroom teachers during one lesson for teachers’ visual focus of attention. The results showed that neither teachers’ physiological nor psychological stress was directly related to their visual focus of attention. However, using more child-centered teaching practices compared with teacher-directed ones was related to a higher number of fixations on students, longer total fixation duration, and more individualized distribution of visual focus of attention on students. Teacher’s teaching practices mediated the effect of teachers’ psychological stress on their fixation counts on students and distribution of visual focus of attention. The results suggest that teaching practices are related to the visual attention teachers’ give to students and that teachers’ stress affects their visual focus of attention through teaching practices. The practical implications of this study suggest that teachers should receive training and support to recognize their stress level and its association with their teaching.publishedVersio

Somatic tinnitus

Modulation of tinnitus characteristics such as pitch and loudness has been extensively described following movements of the head, neck and limbs, vertical or horizontal eye gaze, pressure on myofascial trigger points, cutaneous stimulation of the hands, electrical stimulation of the median nerve, and transcranial direct current stimulation. Modulation of tinnitus follows complex interactions between auditory and somatosensory afferents and can be favored by underlying somatic disorders. When tinnitus appears to be preceded or strictly linked to a somatic disorder, and therefore related to problems of the musculoskeletal system rather than of the ear, it is defined somatic tinnitus. A correct diagnosis and treatment of somatic disorders underlying tinnitus play a central role for a correct management of somatic tinnitus. However, the identification of somatic tinnitus may be complex in some cases. In this paper, after a general review of the current evidences for somatic tinnitus available in the literature, we present and discuss some cases of patients in which somatic modulation of tinnitus played a role - although different from case to case - in their tinnitus, describing the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches followed in each individual case and the results obtained, also highlighting unexpected findings and pitfalls that may be encountered when approaching somatic tinnitus patients

iMind: Uma ferramenta inteligente para suporte de compreensão de conteúdo

Usually while reading, content comprehension difficulty affects individual performance. Comprehension difficulties, e. g., could lead to a slow learning process, lower work quality, and inefficient decision-making. This thesis introduces an intelligent tool called “iMind” which uses wearable devices (e.g., smartwatches) to evaluate user comprehension difficulties and engagement levels while reading digital content. Comprehension difficulty can occur when there are not enough mental resources available for mental processing. The mental resource for mental processing is the cognitive load (CL). Fluctuations of CL lead to physiological manifestation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which can be measured by wearables, like smartwatches. ANS manifestations are, e. g., an increase in heart rate. With low-cost eye trackers, it is possible to correlate content regions to the measurements of ANS manifestation. In this sense, iMind uses a smartwatch and an eye tracker to identify comprehension difficulty at content regions level (where the user is looking). The tool uses machine learning techniques to classify content regions as difficult or non-difficult based on biometric and non-biometric features. The tool classified regions with a 75% accuracy and 80% f-score with Linear regression (LR). With the classified regions, it will be possible, in the future, to create contextual support for the reader in real-time by, e.g., translating the sentences that induced comprehension difficulty.Normalmente durante a leitura, a dificuldade de compreensão pode afetar o desempenho da leitura. A dificuldade de compreensão pode levar a um processo de aprendizagem mais lento, menor qualidade de trabalho ou uma ineficiente tomada de decisão. Esta tese apresenta uma ferramenta inteligente chamada “iMind” que usa dispositivos vestíveis (por exemplo, smartwatches) para avaliar a dificuldade de compreensão do utilizador durante a leitura de conteúdo digital. A dificuldade de compreensão pode ocorrer quando não há recursos mentais disponíveis suficientes para o processamento mental. O recurso usado para o processamento mental é a carga cognitiva (CL). As flutuações de CL levam a manifestações fisiológicas do sistema nervoso autônomo (ANS), manifestações essas, que pode ser medido por dispositivos vestíveis, como smartwatches. As manifestações do ANS são, por exemplo, um aumento da frequência cardíaca. Com eye trackers de baixo custo, é possível correlacionar manifestação do ANS com regiões do texto, por exemplo. Neste sentido, a ferramenta iMind utiliza um smartwatch e um eye tracker para identificar dificuldades de compreensão em regiões de conteúdo (para onde o utilizador está a olhar). Adicionalmente a ferramenta usa técnicas de machine learning para classificar regiões de conteúdo como difíceis ou não difíceis com base em features biométricos e não biométricos. A ferramenta classificou regiões com uma precisão de 75% e f-score de 80% usando regressão linear (LR). Com a classificação das regiões em tempo real, será possível, no futuro, criar suporte contextual para o leitor em tempo real onde, por exemplo, as frases que induzem dificuldade de compreensão são traduzidas

Estimation of Confidence in the Dialogue based on Eye Gaze and Head Movement Information

In human-robot interaction, human mental states in dialogue have attracted attention to human-friendly robots that support educational use. Although estimating mental states using speech and visual information has been conducted, it is still challenging to estimate mental states more precisely in the educational scene. In this paper, we proposed a method to estimate human mental state based on participants’ eye gaze and head movement information. Estimated participants’ confidence levels in their answers to the miscellaneous knowledge question as a human mental state. The participants’ non-verbal information, such as eye gaze and head movements during dialog with a robot, were collected in our experiment using an eye-tracking device. Then we collect participants’ confidence levels and analyze the relationship between human mental state and non-verbal information. Furthermore, we also applied a machine learning technique to estimate participants’ confidence levels from extracted features of gaze and head movement information. As a result, the performance of a machine learning technique using gaze and head movements information achieved over 80 % accuracy in estimating confidence levels. Our research provides insight into developing a human-friendly robot considering human mental states in the dialogue