Last week ten representatives from the Learning Technologies program attended the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting (AERA). The group was busy presenting posters, papers, and roundtable discussions; presenting at special interest group (SIG) meetings; and, for some, attending their first AERA annual meeting.

Dr. Bodong Chen, Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies, presented a poster with his colleagues from the University of Toronto (S. Håklev, L. Harrison, H. Najafi, & C. Rolheiser) illustrating the findings from their study, “How do MOOC Learners’ Intentions Relate to Their Behaviors and Overall Outcomes?"

Dr. Cassie Scharber and LT Ph.D. student, Fan Ouyang presented findings from a study co-authored with LT faculty, Dr. Angel Pazurek, “Exploring Gender Differences in Publication Rates Within Educational Technology Journals: 2004-2013

Dr. James Hatten (recent PhD grad) shared findings from his dissertation research at a roundtable discussion hosted by the CIAE SIG, “Utilization of Online Asynchronous Text-Based Focus Group Discussions to Improve the Efficacy of Staff Development for Educators”.

Dr. Cassie Scharber and Dr. James Hatten also spoke at the Computer and Internet Applications in Education (CIAE) SIG Business Meeting .

Many LT students were attending AERA, a conference boasting over 15,000 attendees, for the first time. Neal Fredrickson, a first-year Ph.D. student shared, “The advantage of going to AERA is that the conference is so huge that in includes just about every topic in educational research. It's a great place to explore fields you are most interested in, and to discover new fields that you can learn from and draw upon. This was the first time I've attended an educational research conference -- taking part in the dialog of this field plus thanks to all of the sideline conversations with my LT friends, I've been able to identify where I can contribute!”

LT is already looking forward to presenting and attending at AERA’s 2016 meeting in Washington, D.C.