The study analyzes 22 OULAD asynchronous online courses (over 22,000 learners) using Zigzag Persistent Homology to track the number of disconnected behavioral clusters, denoted $eta_0$. It finds that changes in $eta_0$ strongly co‑vary with active learner counts, indicating that $eta_0$ is a participation‑sensitive indicator rather than a cause of dropout. Assessment deadlines trigger fragmentation in 82.6% of cases and the full Fragment First, Converge Later cycle in 60.2%, with long‑term fragmentation dominating 90.9% of courses.
By Hitoshi Inoue, Koichi Yasutake
arXiv:2606. 15349v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Standardized examinations are typically treated as uniform syllabus coverage problems.
By Joy Bose, Om Thomas
arXiv:2605. 31191v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We investigate how teacher-student capacity relationships modulate knowledge distillation (KD) effectiveness in ResNet-based image classification on CIFAR-10.
By Umut Onur Yasar
The paper introduces a validation protocol for knowledge‑tracing models that jointly assesses predictive performance, explanation stability, and faithfulness. Using engineered behavioral features from ASSISTments data, the authors compare an XGBoost model explained with TreeSHAP against four deep‑learning baselines, finding comparable predictive accuracy when information is matched and demonstrating that TreeSHAP rankings are stable and impactful. The study highlights how data preprocessing (e.g., rebuilding the 2009 dataset) can affect both model performance and explanation outcomes.
By Praveena Padi, Arun Morampudi, Ujval Sai Gopal Irrinki, Pradeep Kumar Dolabehera Kakitapelli
The study investigates how a single mastery threshold can produce divergent outcomes across different knowledge tracing (KT) models. By evaluating six KT models on four datasets with thresholds ranging from 0.50 to 0.99, the authors find that Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) is relatively insensitive to threshold changes, whereas neural models become increasingly selective as thresholds rise. The optimal threshold varies widely across models and instructional settings, and stricter thresholds can disproportionately limit advancement for weaker students.
By Xianghui Meng, Yujing Zhang, Jionghao Lin
arXiv:2607. 26063v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Personalised learning systems often assume that mathematical ability is combined of discrete abilities, acquired sequentially and dependent upon first acquiring foundational abilities, and students often report different strengths.
By Benjamin Mawdsley, Tom Quilter, Richard Turner, Sarah Jackson, Paul Edwards