Farbod Aprin’s PhD thesis successfully defended in December 2023
Farbod Aprin’s PhD thesis successfully defended in December 2023
Based on his research work in Courage, Farbod Aprin (employed by RIAS) has received his PhD graduation (Dr.-Ing.) by the Faculty of Computer Science of the University of Duisburg-Essen. He submitted his PhD thesis entitled “Supporting Young Learners in Identifying Toxic Content and Misinformation in Social Media – a Virtual Learning Companion Approach" mid October 2023 and successfully defended his thesis on December 19, 2023.
Figure: Farbod Aprin (center) with his jury members – profs. Rwitajit Majumdar (top, from Kumamoto, Japan), Daniel Bodemer, H. Ulrich Hoppe, Irene A. Chounta, and Janis Voigtländer (bottom, left to right),
Dec. 19, 2023, in Duisburg
The central contribution of Farbod Aprin’s PhD is the design and evaluation of a chatbot-style Virtual Learning Companion (VLC) implemented as a browser plugin. It has been combined with a simulated social media environment to support exposure and interaction with different types of content in several experiments including particularly fake images. Beyond its usage in controlled experiments, the VLC can also be added to open social media contexts. The empirical findings indicate that the VLC effectively engaged learners and improved their sensitivity to social media issues and thus enhanced their media literacy competence.