BEAGLE: Behavior-Enforced Agent for Grounded Learner Emulation

Simulating student learning behaviors in open-ended problem-solving environments holds potential for education research, from training adaptive tutoring systems to stress-testing pedagogical interventions. However, collecting authentic data is challenging due to privacy concerns and the high cost of longitudinal studies. While Large Language Models (LLMs) offer a promising path to student simulation, they suffer from competency bias, optimizing for efficient correctness rather than the erratic, iterative struggle characteristic of novice learners. We present BEAGLE, a neuro-symbolic framework that addresses this bias by incorporating Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) theory into a novel architecture. BEAGLE integrates three key technical innovations: (1) a semi-Markov model that governs the timing and transitions of cognitive behaviors and metacognitive behaviors; (2) Bayesian Knowledge Tracing with explicit flaw injection to enforce realistic knowledge gaps and "unknown unknowns"; and (3) a decoupled agent design that separates high-level strategy use from code generation actions to prevent the model from silently correcting its own intentional errors. In evaluations on Python programming tasks, BEAGLE significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in reproducing authentic trajectories. In a human Turing test, users were unable to distinguish synthetic traces from real student data, achieving an accuracy indistinguishable from random guessing (52.8%).

Learning with Preserving for Continual Multitask Learning

Artificial intelligence systems in critical fields like autonomous driving and medical imaging analysis often continually learn new tasks using a shared stream of input data. For instance, after learning to detect traffic signs, a model may later need to learn to classify traffic lights or different types of vehicles using the same camera feed. This scenario introduces a challenging setting we term Continual Multitask Learning (CMTL), where a model sequentially learns new tasks on an underlying data distribution without forgetting previously learned abilities. Existing continual learning methods often fail in this setting because they learn fragmented, task-specific features that interfere with one another. To address this, we introduce Learning with Preserving (LwP), a novel framework that shifts the focus from preserving task outputs to maintaining the geometric structure of the shared representation space. The core of LwP is a Dynamically Weighted Distance Preservation (DWDP) loss that prevents representation drift by regularizing the pairwise distances between latent data representations. This mechanism of preserving the underlying geometric structure allows the model to retain implicit knowledge and support diverse tasks without requiring a replay buffer, making it suitable for privacy-conscious applications. Extensive evaluations on time-series and image benchmarks show that LwP not only mitigates catastrophic forgetting but also consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in CMTL tasks. Notably, our method shows superior robustness to distribution shifts and is the only approach to surpass the strong single-task learning baseline, underscoring its effectiveness for real-world dynamic environments.

Multimodal Methods for Analyzing Learning and Training Environments: A Systematic Literature Review

Recent technological advancements have enhanced our ability to collect and analyze rich multimodal data (e.g., speech, video, and eye gaze) to better inform learning and training experiences. While previous reviews have focused on parts of the multimodal pipeline (e.g., conceptual models and data fusion), a comprehensive literature review on the methods informing multimodal learning and training environments has not been conducted. This literature review provides an in-depth analysis of research methods in these environments, proposing a taxonomy and framework that encapsulates recent methodological advances in this field and characterizes the multimodal domain in terms of five modality groups: Natural Language, Video, Sensors, Human-Centered, and Environment Logs. We introduce a novel data fusion category -- mid fusion -- and a graph-based technique for refining literature reviews, termed citation graph pruning. Our analysis reveals that leveraging multiple modalities offers a more holistic understanding of the behaviors and outcomes of learners and trainees. Even when multimodality does not enhance predictive accuracy, it often uncovers patterns that contextualize and elucidate unimodal data, revealing subtleties that a single modality may miss. However, there remains a need for further research to bridge the divide between multimodal learning and training studies and foundational AI research.

MicroXercise: A Micro-Level Comparative and Explainable System for Remote Physical Therapy

Recent global estimates suggest that as many as 2.41 billion individuals have health conditions that would benefit from rehabilitation services. Home-based Physical Therapy (PT) faces significant challenges in providing interactive feedback and meaningful observation for therapists and patients. To fill this gap, we present MicroXercise, which integrates micro-motion analysis with wearable sensors, providing therapists and patients with a comprehensive feedback interface, including video, text, and scores. Crucially, it employs multi-dimensional Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and attribution-based explainable methods to analyze the existing deep learning neural networks in monitoring exercises, focusing on a high granularity of exercise. This synergistic approach is pivotal, providing output matching the input size to precisely highlight critical subtleties and movements in PT, thus transforming complex AI analysis into clear, actionable feedback. By highlighting these micro-motions in different metrics, such as stability and range of motion, MicroXercise significantly enhances the understanding and relevance of feedback for end-users. Comparative performance metrics underscore its effectiveness over traditional methods, such as a 39% and 42% improvement in Feature Mutual Information (FMI) and Continuity. MicroXercise is a step ahead in home-based physical therapy, providing a technologically advanced and intuitively helpful solution to enhance patient care and outcomes.

PhysiQ: Off-site Quality Assessment of Exercise in Physical Therapy

Physical therapy (PT) is crucial for patients to restore and maintain mobility, function, and well-being. Many on-site activities and body exercises are performed under the supervision of therapists or clinicians. However, the postures of some exercises at home cannot be performed accurately due to the lack of supervision, quality assessment, and self-correction. Therefore, in this paper, we design a new framework, PhysiQ, that continuously tracks and quantitatively measures people's off-site exercise activity through passive sensory detection. In the framework, we create a novel multi-task spatio-temporal Siamese Neural Network that measures the absolute quality through classification and relative quality based on an individual's PT progress through similarity comparison. PhysiQ digitizes and evaluates exercises in three different metrics: range of motions, stability, and repetition.