Conferences

LED research group was highly represented at the AECT 2023 International Convention

By Mimi Adjei (adjei.39@buckeyemail.osu.edu)

AECT2023 banner

#AECT2023

All roads led to Orlando, Florida, this October as the LED research group had the opportunity to present its groundbreaking research and celebrate the accomplishments of its members at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2023 International Convention. The 2023 convention marked 100 years for the AECT as an organization.

Sean Hickey, Dr. Ana-Paula Correia, Katherine Fergus, and the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) received the 2023 AECT Outstanding Book Chapter Award from the Division of Distance Learning (DDL) for their book chapter, The DACUM Virtual Institute: A Case Study in Designing for Adult Learners*.  This award recognizes a book chapter in a print or digital book published in English with a copyright date within the last three years (2020-2023) that describes important theoretical or practical aspects of distance education that can help others involved in distance education or those researching an important aspect of distance education.

Fan Xu received the DDL award on behalf of Sean Hickey, Ana-Paula Correia and CETE

Fan Xu (middle) received the DDL award on behalf of Sean Hickey, Dr. Ana-Paula Correia, and Kate Fergus.

Jiarui Xie, Mimi Adjei, and Dr. Ana-Paula Correia also presented their poster at the AECT 2023 International Convention on their study titled Teacher Interaction in Asynchronous Online Discussions: A Comparison of Discussion Board Replies and Grade Page Comments as part of the DDL’s program.

Abstract: This study compared the effects of two instructor participation approaches: replying to student posts on discussion boards and commenting on student posts on grade pages. The study examined the impact on both the quantity of student participation and the quality of student posts. The findings revealed that when the instructor replied on discussion boards, there was significantly more interaction between students than when the instructor commented on the grade pages. However, the number of student posts had no significant difference between the two approaches. Notably, both approaches contributed to a gradual improvement in the quality of student posts over time.

Jiarui Xie (left) & Mimi Adjei at their poster presentation at the AECT 2023 convention

Jiarui Xie (left) & Mimi Adjei at their poster presentation during the AECT 2023 convention.

Dr. Chenxi Liu, Yixi Wang, Dr. Marvin Evans, and Dr. Ana-Paula Correia also contributed to the Division Emerging Learning Technologies program with their study, Uncovering the Drivers of Mobile Learning Acceptance: A Meta-Analysis of Critical Influencing Factors. Dr. Evans led the presentation on Mobile Learning Acceptance f on behalf of the rest of the team.

Mobile Learning Acceptance

Liu et al.’s study on mobile learning acceptance.

Abstract: This meta-analysis employs the Technology Acceptance Model to examine the factors influencing mobile learning acceptance and moderation effects of education level and region. Using a one-stage meta-analysis structural equation model, we developed an integrating model revealing the significant impacts of subjective norm, self-efficacy, enjoyment, and system quality on mobile learning acceptance. Our findings show that these impacts are weaker in higher education compared to non-higher education and stronger in Asia-Pacific compared to non-Asia-Pacific regions.

Dr. Evans also successfully led a practice session for the Design and Development program on Creating Online Learning With Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Using Articulate 360.

Left to right: Fan Xu, Mimi Adjei, Jiarui Xie and Marvin Evans

LED members who were at the AECT convention. Left to right: Dr. Fan Xu, Mimi Adjei, Jiarui Xie, and Dr. Marvin Evans.

The LED research group is excited and looks forward to presenting more of its research at the AECT 2024 International Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Hope to see you there!

AECT24 - Kansas City

*Cite as: Hickey, S., Correia, A.-P., & Fergus, K. (2022). The DACUM Virtual Institute: A Case Study in Designing for Adult Learners. In P. Sullivan, B. Sullivan, & J. Lantz (Eds.), Cases on innovative and successful uses of digital resources for online learning (pp. 262-284). IGI Global.

Fan Xu and Deborah Hewlett presented study at #AERA2022 Computers and Internet Applications in Education SIG

Fan Xu, Deborah Hewlett, and Dr. Ana-Paula Correia presented at the American Educational Research Association 2022 Annual Meeting on their study titled A Socialized Knowledge Community on Computational Thinking – Teachers-Pay-Teachers.

Fan Xu led the virtual presentation on Teachers-Pay-Teachers and Computational Thinking as part of the Computers and Internet Applications in Education SIG program.

Abstract: To understand teachers’ attitudes toward the current Computational Thinking-related resources in socialized knowledge communities and further explore their need for Computational Thinking (CT) education, this study collected a large amount of data from the Teachers-Pay-Teachers (TPT) portal and used text mining techniques for comprehensive analysis. This work reveals that most CT resources on TPT focused on math education in primary school. Teachers hold a relatively positive attitude towards these resources, even though some online resources might be too difficult to use. The resource itself, the subject, and students at a specific grade level are the three main concerns when teachers seek supportive resources online.

A Socialized Knowledge Community on Computational Thinking: Teachers-Pay-Teachers presentation slides.

Chenxi Liu participated on-site at #AERA2022

Chenxi Liu and Dr. Ana-Paula Correia presented a study at the American Educational Research Association 2022 Annual Meeting on External Variables That Impact Mobile Learning (M-Learning) Acceptance: A Meta-Analysis. 

Chenxi led a roundtable session on a meta-analysis on the impact of mobile learning acceptance as part of the Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis SIG program.

Abstract: Mobile learning (m-learning) can positively impact learning. However, the low retention rate is a common problem many m-learning applications face. Although previous studies have investigated factors impacting learners’ acceptance of m-learning, no meta-analysis has been conducted on this topic. Based on 47 empirical studies, this meta-analysis identified five major external variables impacting learners’ acceptance of m-learning. These variables are self-efficacy, subjective norm, mobility, enjoyment, and satisfaction. All variables are moderately or strongly correlated with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs, and the relationship between subjective norm and perceived usefulness is moderated by learning context.

External Variables That Impact Mobile Learning (M-Learning) Acceptance: A Meta-Analysis i-Poster.

Chenxi also joined Dr. Minjung Kim and Junyeong Yang to present their study titled Examining the Dynamics of Students’ Affect and Learning Goal Achievement Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling as part of Division C – Section 2a: Cognitive and Motivational Processes program.

This study examined the complex relationship of the dynamics of student’s positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) with their learning goal achievement (LGA) using the dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM). Based on the 32 days of intensive longitudinal data of student’s affect and LGA from the HBAPA data, we found that students had equilibrium of affect and LGA over time with no systematic changes, while the observations were significantly fluctuated. There was a significant relationship between the affect and LGA with no cross-lagged relationship between PA and NA. Three covariates (i.e., age, number of semesters studied, depression) were significantly related with the dynamics of affect and LGA.

Chenxi Liu enjoyed her first in-person AERA experience with Dr. Minjung Kim and Junyeong Yang.

Ana-Paula Correia as invited speaker at Brazilian leading educational research conference

Dr. Correia was the invited speaker for the Special Interest Group in Education & Communication at the 39th Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Educação (ANPEd) annual meeting in Niterói, Brazil on October 23, 2019. More than 4,000 educators, teachers, educational researchers, post-graduate students, and practitioners who are impacting education in Brazil attended this meeting.

Opening Ceremony @AnpedEducacao on October 21, 2019.

Dr. Correia gave a presentation on her research on online learning and teaching. In particular, she explored research and post-graduate education in online formats in the context of the United States. She delivered this invited talk in her first language, Portuguese.

Screenshot of Dr. Correia’s @AnpedEducacao presentation.

Dr. Correia was hosted by Professor Edméa Santos from the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Chair for the Special Interest Group in Education & Communication. She networked and discussed issues in online learning in higher education that permeate cultures and countries.

Selfie with Professors Edméa Santos and Cristina D’Ávila.

LED Research Group Impact at 2019 InnovateX

The LED Research Group made an impact at InnovateX on May 16, 2019 at the Ohio State University. We gave two sessions at the conference in the Experience and Excite tracks, and presented our ideas to a packed audience of academics, practitioners, and students.

Our first session was “Digital Engagement: What Students Want from Your Online Class?” In this session, Drs. Ana-Paula Correia and Rick Voithofer hosted a panel of current and former students who had taken online courses for the Master of Learning Technologies at the Ohio State University. The panelists include LED members, Karen Bruce Wallace, Erin Clarke, and Cara North, as well as Anna Leach and Robbie McCord. They shared their thoughts on how to make online classes more engaging. They discussed the technologies and teaching methods they preferred, shared recommendations and solutions to help instructors improve their online teaching, and talked about how they applied their learning beyond their online course. Afterwards, they participated in a robust question and answer session, where they fielded a range of challenging questions from the audience.
Panel on Digital Engagement, May 16, 2019 at InnovateX

Panel on Digital Engagement, May 16, 2019 at InnovateX

Our second session was “Creating Interactive Learning Experiences.” In it, Cara North, incoming LED member Sean Hickey, and Karen Bruce Wallace explored the importance of choice in learning. They examined how choice could improve learners’ engagement, covered principles of using choice in learning, and offered a range of applications in the form of interactive demos. The demos included adventures built in Camtasia and Storyline, Keynote, and Twine.

Creating Interactive Learning Experiences, May 16, 2019 at InnovateX

In addition, the three presenters structured the session around the idea of choice. The audience could choose from whom they wanted to hear, what topics they wanted to be explored, and help to navigate the demos. That way, the audience could experience the power of choice for themselves.

LED had a fantastic time at InnovateX, and hope to return next year!

Come and Learn from LED at Innovate on 16 May 2019

Ohio Union Exterior

LED members will be presenting at two highly interactive, engaging sessions at InnovateX on 16 May 2019.

Digital Engagement: What Students Want from Your Online Class

10:15-11:00, Great Hall Meeting Room 1

Meaningful engagement in online learning is a major challenge when teaching at the college level. Do you know what students want from your online class? In this interactive panel presentation, students from Ohio State’s online Master of Learning Technologies program candidly discuss their experiences with teaching methods and technologies in higher education. Gain insight from a variety of students, and take the opportunity to ask them your questions.

Creating Interactive Learning Experiences

11:15-12:00, Great Hall Meeting Room 1

Did you flip pages in narrative adventures such as Choose Your Own Adventure? Did Black Mirror: Bandersnatch snatch your attention? Both excite their audience by offering meaningful choices and encouraging multiple attempts through branching storylines. Learn how the research behind—and applications of—choosing your own adventures inlearning can inspire curiosity and encourage higher-order thinking. Experiment with sample games created through simple presentation software, an eLearning module, and video.

Come and start your conference experience by learning with LED!

 

Dr. Correia presents at the 2019 American Educational Research Association annual meeting

Dr. Ana-Paula Correia presented two papers at the 2019 American Educational Research Association annual meeting, which took place on 5-9 April in Toronto, Canada.

In the first paper “Examining Online Learning Experiences in Collectivist Cultures through the Community of Inquiry Framework,” Dr. Correia extended the existing research on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. Traditionally, studies have applied the CoI framework within North American online learning environments, which tend to have students from individualist cultures. Dr. Correia considered how CoI applied to collectivist cultures, such as Portugal, Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica. She discovered that high percentages of agreement for social, teaching, and cognitive presence resulted in a significant level of student engagement in online learning within these cultures. She also observed that the members of the community felt a need for additional ways to show affection and care towards the other people within it.

Session promo flyer

In the second paper “Investigating Students’ Perceptions of Educational Technology Use in College Teaching”, Dr. Correia and her co-author Dr. Karly Good drew on a large set of institutional data to understand how college students’ perceptions of educational technology related to other key instructional elements. In particular, they examined the relationship between educational technology use and important elements such as teaching methods, progress on learning objectives, and course features. Their study showed that an increase in the use of educational technology corresponds to an increase in effective teaching methods and higher scores on the overall quality of the teaching and the course offered. These results are exciting, because they can help universities and colleges to offer more timely and targeted faculty development, based on data-driven decision-making.

In addition, Dr. Correia hosted the AERA Special Interest Group Online Learning and Teaching Business meeting, and shared her vision for the SIG as the incoming Chair as she interacted with members and guests. She will continue contributing to AERA as SIG chair, presenter and reviewer. Her extensive national and international leadership in educational technology adds much value to the SIG and the association.

Colleagues and friends at 2019 AERA annual meeting

References:

Correia, A.-P. (2019). Examining Online Learning Experiences in Collectivist Cultures through the Community of Inquiry Framework. Presented at American Educational Research Association 2019 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, April 5-9, 2019.

Correia, A.-P., & Good, K. (2019). Investigating Students’ Perceptions of Educational Technology Use in College Teaching. Presented at American Educational Research Association 2019 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, April 5-9, 2019.

North and Hickey Win National Award in Instructional Design

Cara North and Sean Hickey received the “Best in Show” award for their eLearning game entitled Multiple-Choice Mayhem at the Learning Solutions conference in March 2019.

Multiple-Choice Mayhem teaches the user how to identify common item-writing flaws that make the answer apparent or allows a test-taker to easily eliminate several choices. This eLearning game was designed to prepare subject-matter experts for creating more effective multiple-choice assessments. Hickey and North created the game while working collaboratively at the Center on Education and Training for Employment and after realizing the existing teaching tools were not effective and contained information that was outdated.

Designed in the style of a 1970’s television game show, Multiple-Choice Mayhem presents users with 7 multiple-choice trivia questions. Users may miss one or two but will generally find the questions easy. After answering the questions, the user will then learn through a brief animation and explanation of why the item was easy to answer. Hickey and North designed the game to have the player to learn the consequences of bad item-writing firsthand to help them recognize the value of following item-writing standards and to avoid pitfalls. Since its launch in September 2017, Multiple-Choice Mayhem has been viewed and played by more than 600 people.

“Best in Show” award at the Learning Solutions conference, March 2019.

The Learning Solutions conference is an annual conference from the eLearning Guild, a professional organization for those in the field of learning and development. More than 1,500 human resources, learning and development, training, and eLearning professionals from more than 15 countries attend the three-day conference to get practical learning and training content they can take home and apply immediately.

The last evening of Learning Solutions is DemoFest, a showcase of attendees’ best eLearning, video, and training programs. A month prior to the event, attendees must apply to participate. For 2019, 40 products were selected to participate in categories that included Academic, Alternative, Blended Learning, Business Process, Game-Based Training, Immersive/Simulation, and Video. Conference participants attend DemoFest and vote for the best demos. One “Best in Show” award is given to each of the eLearning vendor demo and the non-vendor attendee demo with the most votes. In addition, the highest vote earner in each category is given an award for that category. Multiple-Choice Mayhem won “Best in Show” (non-vendor) as part of DemoFest.

Congratulations Cara and Sean!

Learning Solutions conference, March 2019.

Ohio State’s Innovate, here we go again…

Last year LED research group led a 45-min session on “Shifting the Balance: Engaging Students as Collaborators in Online Course Redesign” at 2018 Innovate that attracted more than 100 participants who engaged in collaborative design activities.

During this January writing retreat, LED research group members worked diligently on creating different session ideas for InnovateX, the Ohio State’s annual conference in online learning and teaching. The Request for Proposals is now open and asks for new ways to excite students about learning, explore teaching opportunities outside the classroom and delve into the student experience.

Hurry, the deadline is January 25, 2019!

LED writing retreat, January 18, 2019.

North presents at Central Ohio ATD and Greater Cincinnati ATD Conferences

LED research group member Cara North recently presented at Central Ohio Association for Talent and Development and Greater Cincinnati Association for Talent and Development annual conferences. The Association for Talent and Development is the oldest and largest professional organization for learning and development professionals across the world.

The Central Ohio ATD Conference, Learning Technologies and Design Day, was September 18, 2018, and held at the Quest Conference Center in Columbus, Ohio. North served on the conference committee and had two presentations and facilitated a panel. North presented with her podcasting partner, Joseph Suarez, eLearning Developer at Cardinal Health. North and Suarez led a session called Podcasting for Learning, which focused on getting started technically with creating a podcast as a learning solution. Additionally, North presented with Sean Hickey, Lead Curriculum Developer at Ohio State’s Center on Education and Training for Employment. North and Hickey’s session, None of the Above: Common Pitfalls for Multiple-Choice Assessment was presented in a gameshow format and was the highest rated session of the day. Finally, North facilitated the closing general session panel: How Do You Keep Up With the Pace of Technology?. The panel included the conference keynote speaker Mike Taylor, Jeff Zoller, Learning and Development Specialist at AEP, and Joseph Suarez.
Hickey and North

The Greater Cincinnati ATD Powers of Possibilities Conference was October 5, 2018, at the Savannah Center in West Chester, Ohio.  North was an invited presenter and lead a table topics discussion Twitter – Building Knowledge 280 Characters at a Time.

North is President-Elect of Central Ohio ATD and is looking forward to providing more leadership and programming opportunities to emerging professionals.