We finalised our AI4EXL Workshop Schedule!

09:00 – 09:15 Welcome, agenda & goals of workshop 

09:15 – 09:40 Organiser contributions   (10 mins each max including discussion + 5 mins discussion)

09:15 – 09:40

Tanja Käser and Jade Mai Cock – Key findings and gaps from the systematic review on OELEs (BJET 2022) Roger Azevedo and Megan Wiedbusch – Multimodal trace data and digital twins for team performance in medical simulations

09:40 – 10:30 Accepted papers talks (12 mins + 3 discussion each + discussion in the end)

MMLA and dashboards (chair/discussant: Gautam)
9:40 – 9:55	Raquel Horta Bartomeu, Miguel Arevalilo, Olga C. Santos	Detecting Need for Help from Content-Independent Sequential Actions with Deep Learning (pdf)
09:55 – 10:10	Namrata Srivastava, Shruti Jain, Clayton Cohn, Naveeduddin Mohammed, Umesh Timalsina, Gautam Biswas	LearnLens: An AI-Enhanced Dashboard to Support Teachers in Open-Ended Classrooms (pdf)
10:10 – 10:30	Buffer and/or discussion (overall reflections so far)

10:30 – 11:00 coffee break 

11:00 – 11:50 Accepted papers talks (12 mins + 3 discussion each + discussion in the end) 

Open Exploratory Tasks (chair/discussant: Ido)
11:00 – 11:15	Janan Saba, Malak Abu Rmaileh, Tali Gal	Promoting Multivariable Causality Reasoning Through Simulations: The Role of Exploratory Learning in Youth-at-risk Schools (pdf)
11:15-11:30	Marco Kragten, Tessa Hoogma and Bert Bredeweg	How to Assess the Quality of Student-generated Qualitative Models during an Open Modelling Task? (pdf)
11:30 – 11:50	Overall reflections so far

11:50 – 12:00 short break (and setup any demos)  

12:00 – 12:30 Platforms & architectures 

Platforms and architectures (chair/discussant: Manolis)
12:00 – 12:15	Organiser contributions   (10 mins + 5 mins discussion) Manolis Mavrikis – GenAI vs GOFAI and authoring in exploratory learning
12:15 – 12:30	Jim Goodell	Component Based Research Architecture for Exploratory Learning Environments

12:30 – 13:00 demos 

Open slots to share additional tools or feedback: 

Matthieu Branthome, Sebastien Lalle	A Demo of AI Feedback in Pyrates: Supporting Students’ Transition to Text-Based Programming (pdf)
Sokratis Karkalas & Manolis Mavrikis	Authoring and the SMILE platform demo

13:00 – 14:00 lunch break 

14:00 – 15:00 Discussions, ongoing work (or more demos), future research directions and potential collaborations 

15:00 – 15:30 Informal networking 

15:30 – 16:00 coffee break 

Overview

This full-day workshop at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED 2025) invites submissions exploring how AI can meaningfully support exploratory learning. We take a broad perspective on exploratory learning including simulations, microworlds, serious games, inquiry tools, and other open-ended learning experiences and environments collectively referred to as Exploratory Learning Environments (ELEs). Digital ELEs in particular offer powerful pedagogical affordances (e.g., agency) but present significant challenges for learners and educators alike, particularly around self-regulation, personalisation, adaptivity, support, explainability, and equity.

We aim to foster discussion on how AI can scaffold learners’ problem-solving processes and empower learners and educators to facilitate effective, inclusive learning. We refer to AI broadly,  including generative AI, more traditional approaches to learner modelling as well as multimodal analytics and learning analytics. The workshop provides a timely venue to reflect on the recent history of research on ELEs and catalyse new collaborations around today’s most promising innovations.

Topics of Interest

We welcome empirical, design-oriented, theoretical syntheses, or system-focused contributions on topics including (but not limited to):

• AI-based modelling
• Pedagogical strategies (e.g. PS-I, inquiry learning) in AI-supported exploratory learning
• Generative AI as co-designer, tutor, or agent in open-ended learning
• Authoring tools for teachers: designing and interpreting AI-driven ELEs
• Explainability, transparency, and trust in adaptive systems for open-ended tasks
• Integration of multimodal data (e.g., clickstreams, gaze, speech, physiological signals)
• Design process (e.g., design-based research, participatory design) and evaluation frameworks for ELEs

Format and Participation

This interactive, discussion-oriented workshop will be grounded in submitted research and framed around key questions for the field. The format includes:

• Community-building via pre- and post-workshop channels
• Brief plenary presentations to seed discussion
• Thematic roundtables (using the Learning Café model) led by moderators
• Interactive demos and collaborative brainstorming

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: June 9 (23:59 AOE), 2025
• Notification of Acceptance: June 25, 2025
• Workshop Date: July 26 with AIED205 Palermo, Italy – F160

Submission Guidelines

• Paper submissions should be 6 pages (excluding references), but slightly shorter or longer papers, within reason, are welcome. Interactive demo submissions should be up to 2 pages (excluding references). Submissions should be fully anonymised for double-blind review. 
• Please use the same Springer format as the main track of the conference  (cf. https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines)
• Submit via email at ai4exl2025@gmail.com, attaching the paper and specifying in the email the authors, title, and type of submissions (paper/demo)
• Accepted papers will be published in open-access proceedings (e.g., CEUR-WS). Note that workshop papers are not included in the official conference proceedings.

We particularly encourage submissions that include datasets, tools, or code, and we welcome novel or early-stage work that provokes reflection and discussion.

Organizers

Contact ai4exl2025@gmail.com

Manolis Mavrikis Professor UCL, Knowledge Lab

Sébastien Lallé Associate Professor, Sorbonne University, LIP6

Roger Azevedo Pegasus Professor, University of Central Florida, School of Modeling Simulation and Training

Gautam Biswas Professor of Engineering, Cornelius Vanderbilt, School of Computer Science and Engineering

Jade Mai Cock PhD Student, EPFL, School of Computer and Communication Sciences

Cristina Conati Professor, University of British Columbia, School of Computer Science

Sokratis Karkalas Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, University of Derby

Tanja Käser Tenure Track Assistant Professor, EPFL, School of Computer and Communication Sciences

James Lester Goodnight Distinguished University Professor, North Carolina state University

Ido Roll Senior Director, ETS, Associate Professor, Technion, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology

Janan Saba Lecturer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Learning Sciences Design-Based Research

Megan Wiedbusch PostDoc, University of Central Florida

Additional members of the international AIED community will serve on the program committee and facilitate workshop sessions.