Applied Education Technologies

Can computer science make the world a better place? A new video showcases how versatile, creative, and socially relevant a computer science degree is.

The paper Investigating Student Interaction with Competency-Based CS Education led by Maximilian Anzinger and co-authored with Annika Hecking-Veltman, Maxie Bichmann, and Stephan Krusche, has been accepted for the International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge 2026 in Bergen, Norway. It expands the area of research in Competency-Based Education (CBE) to Computer Science in European Higher Education. The study investigates associations between voluntary student interaction with Atlas, a CBE Learning Analytics system integrated in Artemis, and learning outcomes across performance, engagement, and perceptions in a large-scale Computer Science course at TUM.

The paper Scaling Assessment of Student Models with LLMs: Integrating Feedback into Practice has been accepted at the ICSE-SEET track (Software Engineering Education and Training) and will be presented at ICSE’26 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Automated assessment for UML modeling exercises is hard to scale: diagrams are open-ended, graphical, and highly contextual. This paper presents a production-ready extension of Athena, integrated into Artemis, that supports human-in-the-loop assessment by generating feedback suggestions that graders can review, adapt, or discard within their existing workflow.

Im November bot TUM LearnLabs zwei besondere Veranstaltungen an: einen spielerischen Informatik-Workshop für Kinder im Rahmen des TUM-Ferienprogramms und ein erstes Lehrertraining für ein Kollegium aus Eggenfelden. Während die Kinder mit Rätseln, Verschlüsselungen und Bastelaufgaben Informatik entdeckten, erhielten die Lehrkräfte praxisnahe Einblicke in analoge und digitale Aktivitäten für ihren Unterricht. Beide Tage zeigten, wie leicht und motivierend der Zugang zu Informatik gestaltet werden kann. Die positive Resonanz bestärkt uns, solche Angebote weiter auszubauen.

At the 25th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research in Koli, Finland, Patrick Bassner presented our paper Towards Understanding the Impact of Context-Aware AI Tutors and General-Purpose AI Chatbots on Student Learning, coauthored with Anna Lottner and Stephan Krusche. In a randomized, mixed-methods study with 33 students, we explored how learners tackled the Burrows-Wheeler Transform with the context-aware Iris tutor, a general-purpose chatbot (ChatGPT), or no AI support. Performance converged across conditions, giving us a strong baseline, while Iris users showed an encouraging uptick in learning scores alongside slightly longer focus time. Interviews brought energetic feedback: context-aware guidance removed friction, guardrails kept learning on track, and students openly discussed how time pressure, trust, and verification shaped their choices.