[on behalf of Noboru Matsuda]
==========================================
The Innovative Educational Computing laboratory in the Department of
Computer Science at North Carolina State University is looking for a
postdoctoral research fellow with a primary focus on the SimStudent project
(www.SimStudent.org) funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
entitled “Developing an Online Learning Environment for Learning Algebra by
Teaching a Synthetic Peer” (
https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=2200).
The primary purpose of the project is to study an effect of constructive
question-answering dialogue for tutor learning—If a synthetic tutee asks
constructive questions while a student (who acts as a tutor) is teaching,
would it facilitate the student’s learning by teaching? If so, what aspect
of question answering facilitate the tutor learning?
A technological goal of the project is to extend an existing synthetic
peer, SimStudent, so that it poses questions, classifies students’
responses into pre-defined categories, and provide follow up questions
based on the classification outcome to have the students elaborate their
initial responses.
To achieve these goals, a postdoctoral research fellow will conduct an
independent research project, under the supervision of Dr. Matsuda, the
project PI, for a research topic selected by the postdoc based on his/her
research interest and expertise. Potential research topics include (but not
limited to) an application of natural language processing techniques for
pedagogical dialogue, a deep learning application for text classification
and question generation, an application of data mining techniques to
investigate the theory of effective pedagogical dialogue, an exploratory
research to advance a theory of learning by teaching, an application of
animated agent technology to develop a more effective synthetic peer, etc.
A candidate should have a PhD degree in Computer Science or related fields
with a research specialization in intelligent tutoring systems, adaptive
learning technologies, and/or the sciences of learning with computing
technologies. Established record of (or an evidence of potential to
establish) scholarly work in one or more fields in artificial intelligence,
machine learning, deep learning, computational model of leaning, natural
language processing, educational data mining, and/or learning analytics is
required. An ideal candidate should have strong background in research
methods. Knowledge and experience in qualitative and quantitative research
methods, data analysis with statistical methods for hypothesis testing
would be plus.
Essential duties include mentoring graduate and undergraduate students,
participating to the project related meetings, and writing project related
documents and manuscripts. If a human-subject study is involved, then
following duties will be involved: recruiting study participants, preparing
for lab and school studies, contacting with school teachers, filing IRB and
other project related forms, collecting data from human subject studies,
and analyzing data collected.
Interested candidate should email a current CV, a statement of research,
and three names of reference to Dr. Noboru Matsuda, Noboru.Matsuda@xxxxxxxx
Thanks,
--
Noboru Matsuda (http://go.ncsu.edu/Matsuda)
Director, Innovative Educational Computing Lab
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
North Carolina State University