To our great delight, Mr. Kohei Ozaki, a master’s student in our lab who is also a high school teacher, along with his principal, has received a mayoral commendation for the results of a joint research project involving the DX Smart Learning Design Research Unit I lead, his high school, and the Fukuoka City Board of Education.

This award recognizes the Best Paper Award he received last year at the international conference CELDA. The research analyzed how teachers change their classroom management based on their own actions and the student behaviors monitored via learning dashboards, and how these teacher interventions subsequently change the learning behaviors of the students being monitored.

I believe this work was recognized because it contributes significantly to the qualitative improvement of classroom instruction. Teachers manage their classes by grasping student behavior and using their empirical knowledge to identify which students to focus on to influence the entire classroom; Learning Analytics allows us to visualize these characteristic points. While Learning Analytics research naturally aims to contribute to the qualitative improvement of education and learning in the field, intervention research is one of the themes we must tackle now, and I believe this is a major step forward.

I visited the high school the other day to hear from the teachers about the current situation and to discuss our future direction. I look forward to continuing this promising joint practical research.

Congratulations to Mr. Ozaki, the principal, and everyone involved. I look forward to our continued collaboration.