Martin van Velsen

Carnegie Mellon University | CMU · Eberly Center

Artificial Intelligence in Education research for STEM domains has largely been quantitative in nature, but qualitative research offers several advantages as part of a mixed-methods approach. In particular, qualitative research enables researchers to develop deeper phenomenological understanding of how learners represent their activity to themselve...

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) and MOOCs tend to have complementary pedagogical approaches, but their combination is rarely (if ever) seen. A key obstacle may be technical integration. We present a generalizable case study of extending ITS authoring technology to make tutors easily embeddable into a variety of MOOC/e-learning platforms and run...

We hypothesize that when cognitive tutors are integrated into online courseware, the online courseware can provide a new type of adaptive instructions, such as impasse-driven adaptive remediation and need-based assessments. As a proof of concept, we have developed an adaptive online course on the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) platform by integrati...

In 2009, we reported on a new Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) technology, example-tracing tutors, that can be built without programming using the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT). Creating example-tracing tutors was shown to be 4–8 times as cost-effective as estimates for ITS development from the literature. Since 2009, CTAT and its associ...

This paper evaluates the Human Affect Recording Tool (HART), a Computer Assisted Direct Observation (CADO) application that facilitates scientific sampling. HART enforces an established method for systematic direct observation in Educational Data Mining (EDM) research, the Baker Rodrigo Ocumpaugh Monitoring Protocol [25] [26]. This examination prov...

Besides the visual splendor pervasive in the current generation of digital video games, especially those where players roam simulated landscapes and imaginary worlds, few efforts have looked at the resources available to embed human meaning into a game's experience. From the art of persuasion to the mechanics of meaning-making in digital video game...

Besides the visual splendor pervasive in the current generation of digital video games, especially those where players roam simulated landscapes and imaginary worlds, few efforts have looked at the resources available to embed human meaning into a game’s experience. From the art of persuasion to the mechanics of meaning-making in digital video game...

Affect has been hypothesized to play a significant role in triggering engagement/disengagement during learning. In this paper, we study the inter-relationships between students’ affect (boredom, confusion, frustration, engaged concentration) and their engaged and disengaged behaviors (off-task, on-task solitary, on-task conversation, gaming the sys...

Erroneous examples are an instructional technique that hold promise to help children learn. In the study reported in this paper, sixth and seventh grade math students were presented with erroneous examples of decimal problems and were asked to explain and correct those examples. The problems were presented as interactive exercises on the Internet,...

In the current environment of digital games and immersive role playing systems, we often overlook previous methods of conveying and experiencing, interactive narrative-based entertainment. We present a fresh perspective on interactive digital storytelling systems based on table-top role playing games. Table-top games offer players the ability to n...

In the current environment of digital games and immersive role playing systems, we often overlook previous methods of conveying and experiencing narrative based entertainment. We present a fresh perspective on interactive digital storytelling systems based on table-top role playing games. Table-top games offer players the ability to negotiate and d...

In the current environment of digital games and immersive role playing systems, we often overlook previous methods of conveying and experiencing narrative based entertainment. We present a fresh perspective on interactive digital storytelling systems based on table-top role playing games. Table-top games offer players the ability to negotiate and d...

In this paper we present an authoring tool called Narratoria that allows non-technical experts in the field of digital entertainment to create interactive narratives with D graphics and multimedia. Narratoria allows experts in digital entertainment to participate in the generation of story-based military training applications. Users of the tools ca...

In this paper we present an authoring tool called Narratoria1 that allows non-technical experts in the field of digital entertainment to create interactive narratives with D graphics and multimedia. Narratoria allows experts in digital entertainment to participate in the generation of story-based military training applications. Users of the tools c...

An important characteristic of a virtual human is the ability to direct its perceptual attention to entities and areas in a virtual environment in a manner that appears believable and serves a functional purpose. In this paper, we describe a perceptual attention model that mediates top-down and bottom-up attention processes of virtual humans in ord...

Simulation-based training is increasingly being used within the military to practice and develop the skills of successful soldiers. For the skills associated with successful military leadership, our inability to model human behavior to the necessary degree of fidelity in constructive simulations requires that new interactive designs be developed. T...

This article details preliminary studies undertaken to integrate the most relevant advancements across multiple disciplines in an effort to construct a highly realistic neurosurgical simulator based on a distributed computer architecture. Techniques based on modified computational modeling paradigms incorporating finite element analysis are present...

Simulation-based training is increasingly being used within the military to practice and develop the skills of successful soldiers. For the skills associated with successful military leadership, our inability to model human behavior to the necessary degree of fidelity in constructive simulations requires that new interactive designs be developed. T...

RETSINA is an implemented Multi-Agent System infrastructure that has been developed for several years and applied in many domains ranging from financial portfolio management to logistic planning. In this paper, we distill from our experience in developing MASs to clearly define a generic MAS infrastructure as the domain independent and reusable sub...

Think Like a Commander - Excellence in Leadership (TLAC-XL) is an application designed for learning leadership skills both from the experiences of others and through a structured dialogue about issues raised in a vignette. The participant watches a movie, interacts with a synthetic mentor and interviews characters in the story. The goal is to enabl...

A-Match is a matchmaking system that allows agents to enter and exit the system dynamically. It employs a Matchmaker to support agents in the system in their exchange of services. A-Match lets human users interact with the Matchmaker. Through the A-Match users find agents that can provide needed services or advertise new agents. The functionality o...