Marcus Specht

Deutsch

Prof. Dr. Marcus Specht Photo: privat

Prof. Dr. Marcus Specht

Member of the Executive Board, Head of the research professorship "Learning Science in Higher Education"

Email: marcus.specht

FernUniversität in Hagen
Universitätsstr. 27 - PRG / Buliding 5 / Room B115 (1st floor)
58097 Hagen

To the research professorship Learning Science

What is my role in CATALPA?

I have an interdisciplinary background and worked in various positions in both computer science and psychology over the past 30 years. In addition to my chair in Learning Science, I hold a chair in Digital Education in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) at TU Delft. I am also affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam through the Faculty of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) and in Leiden with the Institute for Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). I consider interdisciplinary collaboration between psychology, computer science, management sciences, and pedagogy as the core of research and innovation in the field of educational innovation and research. My roots are in cognitive psychology, and I apply this knowledge to support personalized knowledge and competency development. In recent years, I have researched Learning Analytics, Artificial Intelligence for Education, Digital Skills, and Computational Thinking. In the future, I plan to primarily research the support of teaching and learning processes with Learning Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Mixed Reality technologies.

Why CATALPA?

CATALPA provides an ideal environment for developing new and innovative approaches in education and learning. CATALPA's unique positioning enables not only the research and development of new distance learning methods but also their application in daily teaching in schools, colleges, and universities. The interdisciplinary collaboration between experts from computer science, pedagogy, and psychology, along with the possibilities of a real-world laboratory with 70,000 learners, offers a unique environment in Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia.

    • Lead of 4TU Centre for Engineering Education which is an alliance between Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, the University of Twente and Wageningen University (2020-2024)
    • Scientific Director Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Center for Education and Learning (2019-2024)
    • Visiting Professor Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, MA, USA (2016, June-November)
    • Chair of the Welten Institute, Centre for Teaching,Learning and Technology (2014-2018)
    • Visiting Scholar and der Shanghai Open University (2014 )
    • Lead Research Program Technology Enhanced Learning at the Open Universiteit Nederland, Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (2012-2014 )
    • Visiting Scholar am H-STAR Institute Stanford University, CA, USA (2011)
    • Full Professor für Advanced Learning Technologies at the Open Universiteit Nederland (2008-2020)
    • Founding Director Learning Innovation Lab at CELSTEC Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies, Open Universiteit (2007-2012)
    • Department Lead „Mobile Knowledge“ at the Institute for Applied Information Technology der Fraunhofer Gesellschaft e.V., Fraunhofer FIT (2003-2005)
    • Founder of Fraunhofer SpinOff Company bureau42 GbR, Price for best Entrepreneurial Project Plan of the Ministry of Economy (2001)

    • Development of methods and procedures to support teachers and learners in the use of generative AI. In my research, I want to develop prompt templates and applications to support educators and learners in their prompting and interaction activities with GenAI solutions.
    • I want to develop and research learning environments for collaborative writing and programming education. These environments should integrate a mix of peer-review and agent-based (AI) support.

  • Planning stage

    • de Wit, S., Hermans, F., Specht, M., & Aivaloglou, E. (2023a). Children’s Interest in a CS Career: Exploring Age, Gender, Computer Interests, Programming Experience and Stereotypes. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 1, 1, 245–255. https://doi.org/10.1145/3568813.3600131
    • de Wit, S., Hermans, F., Specht, M., & Aivaloglou, E. (2024a). Gender Differences in Story, Game and Visual Adventures in Hedy. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3689493.3689983
    • de Wit, S., Hermans, F., Specht, M., & Aivaloglou, E. (2024b). Gender, Social Interactions and Interests of Characters Illustrated in Scratch and Python Programming Books for Children. Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1, 262–268. https://doi.org/10.1145/3626252.3630862
    • Lee, Y., Limbu, B., Rusak, Z., & Specht, M. (2023). Role of Multimodal Learning Systems in Technology-Enhanced Learning (℡): A Scoping Review. European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, 164–182.
    • Lee, Y., & Specht, M. (2023a). Can We Empower Attentive E-reading with a Social Robot? An Introductory Study with a Novel Multimodal Dataset and Deep Learning Approaches. LAK23: 13th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, 520–530.
    • Limbu, B., Van Roijen, R., Beerens, M., & Specht, M. (2023). HoloLearn: Towards a Hologram Mediated Hybrid Education. In M. Dascalu, Ó. Mealha, & S. Virkus (Eds.), Smart Learning Ecosystems as Engines of the Green and Digital Transition (pp. 117–132). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5540-4_7
    • Martins Van Jaarsveld, G., Wong, J., Baars, M., Specht, M., & Paas, F. (2024). Goal Setting in Higher Education: How, Why, and When are Students Prompted to Set Goals? A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Education, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1511605
    • Soleymani, A., Aerts, T., De Laat, M., & Specht, M. (2024). Gamified Networked Learning Environments in Higher Education: A Study on Student Engagement and Value Creation in Computer Science. European Conference on Games Based Learning, 18(1), 755–765. https://papers.academic-conferences.org/index.php/ecgbl/article/view/2660
    • Soleymani, A., van den Brom, P., Ahmed, S., Konings, M., Sjoer, E., Itard, L., Zeiler, W., De Laat, M., & Specht, M. (2023). Learnings Networks and Professional Development in Building Energy Management Systems Industry. Education Sciences, 13(2), 215.
    • Valle Torre, M., Oertel, C., & Specht, M. (2024). The Sequence Matters in Learning—A Systematic Literature Review. Proceedings of the 14th Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, 263–272. https://doi.org/10.1145/3636555.3636880
    • van der Meer, N., van der Werf, V., Brinkman, W.-P., & Specht, M. (2023). Virtual reality and collaborative learning: A systematic literature review. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 4, 1159905.
    • van Der Werf, V. (2023). Fostering a natural language approach in programming education (Doctoral Consortium). Proceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3631802.3631838
    • van der Werf, V., Hermans, F., Specht, M., & Aivaloglou, E. (2024b). Variables and Variable Naming in Popular Programming Textbooks for Children and Novices. Proceedings of the 2024 on ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference V. 1, 242–248. https://doi.org/10.1145/3649165.3690112
    • van Der Werf, V., Swidan, A., Hermans, F., Specht, M., & Aivaloglou, E. (2024). Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Naming of Variables in Introductory Python Programming Courses. Proceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training, 368–379. https://doi.org/10.1145/3639474.3640069
    • van Der Werf, V., Zhang, M. Y., Aivaloglou, E., Hermans, F., & Specht, M. (2023). Variables in Practice. An Observation of Teaching Variables in Introductory Programming MOOCs. Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1, 208–214.
    • van Helden, G., Van Der Werf, V., Saunders-Smits, G. N., & Specht, M. M. (2023). The Use of Digital Peer Assessment in Higher Education–an Umbrella Review of Literature. IEEE Access.
    • van Helden, G., Zandbergen, B. T., Specht, M. M., & Gill, E. K. (2023). Collaborative Learning in Engineering Design Education: A Systematic Literature Review. IEEE Transactions on Education.
    • Zhang, X., Aivaloglou, E., & Specht, M. (2024a). Teachers’ Intention to Integrate Computational Thinking Skills in Higher Education: A Survey Study in the Netherlands. 2024 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578887
    • Zhang, X., Aivaloglou, F., & Specht, M. (2024b). A Systematic Umbrella Review on Computational Thinking Assessment in Higher Education. European Journal of STEM Education, 9(1). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1414629

To the research professorship Computational Linguistics

Research Center CATALPA | 13.01.2025