Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences

Dr. Rodrigo, Justin Gregory Pena, and Jayzon Ty were invited to present at Miriam College’s Math and Science Week on augmented reality and virtual reality. After giving a short lecture on the topics, they demonstrated Jayzon’s thesis on a mobile authoring tool for augmented reality.

Jayzon and his augmented reality thesis project.

Miriam College high school students watching as Jayzon demonstrates his thesis project.

They then demonstrated Justin and Gian Roma Tobias’s “Space Rift”, a solar system exploration game built for the oculus rift.

A screen cap of Space Rift.

Justin explaining how the game works to the Miriam College high school students.

An ALLS paper on Augmented Reality was accepted into the upcoming 14th Philippine Computing Science Congress.

The paper entitled “A Mobile Authoring Tool for Augmented Reality Content Generation Using Images as Annotations“ by Jayzon Ty, Marc Ericson Santos, and Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo was accepted for oral presentation at the University of Immaculate Conception, Davao City on March 6 to 8, 2014.

Abstract. Augmented Reality is a technology that allows the superimposition of virtual objects onto the real world. Various fields, such as education, medicine, and architecture, started adapting Augmented Reality technology in order to enhance the experience of the users of their systems. However, developing Augmented Reality application and its contents requires a specialized knowledge in computer programming, computer graphics, and software development, which results in only specific people being able to experience Augmented Reality. This paper describes a tool that allows users to produce content for Augmented Reality viewing without the need for specialized knowledge. Furthermore, the tool enables users to create and edit Augmented Reality content on the spot, without the need for a separate application in order to do so.

An ALLS paper was accepted as a journal paper in the Philippine Information Technology Journal.

The paper, entitled “Exploring the use of biometric readings to predict levels of viewer engagement ”, was written by Mary Josephine Co, the high school student who interned at ALLS over the summer, Dr. Didith Rodrigo, and Ivan Jacob Pesigan.

This paper describes the use of biometrics readings, specifically electrodermal activity (EDA) and body temperature, to predict levels of video viewer engagement. Test subjects were asked to watch a series of video clips of different types. We collected their EDA and temperatures while they were watching clips using the Affectiva Q sensor. After each clip, they were asked to rate how engaging they found the video. We then created a linear model that predicted their ratings. Unfortunately, the model was not significant. Subsequent statistical tests on the data showed no significant difference in EDA and temperature among the different levels of engagement. The experiences documented in this paper may serve as experiment design notes for researchers who intend to conduct similar studies.

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Two ALLS papers were accepted as journal papers in the Philippine Computing Journal..

The first paper, entitled “Educational data mining: Current research and open questions”, was written by Dr. Didith Rodrigo.

Educational data mining (EDM) refers to the application of statistical and machine learning methods to educational data in order to achieve one of four typical ends: improvement of student models, improvement of subject matter domain structures, studying pedagogical support and refining educational theories. An interdisciplinary field, EDM draws on mathematics, computer sciences, cognitive psychology, education theory, sociology and others. This paper walks the reader through the EDM process and then discusses recent work and open questions in the first three application areas. The paper hopes to introduce young researchers to the field and suggest problems that are still open for investigation.

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The second paper, entitled “Exploring the implications of tutor negativity towards a synthetic agent in a learning-by-teaching environment”, was written by Dr. Didith Rodrigo, Regina Ira Antonette Geli, Aaron Ong, Gabriel Jose Vitug, Rex Bringula, Roselle Basa, Cecilio dela Cruz, and Noboru Matsuda.

The researchers examine the implications of negativity in free-form dialogue between student tutors and a synthetic agent in APLUS, a learning-by-teaching online learning environment for Algebra. They attempt to determine whether the negativity of a student tutor’s discourse with the agent indicates that the student is learning more or less of the material and whether the feedback they give the synthetic agent is more or less accurate. They found a weak negative correlation between tutor negativity and learning gains and a strong negative correlation between tutor negativity and accuracy of feedback. Negativity might indeed indicate that student tutors lack mastery of the subject matter and need assistance themselves and detecting negativity during tutoring and providing appropriate assistance might enhance the effectiveness of APLUS and other intelligent tutoring systems.

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