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Teacher reflection is essential for K-12 classrooms, including effective and personalized instruction. Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA), integrating data from digital and physical learning environments, could support teacher reflection. Classroom data collected from sensors and TEL environments are needed to produce such analytics. These novel data collection methods pose an open challenge of how MMLA research practices can ensure alignment with teachers’ needs and concerns. This study explores K-12 teachers’ perceptions and preferences regarding MMLA analytics and data sharing. Through a mixed-method survey, we explore teachers’ (N=100) preferences for analytics that help them reflect on their teaching practices, their favored data collection modalities, and data-sharing preferences. Results indicate that teachers were most interested in student learning analytics and their interactions and ways of motivating students. However, they were also significantly less accepting of collecting students’ audio and position data compared to such data about themselves. Finally, teachers were less willing to share data about themselves than their students. Our findings contribute ethical, practical, and pedagogical considerations of MMLA analytics for teacher reflection, informing the research practices and development of MMLA within TEL. 

It might be highly effective if students could transition dynamically between individual and collaborative learning activities, but how could teachers manage such complex classroom scenarios? Although recent work in AIED has focused on teacher tools, little is known about how to orchestrate dynamic transitions between individual and collaborative learning. We created a novel technology ecosystem that supports these dynamic transitions. The ecosystem integrates a novel teacher orchestration tool that provides monitoring support and pairing suggestions with two AI-based tutoring systems that support individual and collaborative learning, respectively. We tested the feasibility of this ecosystem in a classroom study with 5 teachers and 199 students over 22 class sessions. We found that the teachers were able to manage the dynamic transitions and valued them. The study contributes a new technology ecosystem for dynamically transitioning between individual and collaborative learning, plus insight into the orchestration functionality that makes these transitions feasible. 

Dynamically transitioning between individual and collaborative learning has been hypothesized to have positive effects, such as providing the optimal learning mode based on students’ needs. There are, however, challenges in orchestrating these transitions in real-time while managing a classroom of students. AI-based orchestration tools have the potential to alleviate some of the orchestration load for teachers. In this study, we describe a sequence of three design sessions with teachers where we refine prototypes of an orchestration tool to support dynamic transitions. We leverage design narratives and conjecture mapping for the design of our novel orchestration tool. Our contributions include the orchestration tool itself; a description of how novel tool features were revised throughout the sessions with teachers, including shared control between teachers, students, and AI and the use of AI to support dynamic transitions, and a reflection of the changes to our design and theoretical conjectures. 

Dynamically transitioning between individual and collaborative learning activities during a class session (i.e., in an un-planned way, as-the-need-arises) has advantages for students, but existing orchestration tools are not designed to support such transitions. This work reports findings from a technology probe study that explored alternative designs for classroom co-orchestration support for dynamically transitioning between individual and collaborative learning, focused on how control over the transitions should be divided or shared among teachers, students, and orchestration system. This study involved 1) a pilot in an authentic classroom scenario with AI support for individual and collaborative learning; and 2) design workshops and interviews with students and teachers. Findings from the study suggest the need for hybrid control between students, teachers, and AI systems over transitions as well as for adaptivity and/or adaptability for different classrooms, teachers, and students’ prior knowledge. This study is the first to explore human–AI control over dynamic transitions between individual and collaborative learning in actual classrooms. 

Constructing effective and well-balanced learning groups is important for collaborative learning. Past research explored how group formation policies affect learners’ behaviors and performance. With the different classroom contexts, many group formation policies work in theory, yet their feasibility is rarely investigated in authentic class sessions. In the current work, we define feasibility as the ratio of students being able to find available partners that satisfy a given group formation policy. Informed by user-centered research in K-12 classrooms, we simulated pairing policies on historical data from an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), a process we refer to as SimPairing. As part of the process for designing a pairing orchestration tool, this study contributes insights into the feasibility of four dynamic pairing policies, and how the feasibility varies depending on parameters in the pairing policies or different classes. We found that on average, dynamically pairing students based on their in-the-moment wheel-spinning status can pair most struggling students, even with moderate constraints of restricted pairings. In addition, we found there is a trade-off between the required knowledge heterogeneity and policy feasibility. Furthermore, the feasibility of pairing policies can vary across different classes, suggesting a need for customization regarding pairing policies. 

Orchestration tools may support K-12 teachers in facilitating student learning, especially when designed to address classroom stakeholders’ needs. Our previous work revealed a need for human-AI shared control when dynamically pairing students for collaborative learning in the classroom, but offered limited guidance on the role each agent should take. In this study, we designed storyboards for scenarios where teachers, students and AI co-orchestrate dynamic pairing when using AI-based adaptive math software for individual and collaborative learning. We surveyed 54 math teachers on their co-orchestration preferences. We found that teachers would like to share control with the AI to lessen their orchestration load. As well, they would like to have the AI propose student pairs with explanations, and identify risky proposed pairings. However, teachers are hesitant to let the AI auto-pair students even if they are busy, and are less inclined to let AI override teacher-proposed pairing. Our study contributes to teachers’ needs, preference, and boundaries for how they want to share the task and control of student pairing with the AI and students, and design implications in human-AI co-orchestration tools.