Abstract Expressing information in different forms is an important skill that students should develop in school. This skill positively impacts academic reading and writing. However, it can also lead to negative consequences, such as plagiarism. Students may paraphrase original texts and present them as their own work. Therefore, the need to develop effective approaches to detect plagiarism and identify paraphrase has become increasingly important in academia, journalism, publishing, and other fields where innovation, novelty, and originality are highly valued, especially with the rising incidence of plagiarism in these areas because of the easy access to information on the internet and the capabilities of large language models. Most published detection methods analyse plagiarism at the sentence-level. We have developed approaches for generating and detecting paraphrased paragraphs by considering inter-sentence and intra-sentence relations, which enables the identification of paraphrased text at the paragraph-level. This includes joining, splitting, and/or shifting sentences within a paragraph, as students often plagiarise paragraphs. In the generating stage, we create the ALECS dataset, by developing three algorithms and applying a masking approach to tackle the paragraph’s syntactic and lexical layers while maintaining the paragraph’s semantics. ALECS can contribute to developing students’ abilities in paraphrasing, as there are more than 6 different forms for each source paragraph. In addition, as in this study, ALECS can be employed to train deep learning models for the purpose of generating or detecting plagiarised paragraphs. For the detection phase, our method shows robust results and outperforms existing work in detecting paragraph-level paraphrases, achieving a 90.1 F1 score with Longformer and reaching 96 when using a fine-tuned GPT-3.5. Graphical Abstract

The ITiCSE '23 final keynote raised teaching soft skills, or professional dispositions, to help students face challenges in modern programming. This project addresses helping computing students develop professional dispositions through collaborative learning (CL) since some in the industry observe entry-level engineers struggling due to their fragile professional dispositions. We are motivated to understand professional expectations from entry-level engineers and present the academia-industry gap to support practitioners and researchers in advancing CL in Computing Education, encouraging positive curricula and policy changes that promote DEIA. We will present CL practices alongside their supported professional dispositions to assist practitioners in adoption. We will present the academia-industry gap in CL for future research opportunities, helping researchers advance CL practices to integrate professional dispositions the industry expects from entry-level engineers.

Abstract Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) platforms are considered a distinctive way to deliver a modern educational experience, open to a worldwide public. However, student engagement in MOOCs is a less explored area, although it is known that MOOCs suffer from one of the highest dropout rates within learning environments in general, and in e-learning in particular. A special challenge in this area is finding early, measurable indicators of engagement. This paper tackles this issue with a unique blend of data analytics and NLP and machine learning techniques together with a solid foundation in psychological theories. Importantly, we show for the first time how Self-Determination Theory (SDT) can be mapped onto concrete features extracted from tracking student behaviour on MOOCs. We map the dimensions of Autonomy, Relatedness and Competence, leading to methods to characterise engaged and disengaged MOOC student behaviours, and exploring what triggers and promotes MOOC students’ interest and engagement. The paper further contributes by building the Engage Taxonomy, the first taxonomy of MOOC engagement tracking parameters, mapped over 4 engagement theories: SDT, Drive, ET, Process of Engagement. Moreover, we define and analyse students’ engagement tracking, with a larger than usual body of content (6 MOOC courses from two different universities with 26 runs spanning between 2013 and 2018) and students (initially around 218.235). Importantly, the paper also serves as the first large-scale evaluation of the SDT theory itself, providing a blueprint for large-scale theory evaluation. It also provides for the first-time metrics for measurable engagement in MOOCs, including specific measures for Autonomy, Relatedness and Competence; it evaluates these based on existing (and expanded) measures of success in MOOCs: Completion rate, Correct Answer ratio and Reply ratio. In addition, to further illustrate the use of the proposed SDT metrics, this study is the first to use SDT constructs extracted from the first week, to predict active and non-active students in the following week.

The STEAM approach in education has been gaining increasing popularity over the last decade. This is due to its potential in enhancing students' learning, when teaching arts and scientific disciplines together. This paper introduces the PICA-PICA concept, where we aim to develop a smart customisable environment, combining, in a unique way, teaching programming in conjunction with the engineering of artworks. The PICA-PICA concept was implemented, used and tested in real-life, by upper primary school students in Japan, during a 4-day workshop. Initial results illustrated the quality of the solution proposed by PICA-PICA. We noted that the integration was perceived as smooth, and not contrived: all participants understood how to use the PICA-PICA environment to engineer programmable art objects. Furthermore, the PICA-PICA approach led to high motivation: children did not get bored and were fully engaged. Finally, the quality of their work as a learning outcome was high: by including a programming segment with the other expressive activities in the artwork, the children were able to design the electronics in a more concentrated and meaningful way than their curriculum-structured learning. This study also presents an innovative implementation of the STEAM approach using Micro:bits technology to create exciting artwork whilst using household recyclable items, which also teaches about sustainability. The involvement of parents and their interest in learning is another unique aspect of this study.

Technological support for augmenting the relationship that people establish with remote places has been studied fairly little as the primary focus in telepresence studies is the connection between people. This paper addresses the design challenge for supporting "active place presence" at home. A prototype, Hole in Space, was created to explore the design challenge. A longitudinal study of how an urban couple appropriated the prototype was conducted over the duration of seven months. The paper elaborates on how the Web-mediated design influenced place presence and outlines several aspects that need to be considered when designing for active place presence at home.

Being able to identify colours is a fundamental human activity; colour identification helps us work, get dressed, prepare food, and keep safe. But for the 5% of the world with impaired colour vision (ICV), colour identification is often a challenge, resulting in frustration and confusion with sometimes dangerous consequences. Colour namer tools have been proposed as a solution, however these are often slow to use and imprecise. To address these shortcomings, we developed three new colour identification techniques (ColourNames, ColourMeters, ColourPopper) using a new colour name dictionary based on the largest colour naming experiment to date. We compared our techniques to colour namers using participants with ICV in desktop and mobile conditions, and found that ColourNames and ColourPopper resulted in ~99% colour identification accuracy (10% higher than the colour namer), ColourMeters and ColourPopper were three times faster, and ColourPopper had lower perceived effort and was ranked significantly higher. With the benefits provided by our new colour identification techniques, people with ICV are one step closer to seeing the world like everyone else.

Computing is now one of the fastest growing fields of employment, with a large bias placed on developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in schools. However, due to the fast pace of technology development, it is increasingly difficult for schools to keep up with the latest computing methodologies. A possible solution is the use of university outreach programmes, whereby local universities can provide training workshops on areas that can be challenging for schools to implement. This can be problematic, as there is a perceived lack of interest in the methods used to interact with secondary school pupils on a university level.

Game and gamification elements are increasingly seeing use as part of interface designs for applications seeking to engage and retain users whilst transferring information. This paper presents an evaluation of a game-based approach seeking to improve the road safety behaviour amongst children aged 9-15 within the UK, made available outside of a classroom context as an online, browser-based, free-to-play game. The paper reports on data for 99,683 players over 315,882 discrete logins, supplemented by results from a nationally-representative survey of children at UK schools (n=1,108), an incentivized survey of the player-base (n=1,028), and qualitative data obtained through a series of one-to-one interviews aged 9-14 (n=28). Analysis demonstrates the reach of the game to its target demographic, with 88.13% of players within the UK. A 3.94 male/female ratio was observed amongst players surveyed, with an age distribution across the target range of 9-15. Noting mean and median playtimes of 93 and 31 minutes (n=99,683), it is suggested such an approach to user engagement and retention can surpass typical contact times obtained through other forms of web-based content. The size of the player-base attracted to the game and players' qualitative feedback demonstrates the potential for serious games deployed on a national scale.

Web-based technologies are often built to capitalize on the flexibility and fluidity that is supported by the internet, with the value of 'access anywhere' underpinning a blurring of boundaries across home and work. Yet the home is well known in HCI to have a unique set of qualities that can use-fully be drawn upon when designing to support domestic life. In this paper we ask what it means to design domestic web-connected technologies, placing the aesthetic and material properties intrinsic to the home and home life at the centre of our design exploration. We present three concepts that were selected and prototyped from a broader process of research-through-design: Tokens of Search provides tangible handles to web resources; Hole in Space connects the home intimately to a remote place; and Manhattan enables the tangible exploration of events in the community, putting the home at the centre. Discussions in the paper consider not only how aesthetics is articulated in the material and digital properties of the artefacts, but also how a consideration of the properties of the home can create a potentially new design space to explore.

This paper reports the results of an exploratory study into inadvertent grip pressure changes on mobile devices with a focus on the differences between static lab-based and mobile walking environments. The aim of this research is to inform the design of more robust pressure input techniques that can accommodate dynamic mobile usage. The results of the experiment show that there are significant differences in grip pressure in static and walking conditions with high levels of pressure variation in both. By combining the pressure data with accelerometer data, we show that grip pressure is closely related to user movement.

ForcePhone is a mobile synchronous haptic communication system. During phone calls, users can squeeze the side of the device and the pressure level is mapped to vibrations on the recipient's device. The pressure/vibrotactile messages supported by ForcePhone are called pressages. Using a lab-based study and a small field study, this paper addresses the following questions: how can haptic interpersonal communication be integrated into a standard mobile device? What is the most appropriate feedback design for pressages? What types of non-verbal cues can be represented by pressages? Do users make use of pressages during their conversations? The results of this research indicate that such a system has value as a communication channel in real-world settings with users expressing greetings, presence and emotions through pressages.

We present a finger-tracking system for touch-based interaction which can track 3D finger angle in addition to position, using low-resolution conventional capacitive sensors, therefore compensating for the inaccuracy due to pose variation in conventional touch systems. Probabilistic inference about the pose of the finger is carried out in real-time using a particle filter; this results in an efficient and robust pose estimator which also gives appropriate uncertainty estimates. We show empirically that tracking the full pose of the finger results in greater accuracy in pointing tasks with small targets than competitive techniques. Our model can detect and cope with different finger sizes and the use of either fingers or thumbs, bringing a significant potential for improvement in one-handed interaction with touch devices. In addition to the gain in accuracy we also give examples of how this technique could open up the space of novel interactions.

This paper presents a study looking into the effects of walking and the use of visual and audio feedback on the application of pressure for linear targeting. Positional and Rate-based control methods are compared in order to determine which allows for more stable and accurate selections, both while sitting and mobile. Results suggest that Rate-based control is superior for both mobile (walking) and static (sitting) linear targeting, and that mobility significantly increases errors, selection time and subjective workload. The use of only audio feedback significantly increased errors and task time for Positional control and static Rate-based control, but not mobile Rate-based control. Despite this, the results still suggest that audio control of pressure interaction while walking is highly accurate and usable.

We describe a particle filtering approach to inferring finger movements on capacitive sensing arrays. This technique allows the efficient combination of human movement models with accurate sensing models, and gives high-fidelity results with low-resolution sensor grids and tracks finger height. Our model provides uncertainty estimates, which can be linked to the interaction to provide appropriately smoothed responses as sensing perfomance degrades; system autonomy is increased as estimates of user behaviour become less certain. We demonstrate the particle filter approach with a map browser running with a very small sensor board, where finger position uncertainty is linked to autonomy handover.

We conducted a series of user studies to understand and clarify the fundamental characteristics of pressure in user interfaces for mobile devices. We seek to provide insight to clarify a longstanding discussion on mapping functions for pressure input. Previous literature is conflicted about the correct transfer function to optimize user performance. Our study results suggest that the discrepancy can be explained by different signal conditioning circuitry and with improved signal conditioning the user-performed precision relationship is linear. We also explore the effects of hand pose when applying pressure to a mobile device from the front, the back, or simultaneously from both sides in a pinching movement. Our results indicate that grasping type input outperforms single-sided input and is competitive with pressure input against solid surfaces. Finally we provide an initial exploration of non-visual multimodal feedback, motivated by the desire for eyes-free use of mobile devices. The findings suggest that non-visual pressure input can be executed without degradation in selection time but suffers from accuracy problems.

We describe a virtual "tether" for mobile devices that allows groups to have quick, simple and privacy-preserving meetups. Our design provides cues which allow dynamic coordination of rendezvous without revealing users' positions. Using accelerometers and magnetometers, combined with GPS positioning and non-visual feedback, users can probe and sense a dynamic virtual object representing the nearest meeting point. The Social Gravity system makes social bonds tangible in a virtual world which is geographically grounded, using haptic feedback to help users rendezvous. We show dynamic navigation using this physical model-based system to be efficient and robust in significant field trials, even in the presence of low-quality positioning. The use of simulators to build models of mobile geolocated systems for pre-validation purposes is discussed, and results compared with those from our trials. Our results show interesting behaviours in the social coordination task, which lead to guidelines for geosocial interaction design. The Social Gravity system proved to be very successful in allowing groups to rendezvous efficiently and simply and can be implemented using only commercially available hardware.

With the expanding horizons of distributed eLearning, classrooms are increasingly consisting of a mix of different cultures. This paper addresses this factor in adaptive educational systems by presenting a new facet of the standard user model, the CAE-L cultural ontology framework. The definition and creation of the framework is introduced along with the first instances of its use and application as a subset of an AEH user model. This is further illustrated through the use of a CAE-L web service.

Despite many successes in desktop applications, little work has looked at the use of pressure input on mobile devices and the different issues associated with mobile interactions e.g. non-visual feedback. This study examined pressure input on a mobile device using a single Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) with linearised output as a means of target selection within a menu, where target menu items varied in size and location along the z-axis. Comparing visual and audio feedback, results showed that, overall, eyes-free pressure interaction reached a mean level of 74% accuracy. With visual feedback mean accuracy reached 85%. Participants could accurately distinguish up to 10 pressure levels when given adequate feedback indicating a high level of control.

Adaptive hypermedia (AH) can offer a richer learning experience, tailored to studentspsila needs. However, authoring of AH is complex. Several models and systems have been developed. However the adaptation that can be defined, is limited in terms of(re)-usability by educational authors. To simplify adaptive behaviour authoring, the solution considered most intuitive is a visual environment. In this paper we specify the design of a visual authoring tool. We describe the implications this visual aspect has for the adaptation languages. This reflects lessons learnt from the experience of authoring project partners of the EU GRAPPLE project, hence is of interest to any designer or developer of reusable, general purpose adaptive e-learning system.

This paper describes how visual and verbal learning styles have been successfully integrated into an adaptive educational environment. User trials of this system were carried out, to determine the effect of the adaptation, and although these user trials do not indicate any statistically significant differences, the qualitative information gleaned from the study indicated that students preferred using this environment over other traditional revision methods, and that they perceived personalized tuition to be better than a 'one size fits all' approach

This paper presents an approach to resolve the problem of authoring and interchanging educational material, based on Web services. Here we describe the ultimate goal, of reusing and interchanging freely adaptive e-learning material, shortly sketch previous solutions, showing their benefits but also limitations and then introduce our Web-service based approach. Finally, we discuss the gains brought by our proposed solution

This paper presents an innovative approach to personalize on-line content to the needs of individual learners. We use a regular educational environment, the blackboard learning management system, with a new approach: we add adaptivity and personalization to it by means of authoring the goal-oriented material in an adaptive hypermedia authoring system, MOT, and delivering it in blackboard via a conversion to the SCORM specification. This represents the first attempt to connect adaptive hypermedia and learning management systems.