arXiv subjects

Tongguang Li

Publications and source records attributed to Tongguang Li.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Self-Regulated Learning in Essay Writing: Consistency of Strategies and Impact on Outcomes

Background: Abilities for effective self-regulated learning (SRL) are critical for lifelong learning, particularly during adolescence when these skills consolidate and strongly influence future learning. Their importance has grown with the rise of online and blended education. Yet, little is known about how secondary school students self-regulate in online environments, how their SRL processes and strategies evolve, or how they affect outcomes. In secondary education, understanding these processes can reveal patterns and indicators of learning success, informing the design of online support mechanisms. Evidence from repeated-measures designs remains scarce. Objectives: This study aims to examine how secondary school students enact SRL strategies during online essay writing, how these strategies change over time, and how they relate to learning outcomes. Methods: We analysed metacognition-related trace data collected from secondary students during a two-wave online essay-writing task conducted one week apart in two Colombian schools (N = 93 for session 1, N = 95 for session 2) via a digital learning platform. Using a combination of process mining and unsupervised machine learning techniques, we identified dominant SRL strategies grounded in established SRL processes and examined their stability and association with learning outcomes. Results and conclusions: Three dominant SRL strategies were identified. Results showed variability: many students remained in or shifted to Read first, write next, while none used Write intensively, read selectively in session 2. Although less common, latter strategy was positively associated with learning outcomes.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

FLoRA: An Advanced AI-Powered Engine to Facilitate Hybrid Human-AI Regulated Learning

Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), defined as learners' ability to systematically plan, monitor, and regulate their learning activities, is crucial for sustained academic achievement and lifelong learning competencies. Emerging AI developments profoundly influence SRL interactions by potentially either diminishing or strengthening learners' opportunities to exercise their own regulatory skills. Recent literature emphasizes a balanced approach termed Hybrid Human-AI Regulated Learning (HHAIRL), in which AI provides targeted, timely scaffolding while preserving the learners' role as active decision-makers and reflective monitors of their learning process. Central to HHAIRL is the integration of adaptive and personalized learning systems; by modelling each learner's knowledge and self-regulation patterns, AI can deliver contextually relevant scaffolds that support learners during all phases of the SRL process. Nevertheless, existing digital tools frequently fall short, lacking adaptability and personalisation, focusing narrowly on isolated SRL phases, and insufficiently supporting meaningful human-AI interactions. In response, this paper introduces the enhanced FLoRA Engine, which incorporates advanced generative AI features and state-of-the-art learning analytics, and grounds in solid educational theories. The FLoRA Engine offers tools such as collaborative writing, multi-agent chatbots, and detailed learning trace logging to support dynamic, adaptive scaffolding of self-regulation tailored to individual needs in real time. We further present a summary of several research studies that provide the validations for and illustrate how these tools can be utilized in real-world educational and experimental contexts. These studies demonstrate the effectiveness of FLoRA Engine in fostering SRL, providing both theoretical insights and practical solutions for the future of AI-enhanced learning contexts.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Towards Reliable Generative AI-Driven Scaffolding: Reducing Hallucinations and Enhancing Quality in Self-Regulated Learning Support

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) holds a potential to advance existing educational technologies with capabilities to automatically generate personalised scaffolds that support students' self-regulated learning (SRL). While advancements in large language models (LLMs) promise improvements in the adaptability and quality of educational technologies for SRL, there remain concerns about the hallucinations in content generated by LLMs, which can compromise both the learning experience and ethical standards. To address these challenges, we proposed GenAI-enabled approaches for evaluating personalised SRL scaffolds before they are presented to students, aiming for reducing hallucinations and improving the overall quality of LLM-generated personalised scaffolds. Specifically, two approaches are investigated. The first approach involved developing a multi-agent system approach for reliability evaluation to assess the extent to which LLM-generated scaffolds accurately target relevant SRL processes. The second approach utilised the "LLM-as-a-Judge" technique for quality evaluation that evaluates LLM-generated scaffolds for their helpfulness in supporting students. We constructed evaluation datasets, and compared our results with single-agent LLM systems and machine learning approach baselines. Our findings indicate that the reliability evaluation approach is highly effective and outperforms the baselines, showing almost perfect alignment with human experts' evaluations. Moreover, both proposed evaluation approaches can be harnessed to effectively reduce hallucinations. Additionally, we identified and discussed bias limitations of the "LLM-as-a-Judge" technique in evaluating LLM-generated scaffolds. We suggest incorporating these approaches into GenAI-powered personalised SRL scaffolding systems to mitigate hallucination issues and improve the overall scaffolding quality.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2024

Self-regulated Learning Processes in Secondary Education: A Network Analysis of Trace-based Measures

While the capacity to self-regulate has been found to be crucial for secondary school students, prior studies often rely on self-report surveys and think-aloud protocols that present notable limitations in capturing self-regulated learning (SRL) processes. This study advances the understanding of SRL in secondary education by using trace data to examine SRL processes during multi-source writing tasks, with higher education participants included for comparison. We collected fine-grained trace data from 66 secondary school students and 59 university students working on the same writing tasks within a shared SRL-oriented learning environment. The data were labelled using Bannert's validated SRL coding scheme to reflect specific SRL processes, and we examined the relationship between these processes, essay performance, and educational levels. Using epistemic network analysis (ENA) to model and visualise the interconnected SRL processes in Bannert's coding scheme, we found that: (a) secondary school students predominantly engaged in three SRL processes -- Orientation, Re-reading, and Elaboration/Organisation; (b) high-performing secondary students engaged more in Re-reading, while low-performing students showed more Orientation process; and (c) higher education students exhibited more diverse SRL processes such as Monitoring and Evaluation than their secondary education counterparts, who heavily relied on following task instructions and rubrics to guide their writing. These findings highlight the necessity of designing scaffolding tools and developing teacher training programs to enhance awareness and development of SRL skills for secondary school learners.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

The FLoRA Engine: Using Analytics to Measure and Facilitate Learners' own Regulation Activities

The focus of education is increasingly set on learners' ability to regulate their own learning within technology-enhanced learning environments (TELs). Prior research has shown that self-regulated learning (SRL) leads to better learning performance. However, many learners struggle to self-regulate their learning productively, as they typically need to navigate a myriad of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational processes that SRL demands. To address these challenges, the FLoRA engine is developed to assist students, workers, and professionals in improving their SRL skills and becoming productive lifelong learners. FLoRA incorporates several learning tools that are grounded in SRL theory and enhanced with learning analytics (LA), aimed at improving learners' mastery of different SRL skills. The engine tracks learners' SRL behaviours during a learning task and provides automated scaffolding to help learners effectively regulate their learning. The main contributions of FLoRA include (1) creating instrumentation tools that unobtrusively collect intensively sampled, fine-grained, and temporally ordered trace data about learners' learning actions, (2) building a trace parser that uses LA and related analytical technique (e.g., process mining) to model and understand learners' SRL processes, and (3) providing a scaffolding module that presents analytics-based adaptive, personalised scaffolds based on students' learning progress. The architecture and implementation of the FLoRA engine are also discussed in this paper.

cs.HC↗