Learner Modelling for Reflection
20 July 2003, Sydney, Australia
AIED’03 website: http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~aied/
Susan Bull, Paul Brna & Vania Dimitrova
Call for Papers
The AIED community has always been interested in the general issues surrounding learner modelling, and the approach of opening learner models is becoming increasingly important. This is partly due to privacy issues, which have recently become a much-discussed topic in user modelling, and where open learner models raise interesting problems. Open learner models also offer an alternative path to inferential diagnosis (c.f. interactive diagnosis). Particularly important from the student's perspective is the recognition that the learner model can be a useful source of information for the learner, as it can be used to support reflection on his/her own knowledge, misconceptions and learning process. During recent years, the number of researchers interested in the use of open learner models to encourage learner reflection has been growing. This is evidenced by the increased number of papers on open learner modelling in the main conferences of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and User Modelling (UM).A forum for collaboration on the topic was created in 2002: a small research network called Learner Modelling for Reflection - LeMoRe. The workshop is organised by LeMoRe members and has the goal of developing the community of those studying open learner models both in terms of learning about each other's work, and setting a broad research agenda for future work.
The workshop follows the ITS 2002 workshop Individual and Group Modelling Methods that Help Learners Understand Themselves, held in San Sebastian, Spain. This, in turn, followed the workshop on Open, Interactive and Other Overt Approaches to Learner Modelling, held at AIED 1999 in Le Mans, France.
Workshop Themes
The aim of the Learner Modelling for Reflection workshop is to provide a forum for focussed discussion on the following themes:
- to advance the theoretical study of the use of open learner models in encouraging learners to reflect on the domain being studied, on their own strategies for learning, on their progress in learning, on their own understanding as they think about the progress of peers, etc.
- to consider the insight open learner models can bring to teachers allowing them to inspect (and possibly change) the models of their learners, which may promote teachers' reflection on their own practice.
- to consider the comparative advantages and disadvantages of open learner models in relation to the use of learner models in adaptive systems designed to pursue different kinds of learning (domain-based learning, problem solving, strategic thinking, creative thinking, team work, etc.)
- to consider the use of (closed) learner models to inform system decisions related to promoting reflection, and how these uses compare with the application of open learner models, taking into account different pedagogical goals and individual differences.
- to consider the problems and advantages of open learner models in relation to data protection laws, the ethics of learner modelling and the desire for privacy.
Workshop format
The workshop will be a platform for focused discussion around the five workshop themes, together with short presentations based upon refereed papers, organised according to the workshop topics. Presentations will take about 50% of the time, with discussion of issues raised in the papers, and more generally, occupying the remaining time.Important dates
| Deadline for paper submission | 15 April 2003 |
| Notification of acceptance | 15 May 2003 |
| Camera ready version | 10 June 2003 |
| Workshop date | 20 or 21 July 2003 |
Submission Instructions
High-quality papers that describe completed or on-going research relevant to the workshop themes are welcome, as well as reviews of existing work, and position statements of future research directions.All submissions should include an abstract, list of keywords, and contact information. Papers should be no longer than 10 pages and must be formatted according to IOS requirements. Fonts should be 12 point Times New Roman and A4 page format. The printed area should be 15.6 cm wide and 25.2 cm long. Word and Latex templates can be downloaded from the AIED’03 website.
Submissions should be in PDF or postscript format and sent electronically to Susan Bull
(s.bull@bham.ac.uk)
The final version of accepted papers should be sent in Word format.
Publication
The papers will be fully refereed by at least two members of the program committee. Accepted papers will be available on the workshop website and published by the conference in a set of proceedings with an ISBN number. Accepted papers will require at least one author to register by 10th June.Program committee
- Susan Bull (co-chair and main contact), University of Birmingham, UK (s.bull@bham.ac.uk)
- Paul Brna (co-chair), Northumbria University, UK (Paul.Brna@unn.ac.uk)
- Vania Dimitrova (co-chair), University of Leeds, UK (vania@comp.leeds.ac.uk)
- Jim Greer, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (greer@cs.usask.ca)
- Frank Linton, The MITRE Corporation, U.S.A. (linton@mitre.org)
- Gord McCalla, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (mccalla@cs.usask.ca)
- Tanja Mitrovic, University of Canterbury, New Zealand (tanja@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
