Papers for
corporate training teams
Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.
Agentic University supports personalized learning with collaborative agents
Agentic University: Collaborative Agents for Personalized Learning
Abstract: Large language models support personalized tutoring, content generation, and adaptive learning paths. However, capability development requires these resources and interactions to form a coherent learning process that evolves with the learner. A central challenge is to align goals, activities, and assessment while using learning evidence to decide what should follow. We introduce Human-Participatory Multi-Agent Organization and instantiate it in Agentic University (AU). In AU, learners participate as organization members and work with specialized agents to maintain a revisable Capability Program. The program connects personal goals, learning activities across modalities, and layered assessment, while learner feedback and performance guide subsequent support. Our evaluation shows advantages in program organization, assessment design, and revision quality. Users achieved larger mean assessment gains (12.19 versus 5.61 points on a 50-point scale) and reported stronger cognitive support. This work contributes an organizational approach to adaptive learning that makes learner participation a continuing basis for multi-agent coordination. The Agentic University project is available at \href{https://github.com/AgenticOrgLab/AgenticUniversity.git}.
Critical thinking improves with structured use of generative AI tools
When Does GenAI Use Support Critical Thinking? A Cross-Cultural Structural Account of Transactive Memory with GenAI
Abstract: Whether generative AI (GenAI) use helps or hinders critical thinking remains contested, and existing accounts emphasize exposure to the tool rather than how a person structures their engagement with it. Extending Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) theory to human-AI partnerships, we test a structural account of critical thinking in GenAI-assisted academic work among 891 college students in the United States and Türkiye. Self-appraised thinking ability and confidence in the partnership shaped how much practical experience a person built up with GenAI, but neither predicted critical thinking directly. That experience mattered only through two downstream behaviors, dividing and coordinating cognitive labor with the tool, and actively reworking its output rather than accepting it as given. A multigroup comparison found this structure largely invariant, with two theoretically interpretable exceptions. This study offers a structural, TMS-based account of critical thinking in GenAI-assisted work.
Edhivo platform scales college assessments with fast AI feedback
Edhivo: An AI-Native Platform for Scalable Assessment and Instant Feedback in Higher Education
Abstract: Scaling assessment in higher education faces two intertwined bottlenecks: the cognitive burden of authoring assessments and the inability to semantically evaluate open-ended responses, which together create a persistent feedback gap that hinders student learning outcomes. To address these challenges, we present Edhivo, an AI-native pedagogical platform that addresses both bottlenecks through a vertically integrated system for content delivery, assessment, and reporting. Edhivo employs a Dual-LLM pipeline: one model generates context-aware assessments for both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, from instructor-provided materials, while a second model performs multi-criteria, rubric-based evaluation of student responses, enabling near-instant qualitative feedback at multiple hierarchical levels. All AI interactions are source-grounded to reduce hallucination risk, and a Human-in-the-Loop review process preserves instructor authority. We demonstrate Edhivo's efficacy through a pilot deployment at Stony Brook University in a real classroom environment in 2026 spring, where it supports high-frequency assessment creation and evaluation for a cohort of 36 students throughout a full semester, significantly reducing authoring effort and feedback latency while enabling novel pedagogical designs centered on active learning.
Ai pipeline produces up-to-date tech tutorials with audience feedback
An AI Factory for Technology Education: An Agentic Pipeline with Closed Loop Audience Feedback
Abstract: Technology tools used for professional upskilling change on a timescale of weeks, and written guidance about them ages at the same pace. Large language models have made it inexpensive to draft a tutorial or a course outline, but most deployed generation systems still produce a piece of content once and never check it against what an audience actually does with it. This paper describes an agentic pipeline, organized as a typed workflow graph, that treats instructional content production as a manufacturing process with explicit checkpoints rather than a single generation call. Four node classes structure the graph: deterministic scripts, model steps bound to a fixed rubric, open-ended agent phases, and human approval gates, arranged along a forward production path and closed by a feedback cycle that rewrites generation rules from post level engagement telemetry. Production of content is split into two layers: a demand layer, built from video and community sources, that shapes topic selection and register, and an authority layer, built from official documentation, that every published claim must trace back to. Over five months of continuous operation, the deployed system published 26 documented guides at roughly 1.5 hours of operator time per week, and the feedback loop identified four measurable engagement effects that became binding rules for later runs, including a hook style that outperformed baseline by a factor of 1.83 in its first analysis window.
Adaptive assessment system improves personalized question routing and scoring
MARS: A Momentum-Aware Adaptive Rating System for Personalized Assessment
Abstract: Adaptive assessment systems personalize learning by estimating learner proficiency and recommending suitable questions. However, many existing approaches rely on fixed difficulty labels, static rating updates, or black-box prediction models that provide limited control over rating stability, interpretability, and time-constrained routing. This paper proposes MARS, a Momentum-Aware Adaptive Rating System for interpretable adaptive assessment. MARS represents the question bank as a directed weighted knowledge graph and updates learner proficiency using dynamic rating sensitivity, response quality, and momentum-aware learner velocity. We also formulate a time-budgeted mark-maximization objective in which the policy selects questions within a fixed test duration under negative marking. Experiments on ASSISTments 2009 and MARS-SimExam evaluate MARS for prediction, rating stability, and adaptive routing. Results show that MARS provides smoother rating updates than Fixed Elo and achieves the highest score under time-budgeted negative-marking routing, improving the total score by 8.09 over the strongest baseline and reducing overtime violations from 50% to 5.6%. These results suggest that MARS is suitable for real-time, interpretable, and deployment-friendly adaptive assessment.
RegulaTutor framework improves long-term personalized learning support
RegulaTutor: A Theory-Informed Framework for Long-Term Personalized Learning
Abstract: Long-term personalized tutoring requires language models to translate a learner's evolving history into appropriate instructional support. Existing LLM-based tutoring systems use memory and retrieval to personalize responses, but the pedagogical rationale linking historical evidence to teaching strategies is not always explicit. We introduce RegulaTutor, a theory-informed framework for long-term personalized tutoring that connects historical evidence, learner interpretation, and learner-facing instruction. Guided by self-regulated learning (SRL) research, its tutoring harness operationalizes a cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and motivational (CAMM) framework for deriving evidence-supported learner interpretations and teaching policies. The resulting policies retain links to their supporting evidence and are updated as new observations arrive. This staged workflow also supports systematic refinement through PairRoute, an offline procedure that uses intermediate execution records to distinguish harness, model, and mixed failures. PairRoute proposes and evaluates targeted harness revisions, then constructs reviewed stage-level supervision for confirmed model failures remaining under the selected harness. We focus this refinement on historical evidence acquisition, which underpins personalized instruction and allows outputs to be checked against learning records and reference answers. RegulaTutor improves historical-evidence accuracy, learner diagnosis, and judged teaching quality on average across evaluated model configurations. PairRoute results show an endpoint improvement in standalone-model historical-evidence accuracy over the refinement trajectory. Together, these results highlight RegulaTutor's potential to support lifelong personalized education through instructional policies that evolve with learner histories and targeted improvements to the tutoring system.
AI decision checkpoints improve business process management teaching
AI-Decision Checkpoints for AI-Augmented Business Process Management: Framework and Educational Instantiation
Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and AI agents are increasingly embedded in operational business processes. Yet Business Process Management (BPM) curricula and frameworks still largely treat artificial intelligence (AI) as an add-on technology, leaving graduates (as potential future process developers) unprepared to reason about AI as a first-class design element of end-to-end processes. This paper addresses that gap by proposing \emph{AI-decision checkpoints}: explicit moments in a process development trajectory where process developers identify AI-candidate sub-processes, assess expected effects on time, cost, quality, and flexibility, consider legal and organisational constraints, and document a reasoned decision to adopt, constrain, or reject specific AI components. The checkpoints are instantiated through a fictitious customer onboarding process as a \textit{BPM Teaching Case}, embedded in a lifecycle-driven framework spanning six modules that combine process modeling, simulation, workflow execution with AI agents, and process mining, with each module's output serving as the next module's input. A preliminary formative reflection draws on instructor observations, submitted artifacts, and discovered process maps from learning-management-system logs. These exploratory observations suggest that the approach supported clearer distinctions between task-level automation and process-level value.
DBWorkout platform helps students practice SQL with automated feedback and gamification
WIP: DBWorkout: A Gamified SQL Practice Platform to Support Formative Learning in Database Courses
Abstract: This research WIP paper presents DBWorkout, a web-based platform that supports formative SQL learning through sandbox-based execution, automated result-based feedback, and session-based gamification. Learning Structured Query Language (SQL) remains challenging for undergraduate students due to limited opportunities for interactive practice and immediate feedback. Students iteratively practice SQL on live database instances while receiving multi-dimensional feedback on query correctness, including row values, column structure, and ordering. To reduce instructor workload, DBWorkout incorporates large language model (LLM)-assisted tools for schema and task generation within a human-in-the-loop workflow. A pilot study with teaching assistants and a classroom deployment involving 170 undergraduate students across two in-class sessions show strong perceived learning value (90% agreement) and engagement (87% enjoyment), alongside low reported pressure (22%). However, only 42% of students found the automated feedback sufficiently actionable, a finding independently corroborated by 40% of open-ended responses raising feedback quality concerns, providing cross-method triangulation of this gap. These findings demonstrate the technical feasibility and early pedagogical potential of DBWorkout while identifying directions for enhancing feedback quality and supporting sustained SQL learning.
Educator-guided ai gives staged feedback for database design learning
An Educator-Guided LLM Pedagogical Agent for Scaffolded Feedback in Conceptual Database Design
Abstract: We present an educator-guided LLM pedagogical agent for scaffolded feedback in conceptual database design. Integrated into an entity--relationship diagram (ERD) editor, the system grounds feedback in the student artifact, assignment requirements, educator-authored rubrics, and instructional resources. Its architecture separates hidden, artifact-grounded diagnosis from the workflow that controls the form and disclosure level of student-facing support. We instantiate the architecture as a four-stage workflow progressing from concept checks and guided application to low-detail feedback and localized clarification. Each feedback request creates a stateful episode linked to versioned ERD states. In a deployment spanning three ERD environments and 383 feedback episodes, 71.1\% of observed target-level changes fully or partially incorporated the hidden diagnostic target, including many after Stages~1--2. Qualitative analysis showed that staged disclosure sometimes withheld inaccurate details, supported selective uptake, or allowed later recovery, though some errors still shaped revisions. Survey responses from a self-selected sample favored delayed disclosure and student agency but noted indirectness and repetition.
Student self-reports accurately track programming skills with specific exceptions
Measuring Student Self-Assessment against Viva-Demonstrated Mastery in a Large First-Year Programming Course
Abstract: Mastery-based education increasingly places the reporting of learning progress in students' hands, who record task completion on learning dashboards. The usefulness of such self-reports depends on how closely reported mastery corresponds to demonstrated competence. Most evidence on student self-assessment compares an overall self-rating with an overall examination score and therefore provides limited evidence about which tasks or which students account for the mismatch. This study examines first-year students' self-assessment against viva-demonstrated mastery at the level of individual tasks across a ladder of sixty programming tasks. The study draws on a large first-year programming course taught in 2023, involving 203 students and 12 examiners, in which every reported task was verified through an oral viva. Because a task entered the Viva only after it was reported, the design is one-sided and captures over-estimation but not under-estimation. Of 11,093 reported tasks, 10,885 (98.1%) were demonstrated, indicating a high degree of correspondence between self-report and demonstrated mastery. The remaining 208 overestimations were not evenly distributed. A small number of students accounted for most of the errors, and they occurred mainly on difficult tasks near the end of the task ladder rather than on higher-point tasks. This task-level analysis shows that high overall self-assessment accuracy can coexist with specific areas where reported and demonstrated mastery diverge. It also provides a practical basis for directing additional verification and formative feedback toward students and tasks where such divergence is more likely.
Computing students and experts predict changing cognitive skills in AI future
Cognitive Skills in the Age of AI: Computing Students and Experts Perceptions
Abstract: AI is becoming increasingly integrated into daily workflows, especially in computing. We are gradually shifting towards an AI-rich future, an impending yet unknown one. One important emerging concern is whether we are accordingly preparing our future computing workforce. Further, we need to know what the important cognitive skills are to remain relevant in the computing workforce and if there are changes in cognitive skill importance. To investigate this direction, we conducted a mixed-methods study, collecting perceptions from computing students and computing experts regarding the importance of cognitive skills in the past, present, and future. We report that the perceived importance of most cognitive skills will decrease in the future, with an AI-rich environment, but critical thinking skills remain important. Further, we report reasons collected through interviews on why the importance of cognitive skills will change and how future computing students can prepare for it.
Bespoke system creates industry-specific lecture videos with low cost
Bespoke: Generating MOOC-Quality Industry-Personalized Lecture Videos at Scale
Abstract: Lifelong learners from different industries often watch the same recorded lecture, even when they will apply the material in different workplaces. We present Bespoke, a system that takes the transcript of an existing lecture and generates a new video customized to a target industry and duration, with new slides, narration, and charts. From 31 graduate lectures in analytics, machine learning, and optimization, we generated 209 videos for these three industries, plus a generic-audience version of each lecture. Twenty-five experts in the corresponding domains rated 92 videos on a five-point rubric. They judged 87% at or above the rubric midpoint corresponding to ``a standard MOOC lecture's quality'' (mean overall score 3.42 out of 5; 48% scored 4 or above). Overall quality was similar across industries, durations, and a 21-lecture held-out set unused while developing the system, at about \$0.22 API cost per minute of video.
Large language models automate practical judgment tests with feedback
Automating Constructive Assessment with Large Language Models: Toward Scalable and Repeated Evaluation of Practical Competence
Abstract: This study aimed to automate hierarchical diagnostic reasoning (HDR), a constructive method for evaluating practical judgment skills, by developing and testing an evaluation process using a large language model. HDR is a descriptive task that measures higher-order cognitive skills by requiring students to identify and explain errors in case-study-based problems. However, it requires expertise and effort to develop and evaluate. Hence, we proposed and empirically validated the automatic (1) generation of case problems containing errors aligned with educational intentions, (2) scoring of descriptive answers, and (3) generation of structured feedback based on incorrect answers, achieved solely through prompt design without fine-tuning. The internal consistency and construct validity of the generated problems were supported by the experimental score distribution and Cronbach's alpha (0.78). The agreement between automated and human ratings reached 100% under some conditions. The feedback was rated as being as convincing and useful as that from human instructors, demonstrating a practical framework for implementing HDR-based constructive assessment with reproducibility, immediacy, and low cost. The flexibility of large language models will also enable repeated and longitudinal assessments while maintaining structure, showing broad potential for application in educational settings.
Wiki based course structures improve machine learning tutoring accuracy
Potential for Enhanced Learning in Machine Learning Classes by Using Wiki LLM Indexing
Abstract: Large language models are increasingly deployed as course-specific tutors, but their usefulness depends on grounding in vetted instructional materials that are often revised mid-semester. Our prior work built a multimodal retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system over an authentic machine learning course corpus (Foundations of Machine Learning) and found that retrieval improved contextual grounding, but that fixed retrieval strategies were suboptimal. That motivates a different question: whether how a corpus is structured at ingest time matters more than how much is retrieved at query time. We present a controlled head-to-head comparison of two knowledge representations over an identical classroom corpus: (A) vector RAG, replicating the best-performing configuration from our prior study, and (B) an LLM-compiled wiki (Karpathy framework), in which the corpus is synthesized at ingest into linked concept pages with explicit cross-references and citations back to source materials. We evaluate 59 questions spanning single-fact recall, cross-unit concept linking, synthesis and explanation, and currency after a syllabus revision, scored by an LLM judge against a human-authored rubric. Both representations answered single-fact questions about equally well (9.33 vs. 9.96 of 10), but diverged sharply on questions requiring links across course units. The compiled wiki remained accurate and grounded (9.93; 100% grounded in cited sources), while retrieval scored lower and was markedly less grounded (8.14; 64%). The wiki's citations let students and instructors trace any claim back to the lecture that introduced it, adding a layer of dynamic retrieval that machine learning courses require. While further testing is needed, instructors using AI to support learning in ML courses should consider wiki-based structure for its potential to support foundational elements of best practice.
Pedagogy-guided AI generates better STEM learning videos
From Content Generation to Learning Support: Pedagogy-Guided Generative Video Tutors for STEM Learning
Abstract: Generative AI enables scalable production of educational videos, but current systems largely focus on producing visually coherent content rather than supporting learning. As a result, generated videos often lack explicit pedagogical structure, reliable quality control, and mechanisms for assessing learner understanding or addressing misconceptions. In this work, we introduce PIVOT (Pedagogy-guided Instructional VideO Tutoring), a generative video tutoring framework for STEM learning via learning-centered instructional support.1 Inspired by conventional teaching workflows, our framework integrates pedagogy into the full generation pipeline: it first uses instructional principles to guide storyboard generation, then produces verified multimodal videos through code-centric generation and a pedagogical verification harness, and finally connects videos with assessment and misconception-aware remediation. Experiments and expert evaluations across four STEM domains show that our framework produces educational videos with pedagogically aligned content, clear and engaging presentation, coherent instructional flow, and perceived effectiveness for learning. These findings suggest a human-centered perspective on educational content generation: generative systems should be evaluated and designed not only by what they produce, but also by how they support teaching practices, learner understanding, and corrective feedback.
Adaptive AI tutor adjusts coding help based on learner decisions
Adaptive Scaffolding Needs Contingency: An AI Tutor That Escalates and Fades on What the Learner Does
Abstract: Coding assistants raise task performance, but learners plan and monitor less. Giving less away, the usual fix, conflates two things: how much work a system carries (cognitive load) and what the learner must decide before help arrives (metacognitive demand). Our principle, preserved metacognitive demand, holds the second constant and lets the first vary. CoMeT implements it: support rises when a learner fails at a decision point and fades on take-up. Within subjects, 131 adult learners used CoMeT, an unrestricted assistant and a question-only tutor on three Python tasks. CoMeT matched the question-only tutor's demand, delivered artifacts twice as often as the assistant, and frustrated learners less than the question-only tutor, with delegation and load unchanged. Learners often did not answer. Fading held when their turn addressed the decision under support, and CoMeT surrendered the full answer in one session in sixteen, against one in six for the question-only tutor.
Business analytics instructors generate flexible synthetic datasets with ai
DataCanvas-EDU: An Agentic Framework for Instructor-Guided Synthetic Data Generation in Business Analytics Education
Abstract: Business analytics education requires diverse datasets to support different learning objectives, student backgrounds, and analytical tasks. Real-world data can be difficult to obtain and offer limited flexibility for adapting a case to a particular course. Even when suitable data are available, instructors must investigate the patterns, verify the results, and prepare assignments and reference solutions, requiring substantial time and effort. The use of large language models (LLMs) introduces an additional concern about training data contamination. Widely used public datasets often have extensive tutorials and worked analyses that models may have encountered during training. Students may therefore receive explanations drawn from existing analyses without practicing how to investigate unfamiliar data in collaboration with AI. This paper presents DataCanvas-EDU, an agentic framework for instructor-guided synthetic data generation in business analytics education. Instructors specify teaching goals and intended patterns through conversation, while an AI agent writes generation code, checks the resulting data, and prepares assignments, reference analyses, and rubrics. Four phases, Plan, Create, Verify / Test Analysis, and Evaluate, organize the process and support instructor review and revision. The framework is intended to simplify case preparation while creating opportunities for students to investigate newly designed patterns with AI. We illustrate the approach with WindowDash, a food delivery case containing 15,000 orders and nine designed patterns. DataCanvas-EDU is packaged as a reusable AI Agent Skill for compatible agent environments, with the package and installation instructions available at https://github.com/BANG23333/datacanvas-edu
Instructional reasoning preservation improves teaching material reuse
Looking Back and Forward: What Teaching Materials Do Not Remember About Instructional Reasoning
Abstract: Instructional materials can be passed along to new instructors, yet the instructional reasoning, such as instructional intentions, contextual information, and reflective insights behind their design, is rarely preserved. Traditional Learning Management System (LMS) tools are designed to store instructional artifacts rather than reasoning. To address this issue, we propose Teaching Memory, a design approach that treats instructional reasoning as a primary form of knowledge. We present a design-oriented framework for preserving instructional reasoning in a lightweight manner within instructors' existing workflows, enabling continuity and reuse.
Digital driving license shows real digital skills beyond competence frameworks
From Digital Competence to Demonstrated Digital Capability: Positioning the International Digital Driving License Against DigComp and UNESCO Frameworks
Abstract: Digital competence frameworks define the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required for participation in digital society. The European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) and UNESCO digital literacy and artificial intelligence competency frameworks provide reference structures for policy, curriculum and competency development. The growth of generative and agentic AI raises a further question: does knowing what constitutes competent digital behaviour provide sufficient evidence that an individual can act competently in an authentic digital situation? This conceptual paper addresses that question through a comparative analysis of DigComp, UNESCO Digital Literacy Global Framework, UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Students, and the International Digital Driving License (IDDL). Rather than treating these frameworks as competing models, the paper distinguishes their functions. DigComp and UNESCO primarily define what individuals should know, understand, value and be able to do. IDDL addresses the subsequent evidentiary problem by assessing digital capability through behaviour observed during authentic digital tasks. Its Knowledge-Capability-Reflection model distinguishes knowing what should be done, demonstrating the required behaviour, and explaining the judgement behind it. IDDL integrates Digital Skills, Cybersecurity Awareness and AI Competency, and extends assessment to human agency under AI delegation. The paper distinguishes defined competence from demonstrated capability and positions IDDL as an interoperable behavioural assessment and certification layer that can operate downstream of international competency frameworks.
Ai enabled tools improve scalable measurement of durable skills
Towards Scalable Measurement of Durable Skills
Abstract: Durable skills, such as collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, are instrumental to success in the modern workforce. Yet, measuring these skills remains a persistent challenge. Moreover, because what is not measured is often not taught, these skills are often overlooked in mainstream educational curricula. Designing effective assessments for these skills necessitates balancing two often-conflicting requirements: ecological validity and psychometric rigor. On the one hand, the assessment environment should emulate natural real-world human interaction between humans. On the other hand, it should be scalable, controllable and reproducible. Here we argue that LLMs can be used to better capture both of these aims. Concretely, we develop a framework where the subject converses with AI teammates in a way that resembles human-human interaction for authenticity, while also offering the psychometric control required for informative and robust assessment. Importantly, the AI participants not only act as teammates but also, in an "Executive LLM" setup, steer the conversation towards eliciting a high density of observable evidence for skill proficiency. We complement this with an AI evaluator that can be used to measure skill proficiency in such interactions. We evaluate our assessment protocol based on transcripts of interactions of human participants with our AI framework, for multiple durable skills. For the skill of creativity, we further demonstrate the efficacy of an autorater for evaluating complex tasks performed by real students. Our analysis shows that the use of the Executive LLM significantly increases elicited evidence and that LLM-automated scoring of conversations largely agrees with that of expert annotators. This research demonstrates the utility of orchestrated LLMs approaches for measuring complex social and cognitive constructs in a scalable and controllable manner.
Programming course framework builds human-centered data science skills
Embedded Human-Centered Data Science in a Graduate Programming Course: A Framework and Case Study
Abstract: As AI and data-driven systems pervade practice, there is an imperative for instructors to embed societal impact and ethics content into computing courses. In response, we present the Human-Centered Education for Learning in Information and eXplainable Computing (HELIX) framework for information science programs, organized around three iterative pillars - knowledge building, decision-making, and empowerment - with concrete actions for instructors and students. We applied the framework in a graduate, introductory programming course using readings, algorithmic design activities, and scenario-based reflections. We present a pilot implementation of this framework to examine changes in students' (n=22) knowledge acquisition, decision-making processes, and self-reflection regarding human-centered perspectives in data science. We release an anonymized materials kit (survey, assignments, analysis code) to support adoption. We discuss design tensions (workload, assessment, relevance to diverse information science learners) and provide guidelines for integrating human-centered content without overwhelming technical outcomes. Findings suggest that the HELIX Framework is feasible in information science contexts and future work should use comparative survey assessment to strengthen causal inferences.