Announcements

Raya Hegeman-Davis has joined the Bureau of Educational Research as a school-university research coordinator for the campus. Raya holds a doctorate in education policy and administration from the University of Minnesota and has also worked as a teacher in the Champaign Unit 4 School District.

This position has been created as a collaboration between the College of Education and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, with support from the campus Office for the Protection of Research Subjects, to support research collaborations between the University of Illinois and area school districts.

Raya’s position has been developed in direct response to feedback from our local school district partners, who have expressed that they would prefer a coordinated approach to research placements in schools. We want to ensure there are reliable opportunities for districts to engage early on with campus and college researchers, to provide input on study design and logistical planning of projects, how such projects might be carried out in schools, and to organize an overall forum to discuss school research interests. Raya now picks up on communications with school districts that were managed in the interim by Beth Niswander, the director of strategic initiatives.

Raya will be supported in her work by Dr. Gabrielle Allen, the director of the Bureau and associate dean for research at the College of Education. While the Bureau has offered previous coordination services in the past, we look to Raya’s work as a new and sustained chapter in our work with campus researchers and PreK-12 school districts.

Please watch for further announcements from Raya about upcoming planning dates to initiate Summer 2018 research projects or to request school district participation in Summer 2018 externally funded proposal submissions.  

Please help us welcome Raya. Contact her directly or submit applications for collaboration assistance via the School-University Research web page.

The DAWN (Data Analysis Workstation and Network) project is a student-led initiative offering fellow students free access to ATLAS.ti, a powerful qualitative data analysis tool used for analyzing textual, graphical, audio, and video data.

Our goals are (1) to provide broad access to ATLAS.ti so that students can try novel analyses, and (2) to build an informal community of researchers using this tool. To help accomplish these goals, we now have a Windows desktop with software available for use in Room 10E.

During the month of April in the Spring 2018 semester, you can get involved in the DAWN project in two ways.

1. Visit a drop-in session. Stop by to check out the software. A DAWN team member will be present to help you get oriented with the basics of the software. Drop-in sessions will be held on the following dates and times:

Wednesday, April 4, 9:00–10:30 a.m.

Thursday, April 5, 2:30–4:00 p.m.

Monday, April 9, 2­–3:30 p.m.

2. Apply for project time. If you would like to reserve project time on the computer, please write a brief summary (150-200 words) conveying your project needs and email it to Rob Wallon at rwallon2@illinois.edu, with the subject “DAWN Application.” Applications will be reviewed by the team on a rolling basis, and time will be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information, please visit the project web site at http://go.illinois.edu/DAWN.

Learners can become an instructional designer by taking a four-month MasterTrack™ Certificate training program offered on the Coursera platform by the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Instructional Design MasterTrack™ Certificate, which consists of a Training System Design course and a Learning Technologies course, costs $2,316 and launches on October 22, 2018, although students who are admitted into the program can access the self-paced content at any time.

“This is a great way for learners—even those with no prior experience in instructional design—to gain the type of in-demand skills they need to launch or enhance a successful instructional design career,” says Denice Ward Hood, a teaching associate professor and the director of online programs at the College of Education at the University of Illinois. “Instructional design is a growing field, and this online program is a perfect entryway into the marketplace.”

People who take the two courses will learn to solve real-world educational challenges and integrate technology with today’s learning environments.

“They will learn strategies for using cutting-edge technologies to design engaging and meaningful learning activities,” Hood says. “They’ll be able to implement instructional design projects from ideation to completion. They’ll also understand how to make data-informed decisions to improve existing learning programs.”

In addition, Hood says, students who complete the MasterTrack™ Certificate can apply to one of the College’s online master's degree programs and, if accepted, transfer credits from the certificate into the online Ed.M. in the Department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership degree.

Learn more about the program.

View the press release online.

The Department of Educational Psychology at the College of Education is seeking freshmen who consider themselves experts at the game of Minecraft. For their efforts, participants will receive a $10 Amazon gift card upon completion.