Publications

Weaving critical theory, fashion, electronics, and makerspaces in learning: fashioning circuits – a case study (2018). Published by the Journal for Interactive Learning Environments.
Abstract: Fashioning Circuits is a humanities course designed to explore how fashion, electronics, social issues, and makerspaces interact with design and critical theory. Digital humanities scholars and practitioners have seen an emergence of public art and representation beyond the academy, specifically applying interdisciplinary university curricula to youth learners in the community. As this university course expands into the public domain, the social discourse around gender, technology, and fashion are threaded with the “making” opportunities to tinker and design in order to solve real-world problems in the community.  Through the intersection of media ecologies and contemporary fashion design offers this emerging pedagogical practice asks learners to build artifacts that engage with real-world problems. To encourage critical making, that is, an emphasis on the process rather than the product, it is important to center learning experiences around issues and ideas to find solutions and not focus on end technological outcomes alone.

2017 Digital Literacy Impact Study: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief. Published by the Horizon Project. 
Abstract: The 2017 Digital Literacy Impact Study: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief examines how digital literacy training in higher education affects the occupational success of postgraduate learners as they enter the workforce. Supported by Adobe, the aim of this research is to understand how the digital learning experiences that college and university students were exposed to while pursuing an undergraduate degree impact and influence current employment roles, responsibilities, and functions.

Sociotechnical stewardship in higher education: a field study of social media policy documents (2016). Published by the Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 
Abstract: Social media use has risen in higher education, as campus stakeholders frequently access these technologies for teaching, learning, research, communication, and information sharing. With these connected, digital technologies, our colleges and universities understand there are both opportunities and threats that social media affords. Higher education has increasingly witnessed a number of challenging incidents and abuses online. As a result, a number of institutions are evaluating policies and practices to regulate online behavior and establish community standards for students, staff, and faculty. Using latent semantic analysis, 36 universal topics are extracted from the 250 policy documents. This study not only establishes reference database of social media policy documents representing ten countries, it also forms the ontology to develop the framework foundation of sociotechnical stewardship to support strategic, long-term technology planning for organizations and their stakeholders.

The Life Between Big Data Log Events: Learners’ Strategies to Overcome Challenges in MOOCs (2016). Published by the American Educational Research Association.
Abstract: Big data from massive open online courses (MOOCs) have enabled researchers to examine learning processes at almost infinite levels of granularity. Yet, such data sets do not track every important element in the learning process. Many strategies that MOOC learners use to overcome learning challenges are not captured in clickstream and log data. In this study, we interviewed 92 MOOC learners to better understand their worlds, investigate possible mechanisms of student attrition, and extend conversations about the use of big data in education. Findings reveal three important domains of the experience of MOOC students that are absent from MOOC tracking logs: the practices at learners’ workstations, learners’ activities online but off-platform, and the wider social context of their lives beyond the MOOC. These findings enrich our understanding of learner agency in MOOCs, clarify the spaces in-between recorded tracking log events, and challenge the view that MOOC learners are disembodied autodidacts.

Guiding Social Media at Our Institutions (2013). Published by Planning for Higher Education. 
Abstract: According to Güster (1997), digital literacy means “adapting our skills to an evocative new medium, [and] our experience of the Internet will be determined by how we master its core competencies” (as stated in Pool 1997, p. 6). […]institutions are increasingly responsible for addressing the role of digital literacy within the educational environment.