Best Paper Awards

Candidate Selection

Candidates are nominated by the technical program committee chair based on recommendations of technical program committee members and reviewers. The general chair together with the technical program committee chair are responsible for nominating a best paper award committee and sending a final shortlist to this committee for selection. The number of the papers in the shortlist shall represent the top 1% of all the submissions in the year (or 3 papers, whichever is smaller) for one category.

Best Paper Award Committee

After the candidate list has been established, the general chair and technical program committee chair propose a best paper award committee. Members of the committee cannot have a paper in the shortlist. The committee has at least 3 members and is approved by the organizing committee. The committee should be broad enough in expertise to represent the IEEE TALE areas and should as much as possible represent a mix of academic lineage and demographics. Committee members should have a record of serving on the IEEE TALE or related conferences by the IEEE Education Society. One of the members should take up the role as the chairperson for making the final judgment after considering the reviews by the members.

Best Paper Committee Decision Making Process

The committee receives the shortlisted papers with paper metadata including but not limited to anonymized reviews and best paper nomination scores, before the first day of the conference welcoming for the initial review of these papers.

The main task of the committee is to select the best papers from the shortlist to receive the award. All these papers should be eligible candidates to receive the award. The reviewing process typically involves the following steps: (1) Gathering preliminary brief review comments from the award committee members prior to the conference; (2) Attending the oral presentation and asking probing questions for clarification; (3) Giving independent overall rating on each candidate; then 3) Selecting candidates for the best paper award. The final selection should be sent by the chair of the award committee to the technical program committee chair and the general chair for confirmation.

The number of best paper awards given in a year should not be significantly higher than a usual practice. For reference, usually the top 5 papers were shortlisted to be considered for the award in the past TALE conferences. The committee may use their discretion and professional judgment to decide if the awardees could represent the best work worth to be promoted by the conference.

Best Paper Award Criteria

The award committee members may consider the merits of the following criteria:

  • Contribution (15%): Have the authors explicitly and clearly articulated how their research will contribute to current work?

  • Theoretical and Methodological Orientation (15%): Have the authors explicitly and clearly described how they performed their research? To what extent does their approach align with currently accepted theories and methodologies?

  • Findings and Conclusions (15%): To what extent are research findings compelling and different from what has been previously published? To what extent have the research findings contributed to existing knowledge and/or literature? Would the findings be worthwhile to be extended and published in any journal? Are implications for future research considered? If appropriate, are implications for practice considered?

  • Organization, Illustrations and Oral Presentation Clarity (55%): To what extent does the paper and demonstrate effectively organized, clear, and concise presentation appropriate for the readership of the Proceedings? To what extent do tables and figures meaningfully add to the narrative? Is the author as the presenter able to present the paper with clarity to demonstrate a full knowledge of the work? Can the presenter answer the questions from the audience clearly?

  • Any New Contribution or existing one with new methodology / execution

The score in each category should be given by the committee members after attending the oral presentation, and the overall score should be used in determining the best paper awards regardless of the peer review scores. In other words, the paper with a higher peer review score should not be more advantageous than the one with lower peer review score. The category 4 is given the highest weight, carrying the common practice in the conference that the best paper is mainly reviewed based on the oral presentation clarity.

Each category should hold a sub-score based on the 5-Likert scale, as follows:

1 = Poor
2 = Fair
3 = Good
4 = Excellent
5 = Outstanding

After each sub-score is collected, the following formula should be used to compute the overall score:

Total Score = (Subscore_1 + Subscore_2 + Subscore_3) x 15% + Subscore_4 x 55%

All the total scores from each committee member will be averaged as the resulting final score. If the resulting final score is at least 3 or above, it should be eligible for the best paper award. The committee should meet and discuss with each case, such that the decision can be made beyond the quantitative results.

Past Award Winners

Best Conference Paper Award

Human or AI? Comparing Design Thinking Assessments by Teaching Assistants and Bots

Sumbul Khan
Singapore University of Technology and Design

Partnering with AI Through Practice: Designing AI Competence-Building Activities Using a Tailored Experiential Learning Cycle

Yue Chen
Queen Mary University of London

GenAI for Automated Assessment and Feedback in VR Procedural Training: an Exploratory Study in Cervical Spine Surgery Training

Pak Ming,
The University of Hong Kong

Constructive Alignment in Diagnostic Imaging - a Multidiscipliniary Course in Biomedical Engineering over a Decade and Beyond

Hoi-Shun Lui,
The University of Queensland

Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling of Learners' Responses to LLMs-Enhanced EFL Learning on YouTube

Muyang Niu,
Macao Polytechnic University

Aligning LLMs for the Classroom with Knowledge-Based Retrieval: A Comparative RAG Study

Si Chen,
West Chester University

A Wellbeing-Integrated and Person-Centred Supervision Framework for Capstone Projects

Mahesha Samaratunga,
Queen Mary University of London

Best Conference Paper Award

On the Possibility of Emotion Recognition Using Facial Expressions and Utterance Voices for Measuring Online Students' Emotional Engagement

Satori Hachisuka, Akiko Nakazawa, Hanako Itsubo, Naomi Iwazawa, Toru Fujimoto, and Yuhei Yamauchi

Best Student Paper Award

Advancing Speaker Diarization With Whisper Speech Recognition for Different Learning Environments

Aarsh Desai, N.V.J.K Kartik, Priyesh Gupta, Vinayak, Ashwin T S, Manjunath K. Vanahalli, and Ramkumar Rajendran

Best Conference Poster Award

On the possibility of measuring learner's facial impressions in on-demand learning environments in junior high school students

Satori Hachisuka, Kayoko Kurita, and Shinchi Warisawa,
The University of Tokyo, Japan

Virtual Training on Remote Piloting: A Mobile Drone Simulator for Empowering Beginning Learners to Practice Visual Line of Sight Operations

Eric Luk, Sunny Poon, Morris Jong, and James Au,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

Chin-Ching Tsai,
National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Vincent Tam,
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

Discovering Teacher Leaders: The Journey to Self-Identification

Sophia Zhang, Truman Pham, and Herbert Thomas,
AcademyEx, New Zealand

A multimodal approach to mitigate cheating in online assessments

Lamees Elhiny, Xinfeng Ye, Sathiamoorthy Manoharan, and Ulrich Speidel

Best Conference Paper Award

Peer Learning in an Undergraduate Linear Algebra Course - A Social Network Analysis

Manoj Thulasidas, Kyong Jin Shim, and Jonathan Teo,
Singapore Management University

A Data-Driven Analysis of the Correlation between English Language Proficiency and Academic Performance in Transnational Education

Chao Shu, Yue Chen, and Kok Keong Chai,
Queen Mary University of London

AI-Driven Teacher Analytics: Informative Insights on Classroom Activities

Oscar Canovas, Felix J. Garcia Clemente, and Federico Pardo,
University of Murica

Best Conference Paper Award

Conversational System for Clinical Communication Training Supporting User-defined Tasks

X. Zhang et al.

An Exploration of Instructional Design and Its Effectiveness of Using Cognitive Load Perspective into Electronics Experiment Course

P. -H. Chang, S. -F. Cheng, C. -W. Cheng, J. -J. Tang and C. -B. Tzeng

Best Conference Paper Award

Winner

Serious Game for Medical Imaging in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality

H. Cecotti, M. Callaghan, B. Foucher and S. Joslain

Runner Up

Computational Thinking Test for Lower Primary Students: Design Principles, Content Validation, and Pilot Testing

D. Gaurav et al.

Best Student Paper Award

Winner

Development of Open-Response Prompt-Based Metacognitive Tutor for Online Classrooms

M. K. Jonson Carlon, J. M. Gayed and J. S. Cross

Runner Up

Cybersecurity training for Web Applications through Serious Games

S. Zhang, G. K. W. Wong and G. Pan

Best Conference Paper Award

Full Paper

Changing How Teachers Teach for STEM and Students Motivation for STEM: Experiences and Lessons Learned from DreamSpace’ STEM-21CLD Educational Activity

Katriona O’Sullivan
Maynooth University, Ireland

Amanda Jolliffe, Richard Ryan, and Kevin Marshall
Microsoft Ireland, Ireland

Short Paper

Investigation of Vocational Students’ Skills for Determining Learning Experiences on CAD Construction Drawing Course

Abdul Haris Setiawan and Ryo Takaoka
Yamaguchi University, Japan

Lilis Trianingsih
Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia

Best Student Paper Award

Real-time Feedback Dashboard for Students in Online Class

Takuro Owatari, Atsushi Shimada, Tsubasa Minematsu, Maiya Hori, and Rin-ichiro Taniguchi,
Kyushu University, Japan

Outstanding Paper Award

Full Papers

Implementation Of Microgrid Virtual Laboratory In A Design Course In Electrical Engineering

Hua Chai, Matthew Priestley, Xiuhui Tang, and Jayashri Ravishankar,
University of New South Wales, Australia

Advanced Data Literacy Culture enabled through App Assistance for Competence Creation

Tim Giese, Martin Wende, Serdar Bulut, and Reiner Anderl,
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

Designing an Autonomous Vehicle System Design Course for COVID-19 Remote Learning under First Principles of Instruction Framework

Tokio Takahashi and Masato Uchida,
The University of Hong Kong

Short Papers

Exploring the Sequences of Synthetic Facial Expressions and Type of Problems Solved in a Personal Instructing Agent using Lag Sequential Analysis

Rex Perez Bringula, Ian Clement Fosgate, Neil Peter Garcia, and Josf Luinico Yorobe,
University of the East, Philippines

Design of Typing Skills Feedback System for Behavior Change

Rex Perez Bringula, Ian Clement Fosgate, Neil Peter Garcia, and Josf Luinico Yorobe,
Waseda University, Japan

Masaru Honjo and Akio Yoneyama,
KDDI Research, Inc., Japan

Best Reviewer Award

Prathamesh Churi

SVKM’s NMIMS Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, India

Student Research Competition Winner

Postgraduate Category

User Experiences of Learning: Features That Motivate Mobile App Use in Blended-Learning

Jarmo Seppälä,
Aalto University, Finland

Undergraduate Category

Undergraduate Category Developing Novel IoT System for Real-time Room Occupancy Monitoring

Shinjiro Matayoshi, Daisei Tanaka, and Sena Yun
Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Japan

Best Conference Paper Award

Wayang kulit: A multidisciplinary project for engineering education

M. F. Ercan and J. Caplin

Mining Virtual Reality Nuggets: A Pattern-Based Approach for Creating Virtual Reality Content Based on Microlearning Methodology

R. Horst and R. Dörner

Virtual Laboratory: Facilitating Teaching and Learning in Cybersecurity for Students with Diverse Disciplines

D. Y. W. Liu et al

A Study Protocol to Research and Improve Presence and Vection in VR with a non-Euclidean Approach

T. Murray and L. Vigentini

Best Conference Paper Award

Assessing primary school students' intrinsic motivation of computational thinking

S. Jiang and G. K. W. Wong

Shortlisted for Best Conference Paper Awards

Does Lecture Capturing Improve Learning? A Data Driven Exploratory Study on the Effectiveness of Lecture Capture on Learning in a Foundation IT Course

Kai Pan Mark and Lilian Lee Ping Vrijmoed

Teaching and Learning Queueing Theory Concepts using Tangible User Interfaces

Clifford De Raffaele, Serengul Smith and Orhan Gemikonakli

Understanding Knowledge Areas in Curriculum through Text Mining from Course Materials

Kornraphop Kawintiranon, Peerapon Vateekul, Atiwong Suchato and Proadpran Punyabukkana

Equal learning rights for the new generation — A study on the innovation of interactive live webcasting by the Small School Alliance

Yen-Yin Wang, Yu-Chun Cheng, Chieh-Ju Kuo, I-Chang Tsai, Min-Tsuei Chen, Chin-Yu Chou and Yung-Hsuan Chen

Cellular Automata as Basis for Programming Exercises in a MOOC on Testdriven Development

Thomas Staubitz, Ralf Teusner, Nishanth Prakash and Christoph Meinel

Metamorphic Testing: A New Student Engagement Approach for a New Software Testing Paradigm

Dave Towey, T.Y. Chen, Fei-Ching Kuo, Huai Liu and Zhi Quan Zhou

Best Conference Paper Award

An automatic classifier for exam questions in Engineering: A process for Bloom's taxonomy

K. Jayakodi, M. Bandara and I. Perera

School perceptions of coding education in K-12: A large scale quantitative study to inform innovative practices

G. K. W. Wong, H. Y. Cheung, E. C. C. Ching and J. M. H. Huen

Developing a technoself system to improve lifelong learning engagement

L. Jin, W. Huang and Z. Wen

Best Conference Paper Award

Main Program

A Case Study: Are Traditional Face-To-Face Lectures Still Relevant When Teaching Engineering Courses?

Shahid Alam and LillAnne Jackson

Special Session on Computing Education

Agile Development Spikes Applied to Computer Science Education

Clinton J. Woodward, James Montgomery, Rajesh Vasa, and Andrew Cain

Merit Paper Award

Using a Machine Design Project in the Teaching of Introductory Electrical Engineering

Chi-Un Lei, Hai-Ning Liang, and Ka Lok Man