Latest News

22.08.2023 | We are expanding and are looking for a new team member for CATALPA - Center of Advanced Technology for Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics – in the position of a Full Professor in Learning Sciences in Higher Education (W3). The position is located in the Faculty of Psychology and affiliated with CATALPA. We look forward to receiving your application by Nov. 12, 2023. >> read more

25.09.2023 | What opportunities does AI offer for the education sector? What are the risks of use? And how can politics promote the productive and trustworthy use of AI tools? Questions like these are being addressed by a newly formed task force made up of academia, practitioners, and several NRW state ministries. CATALPA provides two of the members. >> read more

31.08.2023 | Making good research visible - that is what CATALPA has set out to do. And framing it in the literal sense, too: As of now, the research center is exhibiting a small sample of it - namely, posters that have been awarded a prize. The first poster is by Franziska Wehrhahn. For her work on "Balancing autonomy and guidance in online learning," she received the "Best Poster Prize" at the ESPLAT educational psychology conference in Sweden. >> read more

25.08.2023 | How can artificial intelligence be effectively integrated into university teaching? This is what CATALPA executive board member Claudia de Witt is addressing in the "AI Campus 2.0" project. Together with her team, she organizes so-called Open Think Tanks, in which interested parties work on solutions for AI in higher education. The "AI Campus" is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). >> read more

25.08.2023 | Since the beginning of April this year, CATALPA member Andrea Horbach has been the new assistant professor for digital humanities at the University of Hildesheim. She is the first CATALPA junior researcher to have been offered a professorship. After spending a few weeks settling in, the researcher is already working on new project ideas. The computational linguist will remain with our research center as head of the EduNLP junior research group. In this interview, she talks about her first months in her new job. >>read more

To which social groups do FernUni students feel they belong? Which stereotypes and prejudices towards their own group do they anticipate? And to what extent do both affect their behavior towards peers? CATALPA member Nathalie Bick presented recent research results at the "General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology" (EASP) in Krakow. >> read more

Automatic scoring and handwriting recognition in learner texts - these are the topics on which four papers from the Research Professorship in Computational Linguistics and the EduNLP Junior Research Group were accepted at ACL 2023 in Toronto. The "Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics" is one of the most important conferences for researchers in this field. >> read more

Creating the basis for more educational equity through AI-based technology: This goal was presented by Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich W. Hesse together with Rector Prof. Dr. Ada Pellert to members of the Bundestag in Berlin. The CATALPA research center and its special role as a living lab for university research were the central topics in the Parliamentary Advisory Board of the FernUniversität. >> read more

"What do they actually do at CATALPA?" - This question was answered by the research center at its CATALPA Day with a mix of overview and illustrative examples. The Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedrich W. Hesse as well as Prof. Dr. Claudia de Witt, Prof. Dr. Torsten Zesch and Dr. Niels Seidel offered an insight into the "engine room" of their research. >> read more

"Problem Solving and Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Teams" - this was the main topic at the CATALPA Young Researchers Day 2023. Together with an external speaker, there was a day of input and exchange on this topic for the young researchers at CATALPA. >> read more

Where is CATALPA on a good path? Where and how can the research center become even better? Recently, the Scientific Advisory Board of CATALPA met in Hagen. The goal was quality assurance: The international and interdisciplinary board advises the institution with regard to research planning, but also in its structural development. >> read more