When NIU faculty have technical questions about Blackboard, they often turn to the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL). And when NIU students have technical questions about Blackboard, they turn to … well, typically, the faculty who are requiring them to
Read moreETRA researchers explore AI knowledge of St. Mary School middle-level students
Researchers from the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment (ETRA) are working with nearly 50 middle-level students and their teachers at St. Mary Catholic School to measure their comprehension of Artificial Intelligence. How do they engage and interact with AI? What
Read morePi-Sui Hsu traversing multiple avenues to explore potential of instructional tech
After years of equipping Rockford middle schoolers to create makerspaces, Pi-Sui Hsu wanted to elevate her outreach to another level. Hsu, a Presidential Engagement Professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, had taught her after-school students and summer
Read moreNIU assessment team explores potential of AI in accreditation with ETRA student
Months after the Higher Learning Commission reaccredited NIU, a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment is helping the university understand how artificial intelligence can enable those continuous processes. The work of Stella Jung, who is pursuing her
Read moreEd.D. alum JA Allen returns to campus to share cartoon-based learning model
An alumnus of the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment has returned to NIU to share his knowledge – and, he hopes, to spark more students to follow his unique path. J.A. Allen, who earned his Ed.D. in Instructional Technology in
Read moreNIU curricular innovation grants enable faculty to try new tech, teaching styles
In 2023, NIU’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning piloted a Curricular Innovation Grant Fund. Congruent “with university goals and priorities,” the program was “established to provide competitive grants for experimenting with innovative teaching methods such as transdisciplinary learning, virtual reality, digital
Read moreDrive My Car: ETRA delivers fun times to STEM Fest crowds, graduate students
Hundreds of children of all ages visited the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment’s STEM Fest booth Sept. 28 in the Anderson Hall gym. And the learning – along with the smiles – was not limited to the guests. “This is
Read moreNIU’s Nonprofit and NGO Studies taps Laura Ruth Johnson as acting director
Laura Ruth Johnson has a new, albeit temporary, title: acting director of NIU’s Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies. Johnson, professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, will hold the office for a year while a search commences to
Read morePicture this: New ETRA course advances learning design via ‘data visualization’
Explaining the concept of “data visualization” is easier shown than said – which, ironically, is the point of data visualization. Cansu Tatar makes this clear when she navigates her browser to an interactive table that allows her to compare math and reading
Read morePi-Sui Hsu honored with Presidential Engagement, Partnership Professorship
Pi-Sui Hsu knows her mission. “Scientific argumentation is one of the eight essential practices in the Next Generation Science Standards,” says Hsu, a professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment. “I firmly believe that this practice can produce young
Read moreCongratulations!
The College of Education ranks 183 in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Education Schools, moving up 19 spots from last year. *** Several faculty, alumni and current students of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education were honored at
Read moreETRA researchers employ robots again to nurture computational thinking skills within an NIU STEAM summer school
What began in Naperville Community Unit School District 203 could not stop there. Faculty from the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment interacted with around 200 students in 2021 and 2022 to observe how working with LEGO educational robots might stimulate
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