Dr. Ryan Baker
Ryan Baker is Associate Professor of Cognitive Studies and Program Coordinator for Learning Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. Baker was previously Assistant Professor of Psychology and the Learning Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic institute, and he served as the first Technical Director of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center DataShop, the largest public repository for data on the interaction between learners and educational software. He was the founding President of the International Educational Data Mining Society, and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational Data Mining and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. His research combines educational data mining and quantitative field observation methods in order to better understand how students respond to educational software, and how these responses impact their learning. He studies these issues within intelligent tutors, simulations, multi-user virtual environments, and educational games, within populations from pre-schoolers, to middle school students, to military trainees.
On July 29, from 12:30 until 1:30 pm (Central Time), in the LINK Lab (Rm 246 in Nedderman Hall)
Dr. Baker delivered the following public presentation:
Title: Engagement and Success in Online Learning: Higher Education and Beyond
Abstract:
In my last talk at UTA, I discussed my group’s work to develop generalizable models of engagement in online learning. In this talk, I’ll discuss our work to study the relationship between engagement and success in online learning in higher education and beyond. I’ll focus on examples from two contexts: the use of the Soomo Learning Platform in an online university, and the MOOC Big Data and Education, offered on edX and Coursera. I’ll discuss how we can predict student success from behavioral indicators very early in the learning process, and how some behavioral indicators not only predict academic success but participation in professional careers.