MMLA Fall workshops

This fall, together with Inge, Luis, Jan, and Daniele we have run two CROSSMMLA Workshops. First at Tallinn University for the LASI Nordic and now at ECTEL in Delft. Our modus operandi has been to explore how we progress research the field of multi-modal learning analytics with a strong focus on crossing physical and digital spaces. We take the stance that digital technologies permeate our everyday lives, technology-enhanced learning experiences are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and fluid. In such blended learning across multiple digital and physical spaces, traditional de-contextualized, log-based learning analytics may not be enough to understand the learning process, its meaning or its outcomes.

We demonstrated different systems from the Multimodal Learning Hub and the Visualiser from Daniele and Jan. They focused on CPR Training tool see their paper.

Luis and Pankaj presented a hands-on demo system for MMLA-based process involving data collection across spaces (digital and physical) focused on multi-channel audio steps for analysis and visualizing the data. See the full paper!

Milica Vujovic presented ongoing work on motion capture and audio processing. For the workshop, she focused on the tools and process for audio processing voice detection. You can see her paper.

Nina Bergdahl presented a workshop on the engagement of teachers with different learning analytics based on her paper with her colleagues Jalal Nouri, and Uno Fors.

I also provided a workshop on the Arduino Indoor Location Badges developed with David Cuartielles and the ongoing work with SSI.

Key findings (personal) from the two workshops are the following:

High Interest in MMLA

The great thing has been to meet new people in the Nordic that are interested in MMLA and capturing, analyzing, and giving feedback about collaborative learning. In addition at ECTEL, we attracted new people to the community. Both workshops were used the same format of data collection from the participants acting as users, analysis of the data, and then a small hackathon like experience to design feedback.

The need to balance Practice and Theory

The feedback we got from the workshop was how do we balance the practice of learning about MMLA from hands-on experiences to the good, the bad, and the ugly examples and challenges that we faced across different projects. We also talked about how to make stronger ties to theoretical foundations with a strong focus on Socially Shared Self-Regulated Learning.

The fine difference between Demo and Hackathon

One thing that I see from these workshops has been the need to provide an orchestrated demonstration of MMLA to help people understand the benefits and challenges that these technologies and approach offers.

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