When Does Disengagement Correlate with Performance in Spoken Dialog Computer Tutoring?

In this paper we investigate how student disengagement relates to two performance metrics in a spoken dialog computer tutoring corpus, both when disengagement is measured through manual annotation by a trained human judge, and also when disengagement is measured through automatic annotation by the system based on a machine learning model. First, we investigate whether manually labeled overall disengagement and six different disengagement types are predictive of learning and user satisfaction in the corpus. Our results show that although students’ percentage of overall disengaged turns negatively correlates both with the amount they learn and their user satisfaction, the individual types of disengagement correlate differently: some negatively correlate with learning and user satisfaction, while others don’t correlate with eithermetric at all. Moreover, these relationships change somewhat depending on student prerequisite knowledge level. Furthermore, using multiple disengagement types to predict learning improves predictive power. Overall, these manual label-based results suggest that although adapting to disengagement should improve both student learning and user satisfaction in computer tutoring, maximizing performance requires the system to detect and respond differently based on disengagement type. Next, we present an approach to automatically detecting and responding to user disengagement types based on their differing correlations with correctness. Investigation of ourmachine learningmodel of user disengagement shows that its automatic labels negatively correlate with both performance metrics in the same way as the manual labels. The similarity of the correlations across the manual and automatic labels suggests that the automatic labels are a reasonable substitute for the manual labels. Moreover, the significant negative correlations themselves suggest that redesigning ITSPOKE to automatically detect and respond to disengagement has the potential to remediate disengagement and thereby improve performance, even in the presence of noise introduced by the automatic detection process

Gut microbes, ageing & organ function:a chameleon in modern biology?

All species, including humans, are cohabited by a myriad of microbial species, which massively influences body function in a diet-, exercise- and age-dependent manner. The microbiome composition differs between individuals, partly due to the polymorphic immune system, as well as the environment, making the microbe-host interplay unique in each one of us. Ageing is a gradual loss of function in part due to reduced repair mechanisms and accumulation of tissue damage through mechanisms largely unknown. Accumulating evidence suggests that our indigenous microbes, a known major regulator of human physiology, are also connected to regulate the ageing process through signalling pathways and metabolites though the biological mechanisms are unknown. At an ageing meeting in Singapore in 2018, investigators discussed the current understanding of microbe regulation and its impact on healthy ageing. This review summarizes the highlights from the meeting and conveys some of the new ideas that emerged around gut microbes and the biology of ageing. While highly speculative, an idea emerged in which gut microbes constantly respond and evolve to environmental cues, as part of an ageing process, thus serving as a second messenger to support and attenuate organ decline in a diet-, gender- and age-dependent manner

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Beyond Zero Tolerance is a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to secondary school drug education and school discipline that is all about helping teenagers by bolstering the student community and educational environment. This innovative model combines honest, reality-based information with interactive learning, compassionate assistance, and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment

The impact of social performance visualization on students

Over the last 10 years two major research directions explored the benefits of visualizing student learning progress. One stream of research on learning performance visualization attempts to build a visual presentation of students' learning progress, targeting the needs of instructors and academic advisors. The other stream of research on Open Student Modeling (OSM) attempts to visualize the state of individual student's knowledge and present the visualization directly to the student. The results of the studies in that area show that, presenting students with basic representation of their knowledge will result in facilitating their metacognitive activities and promoting self-reflection and awareness. This paper tries to study the impact of a more sophisticated form of performance visualization on students. We believe that our visualization tool can positively influence students by granting them the opportunity to get a view of their performance in the content of the class progress. Moreover, we tried to boost their motivation by building a positive sense of competition using a representation of average class performance. In this paper we present study comparing two groups of students, one using the visualization and another without visualization. The results of the study shows that: 1) the students are likely to use the social visualization tool during the whole semester to monitor their progress in comparison with their peers; 2) the visualization tool encourages students to use the learning materials in a more continuous manner during the whole semester and 3) students will achieve a higher success rate in answering self-assessment quizzes. © 2012 IEEE

Treatment of visuospatial neglect with biparietal tDCS and cognitive training: a single-case study

Symptoms of visuospatial neglect occur frequently after unilateral brain damage. Neglect hampers rehabilitation progress and is associated with reduced quality of life. However, existing treatment methods show limited efficacy. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique, which can be used to increase or decrease brain excitability. Its combination with conventional neglect therapy may enhance treatment efficacy. A 72-year-old male with a subacute ischemic stroke of the right posterior cerebral artery suffering from visuospatial neglect, hemianopia, and hemiparesis was treated with biparietal tDCS and cognitive neglect therapy in a double-blind, sham-controlled single-case study. Four weeks of daily treatment sessions (5 days per week, 30 min) were started 26 days post-stroke. During week 1 and 4 the patient received conventional neglect therapy, during week 2, conventional neglect therapy was combined once with sham and once with real biparietal tDCS. Week 3 consisted of daily sessions of real biparietal tDCS (1 mA, 20 min) combined with neglect therapy. Outcome measures were assessed before, immediately after, as well as 1 week and 3 months after the end of treatment. They included subtests of the Test for Attentional Performance (TAP): covert attention (main outcome), alertness, visual field; the Neglect-Test (NET): line bisection, cancelation, copying; and activities of daily living (ADL). After real stimulation, covert attention allocation toward left-sided invalid stimuli was significantly improved, and line bisection and copying improved qualitatively as compared to sham stimulation. ADL were only improved at the 3-month follow-up. This single-case study demonstrates for the first time that combined application of tDCS and cognitive training may enhance training-induced improvements in measures of visuospatial neglect and is applicable in a clinical context

Ethical Challenges for Learning Analytics

This response to Neil Selwyn’s paper, ‘What’s the problem with learning analytics?’, relates his work to the ethical challenges associated with learning analytics and proposes six ethical challenges for the field

Erosion perceptions, beliefs and the sustainability of coastal areas: an individual or collective endeavour?

Coastal erosion (CE) is a phenomenon that has undergone a conceptual evolution. Nowadays, it is considered a physical and social process that is scientifically studied, quantified, and technically mitigated. It may also be approached by following the individual/collective perceptions of coastal communities. Risk and vulnerability associated with CE may also be addressed by considering different aspects that require a differentiated and trans-disciplinary analysis. A gap regarding the social perception of CE in Portuguese coastal communities was detected in the literature review. Therefore, the initial questions and aim of this study are, as follows: to research the social perceptions of CE and to understand how they impact public decisions/participation aimed at mitigating CE. The purpose of this research, supported by a hypothetical-deductive-approach, is exploratory and followed a multiple-case study strategy. The study was conducted using a mixed methodological paradigm (qualitative and quantitative). The Paramos/Espinho and Costa-da-Caparica cases, which differ environmentally, geographically and socioeconomically, were selected. Social and environmental vulnerability indicators were determined through the Analytical-Hierarchy-Process. These indicators were used to structure/draft the exploratory interviews and a questionnaire. These were applied to three categories of stakeholders: politicians/decision-makers, presidents of recreational associations and fishermen/inhabitants; all chosen by convenience sampling. The interviews identified both the historical and current perception of CE, as well as the public-institutional interaction within the scope of the planned/executed interventions targeting the mitigation of this problem. The questionnaire also revealed memories of damaging events, recognition of the causes of CE and sea encroachment, identification of risk perception, and understanding of the feedback about the strategies developed for mitigating erosion. The results showed that the perception of CE was derived from constructed experience and social memory. For the participants, the erosion «issue» is a serious daily problem. They identified risks and mentioned natural causes that are magnified by both climate change and human causes. Disengagement of the state through inefficient decision-making, inadequate construction and maintenance of defence structures, and through their laxness regarding building new constructions were all mentioned as significant examples of human causes. Participants highlighted the authorities’ lack of sensitivity towards traditional knowledge and their lack of will to welcome/integrate the contribution participants’ experience could make. The main contribution of this work resides in the empirically based development of a model for the social perception of CE, by positioning vulnerability in the context of CE. The perceived vulnerability/risk was deemed to result not only from CE, but also from a variable and dynamic context-specific framework, and from internal/external factors that were identified.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio