Papers for

learning management system developers

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.

Classroom polls show bias and limited student skill separation

An Audit of Measurement Quality and Answer Bias in a Large Classroom-Poll Corpus

Abstract: Real-time classroom polls are widely used and increasingly generated with automated assistance, yet the questions themselves are rarely evaluated as measurements. We audit a large corpus of authentic classroom polls, 604 items across 47 sessions answered 340,668 times by 2,807 learners, as a measurement instrument. For the 539 items whose correct answer could be established and verified from the lecture transcript, we place every item and every student on a common scale using item response theory and analyse the answer structure of the True/False items. Two findings emerge. First, the polls form a coherent but easy scale of moderate precision (marginal reliability about 0.60), on which roughly a quarter of items barely separate stronger from weaker students. Second, students show a robust tendency to answer True, present at the individual level (77% of students lean True), which meets a milder tendency for items to be keyed False; as a result answer direction predicts difficulty, False-keyed items being about thirteen points harder, and the effect survives controls for item content and for selective answering. Both findings rest on signals a polling system already records, so the same checks can be run as items are generated, before they reach students.

Wed 30 SeptHuman-Computer InteractionComputers and Society
The gist
Many classrooms use quick polls to check what students know, but the questions are rarely checked if they measure learning well. The paper looked at over 600 real poll questions answered by thousands of students and found that the questions often don’t clearly separate stronger from weaker students. Also, most students tend to answer 'True' more often, making 'False' answers unexpectedly harder. The authors suggest ways to spot these issues early using data the polling systems already collect.
Open → 2609.38959v1

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

Thu 17 SeptHuman-Computer InteractionArtificial Intelligence
The gist
Business analytics teachers often need various datasets for different lessons, but real data can be hard to get and is not flexible. The authors created DataCanvas-EDU, a system where teachers talk to an AI to design synthetic datasets with specific patterns. The AI then writes code to create the data, checks it, and makes assignments and grading guides. This helps teachers save time and lets students work with unique data instead of familiar examples.
Open → 2609.19617v1

Pulla tracks detailed student code solving steps for better teaching

Pulla: A Parsons Problem Tool for Fine-Grained Behavioral Tracing and Instructor-Facing Problem-Solving Analysis

Abstract: Existing Parsons problem tools primarily focus on correctness, indicating whether a student solved a problem, but providing limited visibility into the underlying problem-solving process. We address this gap by introducing Pulla, a Parsons problem tool that instruments programming assignments to capture fine-grained interaction data. These behavioral traces allow the system to surface recurring difficulty patterns, giving instructors actionable insights to inform targeted intervention decisions. This paper describes our experience in developing and deploying Pulla. We deployed the tool in two university courses: an upper-division software design course at the University of Houston (United States) and an introductory programming course at Aalto University (Finland). By analyzing the data collected, we identified common difficulty patterns, including misidentifying exception types, confusing return with the throw/raise mechanism, and incorrect control-flow ordering.

Mon 14 SeptHuman-Computer Interaction
The gist
Many existing tools only show whether a student solved a coding puzzle, not how they solved it. The authors built Pulla, a tool that watches each step students take while arranging code pieces. This helps teachers see where students get stuck or confused, like mixing up exception types or control flow. They tested this tool in two university programming courses and found common problem areas for students. This information can help teachers give better, targeted help.
Open → 2609.15944v1