Keynote Speakers

Roger Azevedo. University of Central Florida (USA)

Keynote speech: Generative AI as a Catalyst for Self-Regulated Learning: Harnessing Multimodal Data to Transform Education

This keynote explores how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the study and support of self-regulated learning (SRL) in technology-rich educational environments. Drawing on contemporary theories of metacognition and SRL, the talk examines how multimodal data, spanning learners’ interactions, discourse, gaze, and physiological signals, can be integrated with GenAI to model learners’ cognitive, affective, and motivational processes in real time. It highlights the emerging role of GenAI-powered pedagogical agents that provide adaptive, proactive, and explainable scaffolding tailored to individual learners’ needs. Beyond opportunities, the keynote critically addresses challenges related to validity, transparency, bias, and ethical use of learner data. By bridging theory, multimodal learning analytics, and GenAI-driven design, the presentation outlines a forward-looking research agenda to build intelligent systems that not only assess but also actively cultivate learners’ ability to plan, monitor, and reflect on their learning across diverse educational contexts.

Workshop: Designing GenAI-Powered Systems for Self-Regulated Learning using Multimodal Trace Data

This interactive workshop engages participants in the design of generative AI (GenAI)-powered learning environments that foster self-regulated learning (SRL) through the integration of multimodal data. Grounded in contemporary theories of metacognition and SRL, the session guides attendees through a hands-on, theory-to-design process in which they identify key cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral indicators of learning and map them to multimodal data sources such as log files, discourse, gaze, and physiological signals. Participants will collaboratively design GenAI-driven pedagogical agents capable of delivering adaptive, proactive, and explainable scaffolding aligned with learners’ needs across planning, monitoring, and reflection phases. The workshop also addresses critical issues related to data validity, transparency, bias, and ethical use of AI in education. By the end of the session, participants will have developed a prototype concept and a practical framework for implementing and evaluating SRL-focused GenAI systems in diverse educational contexts.

About Roger Azevedo

Dr. Azevedo is a Pegasus Professor in the School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training at the University of Central Florida. He is also an affiliated faculty member in the Departments of Computer Science and Internal Medicine at the University of Central Florida and the lead scientist for the Learning Sciences Faculty Cluster Initiative. He received his PhD in Educational Psychology from McGill University and completed his postdoctoral training in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. His main research area includes examining the role of cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and motivational self-regulatory processes during learning, reasoning, and problem-solving with intelligent learning technologies such as intelligent tutoring systems, hypermedia, multimedia, simulations, serious games, immersive virtual learning environments, human digital twins, and simulated learners). He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and refereed conference proceedings in the areas of educational, learning, cognitive, and computational sciences. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the recipient of the prestigious Early Faculty Career Award from the National Science Foundation. He was recently inducted into the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

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B. Mairéad Pratschke. Independent Researcher & Advisor (UK)

Keynote speech: The New Hybrid: from the chatbot to the agent

Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, generative AI has evolved rapidly from conversational tools to autonomous systems that reason, act, and learn independently. For education, this represents a fundamental shift – from AI as a classroom presence to AI as educational infrastructure. And yet the dominant frameworks emerging for deploying agents remain stubbornly operational: agents for advising workflows, agents for administrative efficiency, agents for productivity. Learning itself is largely absent from the picture, just as it was from general-purpose chatbots. The AI industry has long confused efficiency with effectiveness, butdoing things faster is not the same as learning better – indeed, we have seenthat removing the friction required for learning is a critical flawin general AI systems. As agents are deployed at scale, the risk is therefore not simplythat learning is absent from the picture — it is that thevery systems being adopted were designed for entirely different purposes. How can educators reclaim agency in the agentic age? In this keynote, Professor Pratschke argues that the shift from chatbots to agents is not simply a technical challenge but rather a pedagogical one. The question is not how to make agents increase workplace efficiency, but how to ensure that agentic systems are aligned to the values and needs of education.

About B. Mairéad Pratschke

Professor B. Mairéad Pratschke is an independent researcher and advisor working at the intersection of AI strategy, ethical governance, and human-centered design. With over 25 years of experience in digital education and learning innovation, her work centres on designing learning systems that prioritise pedagogical alignment for human development.
She is the author of Generative AI and Education (Springer, 2024), which has attracted over 26,000 reads and 140+ citations, 'From Consumers to Designers: Strategic Pathways for European Higher Education in the AI Age' in the Journal of Digital Politics (2025), and a chapter 'From AI Tools to AI Systems' in the forthcoming Handbook of Generative AI in Education (Springer, 2026).
She holds a Visiting Professorship at the LSE Data Science Institute and serves on the External Advisory Board of the US NSF-funded AI Institute for Adult Learning & Online Education (AI-ALOE) at Georgia Tech and the Expert Review Panel for Singapore's Ministry of Education SkillsFuture WDARF grant. Her research and advisory work spans universities, national governments, and international organisations across four continents.