Layered evaluation of interactive adaptive systems : framework and formative methods

Peer reviewedPostprin

A Tool Set Combining Learning Styles Prediction, a Blended Learning Methodology and Facilitator Guidebooks – Towards a Best Mix in Blended Learning

One of the challenges in the development in blended learning is to facilitate the individual learning styles of the learners. The alignment of a learning styles assessment with a learning methodology, a mapping between learning styles and social media, recommendations in a guidebook for facilitators and a checklist provide a tool set for a sustainable approach for a responsive learning environment. This paper analyzes how the different approaches, methods and studies interact to form an overall tool set to develop a learnercentered mix in blended learning. It proposes a tool set to adapt blended learning to the learning styles of the learners

Electricity Market Design 2030-2050: Shaping Future Electricity Markets for a Climate-Neutral Europe

Speeding up the energy transition in the European Union (EU) is a major task to quickly reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Market design plays a crucial role in the decarbonization of the European energy system, driving the expansion of both Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and accompanying flexibility sources. In particular, demand flexibility by energy-intensive industrial companies can play a key role. By flexibilizing their production processes, industrial companies can contribute to an increased use of variable RES (in the following referred to as Variable Renewable Energy (VRE)) to lower the CO2 footprint of their products with positive effects on economic competitiveness. Together with other flexibility sources like electric vehicles, the EU can transition to a just, low-carbon society and economy with benefits for all. However, to actually realize these benefits, market design must account for the changing production and consumption characteristics, e.g., the intermittency of VRE. Starting with current challenges of the energy transition that need to be solved with a future market designin the EU, the whitepaper takes alternative market design options and recent technological developments into account, which are highly intertwined. The whitepaper elaborates on the role of, for instance, flexibility, digital technologies, market design with locational incentives, and possible transition pathways in a European context. The “Clean energy for all Europeans” package offers a new opportunity to deepen the integration of different national electricity systems, whereby Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are required to reserve at least 70% of transmission capacities for cross-border trades from 2025 onwards. The corresponding scarcity of transmission capacities on the national level, however, may aggravate congestion to a critical extent, calling for transformational changes in market design involving, e.g., a redefinition of bidding zones close to the network-node level. The present whitepaper can be seen as part of a series of whitepapers on electricity market design 2030 - 2050 [14, 15] and continues the analysis of regionally differentiated prices or Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP) as a means to address congestion problems in future VRE-based electricity systems. Thereby, the whitepaper extends the findings of the previous two whitepapers (where in the latter whitepapers, e.g., a detailed discussion of the pros and cons of LMP can be found) and elaborates on the question how LMP could be implemented in one or several European countries and how possible implementation pathways may look like in a coupled European system. Moreover, the whitepaper describes preparatory steps that are necessary for the introduction of LMP, and – at the same time – create advantages for countries under both, a nodal and zonal market design. All in all, the results and outcomes of the whitepaper shall support the market design transition in Europe and, thus, the integration and activation of flexibility potentials to foster a fast reduction of CO2 emissions through a better use of VRE. Therefore, the whitepaper contributes with concrete policy measures to the overarching vision of a future European electricity market design that bases on low-carbon technologies and enhances welfare and fairness, while ensuring economic competitiveness of Europe. We would like to thank all the partners and are grateful for the financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as the Project Management Jülich. Martin Bichler, Hans Ulrich Buhl, and Martin Weibelzahl (SynErgie) Antonello Monti (OneNet

Problems and Pitfalls in the Evaluation of Adaptive Systems

Empirical studies with adaptive systems offer many advantages and opportunities. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of evaluation studies. This chapter lists several problems and pitfalls that arise when evaluating an adaptive system, and provides guidelines and recommendations for workarounds or even avoidance of these problems. Among other things the following issues are covered: relating evaluation studies to the development cycle; saving resources; specifying control conditions, sample, and criteria; asking users for adaptivity effects; reporting results. An overview of existing evaluation frameworks shows which of these problems have been addressed and in which way

Music Matters an ITS for Violin students

The application of Artificial Intelligence in Music Education is quite challenging due to the subjective nature of music. Music Matters is an Intelligent Tutoring System that provides an individualised learning environment for beginning violin students practicing at home. The system will monitor the student, infer a student model and deliver feedback on the basis of explicit teaching strategies. Music Matters provides guidance for the student when practicing by identifying melodic and rhythmic inaccuracies, providing feedback on posture and movement and presenting additional exercises where appropriate. The system contains a range of multimedia input and output devices as well as an intelligent tutoring module that reasons about and adapts to the player. The pedagogical framework that informs the system is the Suzuki method. Music Matters tries to overcome the complexities associated with learning the violin by identifying mistakes before they become ingrained in the playing