Sean Hickey is a doctoral student in Learning Technologies at The Ohio State University. Hickey received his B.S. in Biology from The Ohio State University in 1998. After graduation, he worked as a curriculum developer and program director at the Center of Science and Industry, a science museum in Columbus, Ohio. Hickey later moved on to McGraw-Hill Education, where he developed print and digital instructional materials while simultaneously earning his M.A. in Integrated Teaching and Learning from The Ohio State University.
He currently works at Ohio State’s Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) as Lead Curriculum Developer. As part of his role, he facilitates item-writing workshops for statewide career-tech end-of-course tests and industry credentialing exams and develops eLearning materials for teachers and subject-matter experts.
An award-winning instructional designer, he is active in the learning-technologies community and has presented at several conferences related to both EdTech/learning technology and learning and development. Most recently, he has presented at the Future of Educational Technology Conference (FETC), the Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC), the eLearning Guild Learning Solutions Conference (LSCon), and OSU’s own Innovate conference, on topics such as assessment strategies, gamification, branching learning scenarios, and inquiry education.
Among his many eLearning projects, Hickey created a software-training game for users of CETE’s WebXam testing system. The game won the “Seasoned Professional” division of Central Ohio ATD’s Look & Learn event. He was also co-creator of an eLearning game about writing multiple-choice test items, called “Multiple-Choice Mayhem,” which was recognized by the Association for Educational Communications & Technology (AECT) as a 2019 Outstanding Digital Learning Artifact and received “Best in Show” at the 2019 Learning Solutions Conference (LSCon) DemoFest.
As part of the research group, Hickey plans to study critical-thinking and non-cognitive skills and how they can be developed or enhanced using technology. He is also currently researching how augmented reality and virtual reality can be used in career-technical education for both training and assessment.