UCI Education Research Initiative June Update

Dear colleagues,

We wanted to thank you for engaging with the Education Research Initiative during the past year. One of the core aims of our initiative is to promote and create equitable learning environments for students. As we come upon finals week, we wanted to extend our support and emphasize the importance of ensuring that we as a campus are addressing the needs of all students, particularly our African-American students. Especially in this remote environment, it is essential that we foster academic success by reaching out to students to address concerns and make sure they feel supported. If you have questions or would like to engage in a dialogue, feel free to contact us at educationresearch@uci.edu. Additionally, the campus has relevant resources on the Office of Inclusive Excellence webpage.

We wish everyone a safe close to the spring quarter and hope to engage with many of you as we return in fall.

Sincerely,

Brian Sato
Natascha Buswell
Di Xu
Laura Tucker
Adrienne Williams

UCI Education Research Initiative Team

Recent ERI Accomplishments

	Funding David Schaefer (Social Sciences) - NSF RAPID: Social Network Consequences for Underrepresented STEM Students as a University Transitions to Remote ActivitiesBrian Sato (Biological Sciences/Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation) - California Learning Lab: A Hybrid Approach for Authentic Scientific Inquiry for Biology Undergraduates
	Publications Di Xu (Education) Xu, D., Li, Q., & Zhou, X. (2020). Online Course Quality Rubric: A Tool Box. Online Learning Research Center, University of California, Irvine. https://www.olrc.us/reflecting-on-course-design.html The Impact of Low-Ability Peers on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Outcomes: Random Assignment Evidence on the Effects and Operating Channels http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/03/03/jhr.57.2.0718-9637R2.abstractVeronika Rozhenkova (ERI) Rozhenkova V., Rust V.D. (2020). Teaching comparative education from a social foundations perspective. In: M. Peters (Eds.), Encyclopedia of teacher education. Springer. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-981-13-1179-6_304-1
	Presentations Penelope Collins (Education), Duncan Pritchard (Humanities), David Schaefer (Social Sciences) Summit on Teaching in the 21st Century, UCI - March 2020 http://ovptl.uci.edu/summitonteaching/
	Awards Ashley Harlow (Education) 2020 President's Dissertation Fellowship Year Fellowship

UCI and SEISMIC
UCI is a founding member of the Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses (SEISMIC) network. The group consists of ten highly competitive R1-institutions across the country, who are all working together to improve academic and non-cognitive outcomes for its STEM undergraduates, particularly by transforming the first two years of the college experience. Working groups are looking to tackle equity issues through cross-campus analysis of institutional data, student and faculty data collection using shared instruments, or implementation of common interventions.
The plan was originally for UCI to host the second annual SEISMIC meeting, but due to COVID-19 this is shifting to an online format that will span multiple days across the summer. If you are interested in attending these virtual meetings or learning more about SEISMIC, feel free to contact Brian Sato (bsato@uci.edu).

 

ERI Welcomes Our Third Postdoctoral Scholar

Please welcome our newest postdoc, Michael Hill. Michael completed his Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in School Organization and Education Policy from UC Davis. His research focuses on topics including online/blended learning, equitable student outcomes, and accountability and assessment in higher education. In addition, he has extensive experience as an administrator and instructor at various postsecondary institutions.
We look forward to continuing our collaborative work and engaging with researchers across the campus. If you have a project that you feel could leverage the expertise of our team of postdocs, please feel free to reach out to educationresearch@uci.edu.
For more information about the Education Research Initiative, visit educationresearch.uci.edu