The DFG-funded Research Training Group (Graduate School) “User-Centred Social Media (UCSM)” aims at developing new models and methods for analyzing, designing, and evaluating social media from a user perspective. The main research fields in the RTG are modeling and understanding user behavior, social media engineering, and social media analytics. The Interdisciplinary RTG brings together researchers from computer science and psychology at the Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

GSSP is a DAAD funding program for international doctoral candidates at graduate schools. Each DAAD scholarship in this program comprises funding for up to four years.

The goal of the transparent Recommendation and Interest Modeling Application (RIMA) is to recommend items (e.g., publications, researchers, conferences) and leverage explanatory visualizations to explain the recommendations (output) as well as the underlying interest models (input). RIMA follows a user-driven personalized explanation approach by providing explanations with different levels of detail and empowering users to steer the explanation process the way they see fit. Further, the application provides on-demand explanations, that is, the users can decide whether to see the explanation, and they can also choose which level of explanation detail they want to see.

The Open Learning Analytics Platform (OpenLAP) lays the foundation for a Do-it-yourself (DIY) learning analytics ecosystem. OpenLAP follows a Human-Centered Learning Analytics (HCLA) approach and aims at engaging different stakeholders in co-designing and developing personalized learning analytics indicators. It provides a detailed technical open learning analytics (OLA) architecture with a concrete implementation of all its components, seamlessly integrated into a platform.

The Exploratory Learning Analytics Toolkit for Students (ELAS) is a platform to support UDE students in their learning activities. The platform provides a collection of learning analytics applications developed by students for students. ELAS includes best projects from the previous editions of the Learning Analytics (LA), Advanced Web Technologies (AWT),  Learning Analytics and Visual Analytics (LAVA), and Interactive Data Exploration and Analytics (IDEA) courses offered at the Social Computing Group, where different learning analytics applications were developed as part of student projects.

CourseMapper is a MOOC learning platform that supports collaboration and interaction around PDF and video learning materials. CourseMapper aims to democratize the creation of MOOCs. Using CourseMapper, anyone can easily create and manage their courses to help learners build knowledge with a large community worldwide. Moreover, it enables learners to interact with learning materials, peers, and teachers and facilitates knowledge sharing. Furthermore, it leverages Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) for effective learner modeling and personalized recommendation.