{"id":316,"date":"2021-08-16T07:48:51","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T07:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iachounta.com\/website\/?page_id=316"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:20:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:20:58","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iachounta.com\/website\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Interests and Contributions<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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My research focuses on studying and modeling user interactions in various learning contexts. To that end, I follow a combined bottom-up and top-down approach: I engage in exploring data traces of user practice and in seeking patterns that may be backed up by theoretical reasoning. Following this approach, my main contributions are in\u00a0student modeling<\/strong>\u00a0and in\u00a0learning analytics<\/strong>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Personalized and adaptive feedback <\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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To choose the appropriate level of scaffolding and to provide personalized feedback with respect to student’s needs, I follow the Vygotskian concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). To that end, I have proposed the “Grey Area<\/strong>” approach that acts as a proxy for modeling the ZPD of individual students using learning analytics. According to this approach, the Grey Area is the area where the student model cannot predict with acceptable accuracy the outcome of a student step with respect to correctness and this can provide indication with respect to whether the student is (or is not) in the ZPD. The core rational is: if the student model cannot predict whether the student is able to carry out a learning task successfully, then it may be that the student is in their Zone of Proximal Development!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Related Publications:<\/strong><\/p>

Schulze Bernd, N., & Chounta, I. A. (2024)[preprint<\/a>]; Katz, S., Albacete, P., Chounta, I. A., Jordan, P., McLaren, B. M., & Zapata-Rivera, D. (2021) [preprint<\/a>]; Chounta, I. A., Albacete, P., Jordan, P., Katz, S., & McLaren, B. M. (2017)\u00a0[preprint<\/a>]; Chounta, I. A., McLaren, B. M., Albacete, P. L., Jordan, P. W., & Katz, S. (2017)[preprint<\/a>]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Response time and performance<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This work builds on the hypothesis that there is no linear relationship between step duration and correctness. A student needs a minimum amount of time in order to process the problem, retrieve information, and construct a correct response. Otherwise, taking too long to carry out a step could indicate lack of background knowledge, failure to retrieve information, and inability to address the step. Therefore, there is a time frame defined by a minimum and a maximum step duration (dtmin<\/sub> and dtmax<\/sub> respectively) in which a student will likely provide the correct answer. Every step that lies outside this time frame will most likely be solved incorrectly or not solved. We identify this time frame as the Zone of Interest<\/strong> (ZOI) and we envision that this concept can be used to provide timely feedback to students and to improve the performance of computational student models.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Publications: [1<\/a>], [2<\/a>], [3<\/a>]\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Reinventing Project-based Learning<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Existing \u201cmaker\u201d or “hack” scenarios mainly take place in informal settings and aim at extracurricular activities. However, the maker culture is not only about the actual product. It is also about the process of creating an artefact in a social arena. The final product of a challenge reflects and represents the overall experience of the maker: the knowledge one has to seek and to acquire, the impact of other people\u2019s practice, the self-reflection and self-assessment over the final product, and lastly, the sharing of this expedition with the community. Such important competencies can be supported through modelling, abstraction and scaffold self-reflection in conjunction with the learners making their own choices in the use of productive tools, i.e. by adopting the maker culture into the classroom, and vice-versa. By taking learning out of the classroom and transforming such events as hackathons, devcamps and makerspaces into impromptu learning opportunities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Related publications: [1<\/a>], [2<\/a>]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Time-series analysis for collaborative learning<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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During my phD research, I proposed the use of time-series to model collaborative learning activities. I demonstrated that the classication of collaborative sessions, with respect to their time series attributes, may be related to their qualitative aspects. In this sense, collaborative sessions that share similar time series, will also share similar qualitative properties. Additionally, I implemented an automatic rater of collaboration quality using Dynamic Time Warping and studied its use as part of a teacher dashboard. A subsequent study revealed that the use of the automatic rater by teachers depended on the size of the classroom. That is, teachers were reluctant to use the rater for small-size classrooms and perceived it as “extra-workload”. However this changed when the size of the classroom increased: teachers used the rater to receive indications about students’ group work and to support their decision-making process.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Publications: [1<\/a>], [2<\/a>], [3<\/a>], [4<\/a>]\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Funding and Grants<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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