See my Google Scholar Publications for the full list. These are my recent publications that give a good idea of my research.
Recent Publications
H. Ouhaichi, D. Spikol and B. Vogel, “MBOX: Designing a Flexible IoT Multimodal Learning Analytics System,” 2021 International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 2021, pp. 122-126, doi: 10.1109/ICALT52272.2021.00044.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9499820
Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA) provides opportunities for understanding and supporting collaborative problem-solving. However, the implementation of MMLA systems is challenging due to the lack of scalable technologies and limited solutions for collecting data from group work. This paper proposes the Multimodal Box (MBOX), an IoT-based system for MMLA, allowing the collection and processing of multimodal data from collaborative learning tasks. MBOX investigates the development and design for an IoT focusing on small group work in real-world settings. Moreover, MBOX promotes adaptation to different learning environments and enables a better scaling of computational resources used within the learning context.
Vujovic, M., Hernández-Leo, D., Tassani, S. and Spikol, D. (2020), Round or rectangular tables for collaborative problem solving? A multimodal learning analytics study. Br J Educ Technol, 51: 1597-1614. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12988
https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjet.12988
The current knowledge of the effects of the physical environment on learners’ behaviour in collaborative problem-solving tasks is underexplored. This paper aims to critically examine the potential of multimodal learning analytics, using new data sets, in studying how the shapes of shared tables affect the learners’ behaviour when collaborating in terms of patterns of participation and indicators related to physical social interactions. The research presented in this paper investigates this question considering the potential interplay with contextual aspects (level of education) and learning design decisions (group size). Three dependent variables (distance between students, range of movement and level of participation) are tested using quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected using a motion capture system and video recordings. Results show that the use of round tables (vs rectangular tables) leads to higher levels of on-task participation in the case of elementary school students. For university students, different table shapes seem to have a limited impact on their levels of participation in collaborative problem solving. The analysis shows significant differences regarding the relationship between group size and the distance between students, but there is no substantial evidence that group size affects the level of participation. The findings support previous research highlighting the importance of studying the role of the physical environment as an element of learning design and the potential of multimodal learning analytics in approaching these studies.
Katterfeldt, E. S., Cukurova, M., Spikol, D., & Cuartielles, D. (2018). Physical computing with plug-and-play toolkits: Key recommendations for collaborative learning implementations. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 17, 72-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2018.03.002
Physical computing toolkits have long been used in educational contexts to learn about computational concepts by engaging in the making of interactive projects. This paper presents a comprehensive toolkit that can help educators teach programming with an emphasis on collaboration, and provides suggestions for its effective pedagogical implementation. The toolkit comprises the Talkoo kit with physical computing plug-and-play modules and a visual programming environment. The key suggestions are inspired by the results of the evaluation studies which show that children (aged 14–18 in a sample group of 34 students) are well motivated when working with the toolkit but lack confidence in the kit’s support for collaborative learning. If the intention is to move beyond tools and code in computer education to community and context, thus encouraging computational participation, collaboration should be considered as a key aspect of physical computing activities. Our approach expands the field of programming with physical computing for teenage children with a focus on empowering teachers and students with not only a kit but also its appropriate classroom implementation for collaborative learning.
Spikol, D., Ruffaldi, E., Dabisias, G., & Cukurova, M. (2018). Supervised machine learning in multimodal learning analytics for estimating success in project‐based learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 34(4), 366-377. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12263
Multimodal learning analytics provides researchers new tools and techniques to capture different types of data from complex learning activities in dynamic learning environments. This paper investigates the use of diverse sensors, including computer vision, user‐generated content, and data from the learning objects (physical computing components), to record high‐fidelity synchronised multimodal recordings of small groups of learners interacting. We processed and extracted different aspects of the students’ interactions to answer the following question: Which features of student group work are good predictors of team success in open‐ended tasks with physical computing? To answer this question, we have explored different supervised machine learning approaches (traditional and deep learning techniques) to analyse the data coming from multiple sources. The results illustrate that state‐of‐the‐art computational techniques can be used to generate insights into the “black box” of learning in students’ project‐based activities. The features identified from the analysis show that distance between learners’ hands and faces is a strong predictor of students’ artefact quality, which can indicate the value of student collaboration. Our research shows that new and promising approaches such as neural networks, and more traditional regression approaches can both be used to classify multimodal learning analytics data, and both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the research questions and contexts being investigated. The work presented here is a significant contribution towards developing techniques to automatically identify the key aspects of students success in project‐based learning environments, and to ultimately help teachers provide appropriate and timely support to students in these fundamental aspects.