Research & Evaluation

Currently conducting research and evaluation activities as part of the projects listed below.

Status of Graduate Programs in Career and Workforce Education in the United States. This is a collaborative research agenda involving a series of studies seeking to determine the status of master's and doctoral degree programs in the field, perspectives of graduate students seeking professional advanced in career and workforce education, nature of available program, and employment prospects upon graduation.

Medical Device Industry Education Consortium (MDIEC). Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Medical Device Industry Education Consortium (MDIEC) was formed to build a learning and innovation network to develop and deliver industry-endorsed solutions that address critical industry-defined technical education and training needs. St. Petersburg College (SPC) led a group of Eight Community Colleges and Fifteen Industry partners to co-found the consortium.  A Department of Education (DOE) Grant funded the initial formation and curriculum development. Contributing to the planning of the research component for an NSF's Advanced Technological Education program grant to explore the design and development of a national center. To learn more about the project, visit the project website.

Game-based, Metaphor Enhanced Learning Objects (CyGaMes). Funded by the National Science Foundation, the goal of this project is to measure how an instructional videogame that incorporates metaphors and solid instructional design principles can help players more easily grasp difficult science concepts. This project uses a prototype online videogame, Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME, in which players learn how Earth's moon was formed as they create their own moon. This involves peppering the the moon with impact craters and flooding it with lava flows. The project is led by a team of researchers at the Center for Educational Technologies, Wheeling Jesuit University. I serve on this project as the external evaluator. To learn more about the project, visit the project website.

CSTEP: Computer Science Transfer Education Programs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, CSTEP is a 3-year collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation under the Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program designed to bridge students from community colleges to 4-year universities and graduate school. This is a demonstration project between Hillsborough Community College (HCC), one of the largest community colleges in the Tampa Bay area, and the University of South Florida (USF). I serve on this project as the external evaluator. To learn more about the project, visit the project website.

Comparing Constructivist and Traditional Traditional Teaching Strategies in Engineering Education. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the goal of this project was to compare a series of constructivist teaching strategies and traditional lecturing in the context of an introductory course on Statistics and Probability. The course is required for all students majoring in engineering at the University of South Florida with a typical enrollment of 70-80 per section. Study results indicated a high level of appreciation for constructivist strategies and increased motivation for learning compared to lecturing. I served as a Co-Principal Investigator on this project.