Thomas (Tom) Elton

AI & NLP Researcher in Education | PhD Candidate, University of Sydney

My research explores how AI (in particular, natural language processing) can augment education by researching and building tools that help teachers quickly scale best pedagogical practices to large cohorts.


Research Interests

Scaling Active Learning Techniques using AI Pedagogy (Feedback Focus) Natural Language Processing AI Literacy Education Technology

Current Projects*

Muddy Card AI Clustering System
Building NLP systems that cluster and summarise student “muddy card” responses, so teachers can quickly identify common points of confusion across large cohorts.
With Dr Jonathan Kummerfeld, Dr Elliot Varoy (USyd) & Dr Elena Glassman (Harvard)
NLP Feedback Focus Active Learning
Student Muddy Card Clustering Dataset
Curating a novel fine-grained clustering dataset from real student muddy card responses. Developing a visualisation to streamline the annotation adjudication process.
Supervised by Dr Jonathan Kummerfeld & Dr Elliot Varoy (USyd)
NLP Dataset
AI Feedback Audit & Tool
Leading a team developing a coding guide based on Hattie & Timperley’s feedback levels, alongside an AI tool to help teachers improve their feedback practices. $9,000 AUD in secured funding.
Project lead of USyd Based Team: Dr. Jonathan Kummerfeld, Dr. Elliot Varoy, Dr. Hamish Fernando, Dr. Mohammed Polash, Mr. Jose Meza, and Mr. Sasha Cohen
AI Pedagogy Feedback Focus
AI Use Audit at USyd
Faculty-wide survey across the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering, auditing which AI tools students are using and how.
Collaboration with Dr Mohammed Polash, Hisham Akhtar, Prof Mary Lou Maher & Jacob Elmasry
AI Literacy Education Research
Lecture Attendance in Mathematics & Statistics
Study using focus groups and surveys to understand why first-year students are skipping lectures, and what they’re turning to instead.
News: I will be leading a talk on this research at ACSME 2026!
Research Assistant and Collaborator under Dr Rosie Cameron, Dr. Andy Tran, Dr. Jaslene Huan Lin & Dr. John Mitry
Education Research
AI Generated Feedback From Audio
Collaborating with Dr. Hamish Fernando on a project he is leading to understand student’s perceptions on AI Feedback generated from a video recording of an instructor.
News: Abstract accepted at AAEE.
Project Team: Dr. Hamish Fernando, Mr. Thomas Elton, Dr. Peter Lok, Dr. Young No, & Dr. Sasha Nikolic
Education ResearchFeedback FocusAI Trust
AI Curriculum Mapping
Understanding how core computer skills are currently embedded into engineering curriculum at the University of Sydney, and how this develops in a post gen-AI world.
Project Team: Dr. Mitch Bryson, Thomas Elton, Dr. Peter Lok, Dr. Guodong Shi & Dr. Daria Anderson
Education Research AI Literacy

*Note, as projects are completed, they will be removed from this page and will be listed in Google Scholar.


Recent Posts

Index Laws (Part II)

Index Laws (Part II)

A LONG time ago, I wrote the post titled “Index Laws (Part I)”, where I developed a conceptual basis for the index law for multiplication, namely: Why write on this topic? I wrote a description in the linked post above describing my motivation in-depth, however,…


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