ESU IDT Team Awarded Top Honor at International Competition

Two students in the Instructional Design and Technology graduate program were named the winning team at a recent international conference.

Milton Knopp and Julie La Combe, both masters students, presented their instructional design and development solution at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2016 International Convention. Knopp lives in Topeka; La Combe lives in Abilene.

To win the top award, they faced competition in the finals against two teams of doctoral students - one team from Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) the other from the University of South Florida (Tampa).

The aim of the competition is to promote promising instructional design research done by graduate students. The students worked together and received mentoring by faculty and professionals in the field.

The competition is open to all national and international AECT affiliates. From April through early September, there were three rounds of teams submitting proposals – the field started with 22 teams’ proposals and narrowed to the final three before the convention.

Knopp and La Combe found out in early September they had made the final round.

"The opportunity was a thrill, but extremely challenging," La Combe said.

At the convention, held October 17-21 in Las Vegas, each of the final three teams gave presentations and went through question and answer sessions. Judges then determined the winning team.

"(Knopp and La Combe) had strong competition," said Patricia J. Slagter van Tryon, the AECT design and development competition committee chair and organizer. "We are very proud of Julie and Milton's work!"

"I am certain we were successful because of the incredible instruction we received from ESU IDT professors,” La Combe said. “We simply applied what we were taught, and it all fell into place."

"The other schools represented in the finals were several times larger than ESU,” said Knopp. “(We) were the only masters students; the other four finalist were doctoral students. We were representing 'the little university that could'... and often has."

"Milton and Julie’s win reflects the quality of our program and our faculty and staff. This is a tremendous accomplishment and we are so proud of them for continuing this legacy," said Zeni Colorado-Resa, chair of Emporia State's IDT department. "ESU IDT teams have achieved finalist status seven of the last nine years, starting in 2007. Out of those seven times, our students were awarded the overall win three times."

AECT was founded in 1923 and is the most recognized association representing professionals who have an interest in improving learning through the use of media and technology.

Emporia State's recent history in the competition:

2007 – Sandy Valenti and Steve Harmon – finalists
2009 – Liz Ermis and Jennifer Gibson – winners
2010 – Michael Schwind and Rob Ervin – winners
2011 – Jason Baker and Michael Stewart - finalists
2012 – Qing Zhang and Daniel Baldwin; Seung Gutsch and Daphne Tseng – finalists
2013 – Ziang Wang and Yun Lauren Liu – finalists

New Emporia State Faculty Selected for National Symposium & Convention

Two new faculty members in Emporia State’s Department of Instructional Design and Technology have been selected to participate in a symposium and present at a national conference in October.

Dr. Sungwoong Lee, assistant professor, was chosen to participate in the 2016 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Early Career Symposium as well as present research at the 2016 AECT Convention taking place in Las Vegas in October 17-21.

Dr. Yeol Huh, assistant professor, will be also be presenting at the convention.

The AECT Early Career Symposium is a mentoring program, which provides an avenue for early career scholars to receive mentoring from established scholars and leaders in the field. The symposium is sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Cyberlearning and Future Technologies program.

Lee was selected from a large number of highly qualified applicants based on his qualifications, work to date, and potential for future scholarship to the field of Instructional Design and Technology. 

“I didn’t think I would be selected,” Lee said. “I’m very surprised and excited to be participating in the symposium and looking forward to working with the mentors.”

Lee was also invited to present two papers, “The Effect of Video Games on Math Achievement,” and Embodied Pulley Physics: The Development of Hands-On User Interaction in Virtual Reality” during the 2016 AECT International Convention.

Lee is the third Emporia State University IDT faculty member to participate in the Early Career Symposium in the last six years,.  Dr. Jozenia Colorado-Resa was selected to participate at the 2010 symposium and Dr. Insook Han participated in the 2015 symposium. 

Huh was selected to participate in 2014 as a doctoral student.

                             

Huh will present “Exploring Ways Online Teachers Teach Self-Regulated Learning Skills to Students in U.S. Online K-12 Schools” at the convention. 

                                               

IDT Students will Compete in Final Round of AECT Design and Development Competition

Emporia State University will once again have a student team in the FINAL Round of the AECT Design and Development Competition!  Milton Knopp and Julie La Combe, Instructional Design and Technology graduate students, will be representing ESU at the 2016 Association for Educational Communications and Technology International Convention (AECT) in Las Vegas, NV to compete in the final round.  Only three teams are selected to go forward to the final round.  The convention will take place Oct. 17-21, 2016.

Including this year, ESU IDT students have been finalists in the AECT Design Competition for 7 out of the last 9 years, starting in 2007.  The last time an ESU IDT team went to the final round was in 2013.  

Historical information on IDT students in final round of AECT Design Competition:

2016: Milton Knopp and Julie La Combe to compete in 2016 AECT Design Competition

2013: http://idtesu.blogspot.com/2014/02/esu-idt-team-presents-winning.html

2012: https://www.emporia.edu/dotAsset/a4ff7fba-ff16-404c-bbdb-c58a29576c18.pdf

2011:https://www.emporia.edu/news/11/29/2011/emporia-state-s-idt-dynasty-continues/?

2010: http://www.emporia.edu/alumni/spotlight/spring/2011/another-prize-winning-instructional-design

2009: https://www.emporia.edu/dotAsset/5cfb40d4-fd0b-4576-b005-53cfea809185.pdf (page 9)

2007: http://www.emporia.edu/dotAsset/3f4a4912-d8bc-4c03-a1af-b1e14986d72a

2014 AECT International Convention Proves Productive for IDT Faculty and Students

Jacksonville, FL – A trip to the 2014 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) International Convention in Jacksonville, FL proved to be very productive for the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Masters Program.  In November, faculty and students collaborated to give presentations, enjoyed other presentations about issues in IDT, as well as met and networked with scholars in the field.   

Dr. Jozenia Colorado, Chair and Associate Professor and Dr. Harvey Foyle, Professor in the IDT Department collaborated with students to give two different presentations, while one group of students presented on their own.  The following presentations were given:

• Creating Augmented Reality Applications for Educational Environments, presented by Dr. Jozenia Colorado and IDT Students Ning Liu, Xianyu Liu, and Heishan Luo.  IDT Alum Patrick Resa also collaborated on the content of the presentation, but was unable to attend the convention.
•  Cloud Computing: Reliability, Ownership, and Security, presented by Dr. Harvey Foyle and IDT Students Jingwei Chen, Lixiazi Lu, and Muxin Wang.
• 3D Printing Technology, presented by Lin Lin, Eva Gyawali, Weiwei Ji, and Minji Park.

Students enjoyed the convention atmosphere.  IDT student Weiwei Ji said it was a great point of exposure to the IDT field.  “We were able to interact with the top scholars in the field and authors of our textbooks.  To me, I met the IDT celebrities!”

IDT student Lixiazi Lu felt the AECT convention atmosphere was very supportive of graduate students.  Lu collaborated on a roundtable presentation and said, “It was a friendly atmosphere in which we could discuss different perspectives of our topic.”

As the most recognized association of information concerning a wide range of instructional and educational technology, AECT is the oldest professional home for this field of interest and has continuously maintained a central position in the field, promoting high standards, both in scholarship and in practice.  It provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination of ideas for its members and for target audiences; it is the national and international spokesperson for the improvement of instruction.

As an international student from Nepal, IDT student Eva Gyawali was impressed with the representation from other countries.  Gyawali said, “AECT gave me the opportunity to meet people associated with my field from all over the world.”  While it was a little overwhelming to have met so many people from different countries and see their achievements in this field, Gyawali said, “it was a great learning experience and good opportunity to build national as well as international networks.”

Chinese IDT student Lin Lin agreed the experience was an opportunity to build international networks in the IDT field.  “I met the president of the AECT Affiliate of Hong Kong, China.  He is trying to establish a relationship between IDT professionals in China Mainland, Hong Kong, and the United States.” China Mainland is not very developed in the IDT field and Lin hopes her country can catch up with other countries.

Student travel was supported by funds from Emporia State University’s Graduate Office, the Associated Student Government in support of members of the Instructional Technology Student Association, The Teachers College Dean’s Office, as well as IDT Departmental funds.  Students volunteered their time working at registration and the technology support desk to off-set the cost of their registration fee. 

Dr. Colorado said the support given to these students was well worth it.  She enjoyed mentoring the students in preparation for their presentations.  “For most of them, this was their first professional presentation.  It is a wonderful feeling to watch them grow as presenters in the months leading up to the convention and then watch their final presentation in front of fellow IDT colleagues from all over the world.”

Dr. Colorado, who has been active in AECT governance groups over the last few years, had a few more accomplishments in addition to her presentation.  She began a new three-year appointment to the AECT Board (2014 -2017) as a representative of the Research and Theory Division.  She was also honored with a Special Service Award in appreciation for her dedicated service to AECT. 

The faculty in the IDT Department try to help students attend the AECT International Convention every year.  It is a valuable experience for both students and faculty alike.