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WGreller 706 days ago |
Second Call for Papers
The Second Workshop on Natural Language Processing in Support of Learning: Metrics, Feedback and Connectivity
Link: http://k-teams.cs.pub.ro/~nlpsl Organized under the FP7 LTfLL Project (http://www.ltfll-project.org/) September 14th 2010, Bucharest, ROMANIA
Introduction, Aims & Topics
Introduction
In supporting Lifelong Learning (LLL) on the Social Web (Web2.0), Natural Language Technologies (LT) increasingly play a central role due to the fact that text is the leading medium of communication and collaboration. LT cover now a wide range of topics, including advanced semantic resources and applications like ontologies, knowledge extraction, text mining, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). The peculiarities of Web2.0 impose also the consideration of using LT for social software (social networks analysis) and collaborative interactions on chats and forums. Pragmatics, discourse and conversation analysis are very important analysis domains.
For LLL, providing feedback entails measuring differences among learners; between learners and their desired characteristics (e.g., knowledge, competences, motivation, self-regulation processes); or between learners and their looked-for resources (e.g. web-links, articles, courses). Difference measuring often have been performed by computing and analyzing 'distances' using several techniques like factorial analysis, instance-based learning, clustering, and so on. Corpora on which these measures are made are text-based artifacts, that is to say multiple forms of pieces of evidence such as text materials (written by teachers), spoken utterances, essays, summaries, forum or chat messages. Some of the metrics used are based on shallow syntactical and morphological aspects of the interaction and production artifacts (e.g., text length). Others are focused more on semantic and pragmatic aspects. These measures are used for providing various kinds of feedback for supporting learning and connections between learners. For instance, relations between learners' utterances, knowledge, concept acquisition, emotional states, essay scores, and even learners themselves have all been investigated with the help of computing semantic distances.
Aims
The purpose of this workshop is to focus on using language technologies in support of learning and teaching - by trying to identify what questions and problems are solved, but also to raise and discuss how well the metrics and algorithms developed assist in the provision of support and the construction of feedback for learning. What are the most efficient ways? To what extent do they match distances inferred by a teacher's assessments? The workshop addresses the problem of how support can be provided and feedback be generated in order to help students learn and teachers to assess their progress.
Several Natural Language Processing techniques like Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) or the use of semantic and pragmatic analysis of conversations have been successfully deployed in various educational applications to enrich learning and teaching with information technology. However, few research approaches considered also in detail the problem of providing feedback.
The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together experts in the related fields in order to: Share knowledge (i.e., approaches, models, issues, solutions) acquired in the domain of using language technologies for learning Present applications in the domain Present the achievements of the FP7 project LTfLL (Language Technologies for Lifelong Learning: http://www.ltfll-project.org/) and other similar RTD efforts Debate on directions and possibilities of future research in the domain. - create a forum for further collaboration and develop an international community on this field of study.
Topics
This workshop continues a previous one with the same name, help at the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI-ED) 2009 conference (Brighton, UK - http://webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/sciedu/nlpsl/). Another workshop with a very close purpose has been organized three years ago in Heerlen at the Open University of the Netherlands (http://dspace.ou.nl/bitstream/1820/933/1/lsatel07___miniproceedings.pdf).
Topics should cover the following distance-based semantic and pragmatic processing techniques and applications, but are not restricted to:
Automated essay scoring & grading, Summarization & writing assistance, such as: Feedback generation, Tutoring & Tutor support, Question answering Learner modeling, Enriching user profiles, Peer finding & community formation Positioning & Placement of learners Selection & Sequencing of content Protocol analysis, Knowledge gap analysis, Task analysis Text summarization Plagiarism detection
Methodological issues of distance-based semantic processing techniques, such as: Corpus composition & preparation (sanitizing, filtering, selection, seeding, domain modeling, etc.) Optimization of analysis and queries Statistical properties Combining these techniques with other ones Evaluation and Validation concerns
Cognitive Modeling using distance-based semantic processing techniques, such as: Knowledge acquisition Language acquisition and development Measure of semantic relatedness Cognitive architectures Activity modeling Cognitive corpora
Analysis, assessment and feedback generation of content and inter-animation in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning through chats, such as: Content analysis of chat conversations and forum discussion threads Discourse analysis and visualization in chat conversations and forum discussion threads Identification of discussion and argumentation threads in conversations Identification of inter-animation, transactivity and interactions in chats Assessment of learners' participation in conversations and forum discussion threads Feedback generation for chats and forum discussion threads in educational settings
Call for Papers, Paper Format Requirements and Publication Details
Submission Types
Submitted papers should describe substantial and unpublished work. English is the official language for both papers and talks. Submissions are expected to have either 4-6 pages for short papers (presenting very new and not so formalized work) or more than 8 pages for long papers, (presenting completed work).
Paper Format Requirements
Paper should be formatted with the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) format, which can be found at Springer website (http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0). The submitted papers should be both in Word and in PDF format.
Paper Submission Process All papers will be reviewed using a blind referring process by at least two members of the program committee. Submit a paper at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nlpsl2010 (please use an EasyChair account before submitting and select the appropriate workshop in the list when submitting. Also note that it is mandatory to use this site to submit a paper: papers directly submitted through e-mail won't be taken into account).
Publication
Accepted papers will be printed in Proceedings with an ISBN at the MatrixRom Publishing House, which will be available at the workshop.
Committees
Organisational Committee
This workshop is jointly organized and supported by members of the LTfLL (Language Technologies for LifeLong Learning) EC-funded Research Project: Stefan Trausan-Matu, chairman (UPB, Romania) Philippe Dessus (University of Grenoble, France) Wolfgang Greller (Open University, Netherlands) Fridolin Wild (Open University, UK) Christoph Mauerhofer (BIT Media e-Learning solution GMBH and CO KG, Austria)
Program Committee Gaston Burek (Tuebingen University, Germany) Philippe Dessus (University of Grenoble, France) Dale Gerdemann (Tuebingen University, Germany) Wolfgang Greller (OUNL, The Netherlands) Debra Hailey (Open University, UK) George Kahrimanis (University of Patras, Greece) Marco Kalz (OUNL, The Netherlands) Benoît Lemaire (University of Grenoble, France) Mathieu Loiseau (University of Grenoble, France) Paola Monachesi (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) Vlad Posea (UPB, Romania) Traian Rebedea (UPB, Romania) Stefan Trausan-Matu (UPB, Romania) Dan Tufis (Romanian Academy Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Romania) Jan van Bruggen (OUNL, The Netherlands) Fridolin Wild (Open University, UK) Virginie Zampa (University of Grenoble, France)
Important Dates Submission Deadline: Saturday 26th June 2010 11:59 pm CEST Notification of acceptance: 15th July 2010 Camera-ready papers due date: 31st July 2010 NLPsL Workshop: 14th September, 2010
Registration
The registration for the workshop is free and it includes the proceedings and coffee breaks.
Contact: Please ask any further question at stefan.trausan@cs.pub.ro
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