☰ Björn Rudzewitz

Homepage of Dr. Björn Rudzewitz

Björn Rudzewitz

Welcome to my webpage !
I'm a postdoctoral researcher in computational linguistics in Tübingen.
My main research interest relates to the question of how automatic form and meaning assessment of authentic learner data can efficiently be performed in order to provide feedback to learners, to sequence exercises matching specific learners, and to conduct Learnig Analytics on interaction data. Currently I'm working in the project DigBinDiff (Digitale Binnendifferenzierung) on how the complexity of exercises can be parametrized and automatically sequenced depending on task and learner modeling.
I worked until January 2020 in the projects A4 and T1 in the SFB 833.

In addition to my research I have an assistant position with Detmar Meurers that includes teaching courses and study advising at the University of Tübingen.
I am the B.A. Study Advisor for Computational Linguistics at the University of Tübingen, and held the role of M.A. Study Advisor from 2017 to 2021.

News.

2021/11/11: video recording of my newest talk from ResetEDU held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on November 8, 2021 online.

2021/10/14: I am out of office on October 15, 2021, and will not read or answer my e-mails in this time.

2021/08/13: I am out of office between August 14 and August 29, 2021, and will not read or answer my e-mails in this time.

2021/06/23: successfully defended my PhD thesis: newsletter article

2021/06/21: I am out of office on June 22, 2021, to prepare my PhD defense, which will take place the next day.

2021/04/29: New publication accepted: link

2020/09/30: New web page by the central student advising service for incoming international sudents in the winter semester 2020/2021: link

2020/08/12: New e-mail address by the central administration for questions about international students regarding the winter semester under corona circumstances: coronaservice-incoming@uni-tuebingen.de

2020/03/31: New web page for students of the university with information regarding the virus and how it impacts student matters: link

2020/03/23: FAQ section by the university online regarding questions on how the corona virus outbreak impacts the situation for the summer semester: link

2020/03/16: Due to the corona virus and official recommendations of minimizing social contact, I will not be holding office hours until the situation has improved. However, I will be available via e-mail or in cases where we need to dicuss more complicated manners via video chat.

2020/02/10: I'm on vaction between February 14 and 18. I will not read my e-mails during this time and will hold no office hours.

2019/12/18: I'm on vaction between December 21 and January 6. I will not read my e-mails during this time and will hold no office hours.

2019/11/29: Angular Slides uploaded: [pdf]

2019/09/02: I'm on vaction between September 5 and September 9. I will not be able to check my e-mails during this time and will hold no office hours on September 9.

2019/07/25: I'm on vaction between August 17 and August 25. I will not check my e-mails during this time and will hold no office hours on August 19.

2019/07/25: I'm out of office on July 29 and 30. No office hours during this time span.

2019/06/10: I am attending the EDM 2019 conference and present a paper at a workshop there between July 1 and July 8, and will therefore not have office hours on July 1 and 8.

2019/06/10: I am on vacation for the Pentecost break between June 11 and June 16 and will not read or answer my e-mails regularly in this time.

2019/06/06: I will be traveling to a conference on Monday, June 17th. Therefore there will be no office hours on this day.

2019/05/23: Today I answered e-mail number 1.700 in the context of study advising.

2019/02/01: I am now an elected member of the committee of the Doctoral Students Council of the Faculty of Humanities

2019/02/01: I will be on vacation between February 11 and 15. No office hours during this time.

2018/12/17: no office hours on December 24 and 31. I am on holiday between December 22 and January 6 and will not read or answer my e-mail in this time period.

2018/12/12: new publication online: NLP4CALL 2018 paper!

2018/11/22: on Monday, November 26, I will be in a school supervising some language tests; I should be back in time for the office hours at 10 am, but if I should be a bit late this is the reason why

2018/10/12: on October 17 at 17 c.t. I will host a general introduction to the module handbook and exam regulations for master students in computational linguistics; all master students and those interested in becoming one are cordially invited to join us in room 1.13; I will start off with a general introduction and then answer specific questions

2018/10/07: I will be in a school doing empirical testing on Monday, October 8 starting from 7:30. Normally I should be back in time for the office hours, but depending on the traffic I might arrive a bit late. So if you plan to come, please drop me a line so we can schedule a meeting at maybe 10:15 or 10:30 to be safe in terms of time constraints.

2018/09/21: Announcement: no office hours on Monday, October 1 since I will be attending the INDUS network meeting in Essen

2018/08/18: new video that summarizes the topic of my PhD studies: https://youtu.be/nyAmQiJBGPw

2018/08/13: no office hours on September 17 and 24 since I will be on vacation between September 17 and 28; in this time I will also not read my e-mail regularly, so please send important requests beforehand or afterwards

2018/07/23: office hours start at 10:30 today because I attend part of the LEAD summer school

2018/06/13: New publication online: BEA 2018 paper!

2018/07/12: webpage relaunch in new design and with new features

Publications.

2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014

Teaching.

2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015

Talks, Presentations, Workshops.

2021
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015

Study Advising.

I am responsible for the B.A. advising for Computational Linguistics at the University of Tübingen. This means if you have any questions related to the B.A. studies, questions to the exam regulations, admission requirements, etc., please contact me and I will resolve the questions or problems.

Here (link) you can find information about how to get in touch with me.

Important:

in requests for study advising, please include information about your subject of study and the degree program according to which you are studying at the moment. Having this information I can give you targeted advice.

Before doing the B.A. advising, I was the M.A. study advisor between 2017 and 2021. Below are some frequent questions I encountered during this time and answers to them. When in doubt, please contact the current M.A. study advisor.

Frequently Asked Questions (M.A.):

  1. Q: I am a student and unsure about how the current situation regarding the corona virus will impact the summer semester. Where can I get information?
    A: Please refer to this (link) and this (link) web page for a FAQ section for students.
  2. Q: Where can I get information about the structure of the M.A. studies in Computational Linguistics ?
    A: In the exam regulations and the module handbook on the web page of the Prüfungsamt (link).
  3. Q: Which document should I definitely read carefully before and during the studies ?
    A: The most important document for you is the module handbook
  4. Q: To which module do I need to count my courses specified in the admission requirements ?
    A: Module ISCL-MA-02
  5. Q: How many courses need to be counted in the core/supplementary area ?
    A: 45 ECTS in the core, 45 ECTS in the supplementary area. Each area consists of modules with 15 ECTS each, and you need to fulfill each individual module.
  6. Q: On my admission requirements it is stated that I need to complete the prescribed courses within one year or when first offered. What do I do when the courses are not offered such that I can complete them in one year ?
    A: Some courses are only offered every second semester and have admission requirements. In this case take the courses the first time they are offered and in the order they are intended.
  7. Q: How can I get courses external to the SfS approved ?
    A: Please contact me before taking the course. I will check whether it is eligible and inform you about the decision.
  8. Q: Where can I get a LaTeX template for my Master's thesis ?
    A: Send me an e-mail (see Contact) andI will provide you with a template you can use as a starting point.
  9. Q: From where do I know whether a Hauptseminar at the Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft is from the core or supplementary area ?
    A: Take a look at the Campus page or the introductory meeting handout distributed at the beginning of each semester.
  10. Q: Where can I hear more about the seminars offered at the Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft ?
    A: It is very important that you attend the introductory meeting at the beginning of each semester where all the seminars are presented, as well as organizational announcements. Take a look at the campus system to find the exact date for each semester.
  11. Q: If I have questions regarding formalities of the application, e.g. regarding the validity or format of specific documents, whom should I contact ?
    A: Please contact the team at the Studierendensekretariat.
  12. Q: Where can I find information regarding tuition fees for international students ?
    A: Take a look at this web page summarizing all information.
  13. Q: Can I get insight into the application evaluation process before receiving the final decision?
    A: No, you will be contacted by the administration once your application has been decided upon.
  14. Q: How long does it take to receive a decision regarding the application?
    A: The process usually takes several weeks.

Research.

In December 2020 I submitted my PhD thesis in Computational Linguistics with the title "Learning Analytics in Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning" [link], supervised by Detmar Meurers and Andreas Lachner . My work is at the inderdisciplinary crossroad of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), computational linguistics and computer science, educational empirical science, and Learning Analytics/Educational Data Mining. In this work, I explore how to build Learning Analytics tools for different user groups (students, teacher, material designers, educational administrators) and what learning process factors are predictive for which learning outcomes. This work emerged from the FeedBook project. The contribution of this work consists of tools and analyses that allow to get insights into and improve the proccess of human learning of a complex domain, namely the acquisition of a foreign language.

I worked in the project A4 in the SFB 833 as a researcher on the question of how content assessment for learner data can be performed by computers. This question is especially interesting since language learners, in contrast to native speakers, have only acquired an intermediate state of proficiency in their L2. This results in a high degree of variability in terms of form and meaning in utterances produced by language learners. In the A4 project we explore computational approaches for dealing with this variation in order to assess the semantic content of language learner data.

Besides working on the technical aspects of the CoMiC system (e.g. porting it to uimaFit and DKPro, ...), I wrote my B.A. thesis (link) about how general linguistic properties and the explicit task context can be used to improve short answer assessment of learner language in a reading comprehension scenario there. In addition I successfully demonstrated the ability of the system to adapt to new domains such as Question Answering, Answer Selection, and Plagiarism Detection. This and further work in the context of this project is documented in several scientific articles.

Furhtermore I'm working as lead developer on an interactive school workbook with feedback generation (FeedBook) in SFB 833 Transfer project 1 (T1) to refine my technical abilities and gain experience in realizing bigger software projects. In this project we explore how online scaffolding feedback can be generated in an intelligent, interactive workbook for learning English as a second language. The T1 project combines fundamental research from A4 with an authentic setting in order to advance meaning and form assessment in the cotext of feedback generation. I actively work on all aspects of the system, from frontend development to backend code. Currently we are running a large-scale empirical study testing the effectiveness of interactive scaffolding feedback in 14 German school classes over a complete school year.

Currently I am working in the project DigBinDiff (Digitale Binnendifferenzierung). In this project, I am responsible for the implementation of the tutoring system (i.e. an adaptation of the FeedBook), the learing analytics components, the learner modeling, and the implementation of an automatic sequencing component in the system taking into account performance and motivational factors. The topic of this project is closely related to and fosters my PhD project.

I am part of the ICALL Research Group.

Contact.

Dr. Björn Rudzewitz
Wilhelmstrasse 19
Room 1.25
72074 Tübingen
Tel.: 07071 29 73962
Germany

E-Mail: bjoern.rudzewitz ÄT uni-tuebingen.de

Study advising mail: iscl-ba-advisor ÄT sfs.uni-tuebingen.de

Office hours: Monday 10:00-11:00

If you can't make it to the office hours we can also set up an appointment outside of it via e-mail.
Please send an e-mail before so I know you will be coming and can prepare the discussion.
Please take a look at the news section of the web page since I will post announcements regarding the office hours (absence due to holidays, conferences, etc.) there.

Important: at the moment there are no office hours with physical presence. We can however host a Zoom meeting in case longer questions need to be discussed.




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