RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
(2003-on) Professor, Dowling College, Long Island, NY ·
(07/01-08/03) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA – Senior Post Doctoral Fellow Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow. Research Laboratory of Electronics –RELATE (Research in Learning, Assessing, and Tutoring Effectively)
RELATE Group is directed by Prof. David Pritchard, who, having mentored four Nobel prize winners, is known as one of the world’s leading mentors. I collaborated with him on CyberTutor, a sophisticated interactive Web-based tutor designed to improve learning experience for teachers and students. I was responsible for research in education and instructional technology based on statistical analysis as well as ways to improve and measure the impact of the CyberTutor in education effectiveness. My work also included:
• Co-responsible for some facets of research including proposal writing, funding, research design, management, execution, statistical analysis and synthesis, and report writing;
• Conducted statistical analysis using SPSS, UNIX, ACCESS, and SQL; and
• Made presentations at local and national academic conferences
Major Research:
· Effectiveness of Course Elements: The Value of Using Technology in Education. This research was especially stimulating. Consistent with my belief that using technology in teaching can improve students’ understanding of the subject, we found that students who elected to do more electronic homework significantly improved their scores on the assessment instruments relative to their performance on these instruments before using CyberTutor. This research is particularly important because it suggests that efforts to improve instruction should concentrate on improving instructional formats.
· Electronic homework As Part of the Performance Assessment Algorithm. Electronic homework that combines assessment and tutoring as a performance assessment instrument is both reliable and valid. This study presented several assessment algorithms with a maximum reliability of 99.9 %. It showed that an electronic homework tutor has about an order of magnitude less variance per unit time than paper-testing assessments (i.e. a 3-hour final exam and 12 weekly tests together). In addition, its high validity allows using CyberTutor for predicting subsequent exam results.
· Relationship Between Conceptual Learning and Quantitative Learning. Physics education research shows that conceptual understanding is not necessary for students to do well on standard quantitative problems in introductory physics. This study addressed a related question: is conceptual understanding sufficient or helpful for students to do well in quantitative problems? Our results showed little inductive influence upon the quantitative from doing the conceptual first, but suggested that working on the quantitative problem first helps students with the subsequent conceptual one.
· A Correlation Analysis of the Students’ Response Variables from Online Tutoring System. We examined the correlation of 12 background variables determined from a student survey with assessment instruments including paper-testing instruments (e.g. final exam and weekly tests) and an electronic assessment from the results of a Web-based homework tutorial. On this basis we suggested that the use of un-timed Web-based tutorials can make an important contribution to assess student performance, without bias due to students’ background differences.
(11/97-05/01) University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Research Fellow. Research Fellow. Latin American Social and Public Policy (09/99- 04/01)
· Coordinated the Annual Graduate Student Conference of Latin American Social and Public Policy.
· Cuban and Andean Research Groups’ coordinator.
· Conducted research focused on economic development and higher education.
Graduate Student Assistant (GSA) (01/98-08/99) to:
· Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (08/98-08/99)
· University of Pittsburgh International Business Center (11/97-07/98)
· Global Information Networks in Education in the International Studies in Education (01/98-05/98)
(2003-on) Professor, Dowling College, Long Island, NY ·
- Published 35+ articles in peer review academic journals, 92 conference proceedings, 1 book (English and Spanish Version), 3 book chapters
- Participated in more than 135 dissertations as a reader, chair or designer
- Conduct research on education and economy, technology in education, as well as multicultural issues in education, leadership and education
- Mentored 100+ research papers
- Please review publications in "Publications tab"
(07/01-08/03) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA – Senior Post Doctoral Fellow Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow. Research Laboratory of Electronics –RELATE (Research in Learning, Assessing, and Tutoring Effectively)
RELATE Group is directed by Prof. David Pritchard, who, having mentored four Nobel prize winners, is known as one of the world’s leading mentors. I collaborated with him on CyberTutor, a sophisticated interactive Web-based tutor designed to improve learning experience for teachers and students. I was responsible for research in education and instructional technology based on statistical analysis as well as ways to improve and measure the impact of the CyberTutor in education effectiveness. My work also included:
• Co-responsible for some facets of research including proposal writing, funding, research design, management, execution, statistical analysis and synthesis, and report writing;
• Conducted statistical analysis using SPSS, UNIX, ACCESS, and SQL; and
• Made presentations at local and national academic conferences
Major Research:
· Effectiveness of Course Elements: The Value of Using Technology in Education. This research was especially stimulating. Consistent with my belief that using technology in teaching can improve students’ understanding of the subject, we found that students who elected to do more electronic homework significantly improved their scores on the assessment instruments relative to their performance on these instruments before using CyberTutor. This research is particularly important because it suggests that efforts to improve instruction should concentrate on improving instructional formats.
· Electronic homework As Part of the Performance Assessment Algorithm. Electronic homework that combines assessment and tutoring as a performance assessment instrument is both reliable and valid. This study presented several assessment algorithms with a maximum reliability of 99.9 %. It showed that an electronic homework tutor has about an order of magnitude less variance per unit time than paper-testing assessments (i.e. a 3-hour final exam and 12 weekly tests together). In addition, its high validity allows using CyberTutor for predicting subsequent exam results.
· Relationship Between Conceptual Learning and Quantitative Learning. Physics education research shows that conceptual understanding is not necessary for students to do well on standard quantitative problems in introductory physics. This study addressed a related question: is conceptual understanding sufficient or helpful for students to do well in quantitative problems? Our results showed little inductive influence upon the quantitative from doing the conceptual first, but suggested that working on the quantitative problem first helps students with the subsequent conceptual one.
· A Correlation Analysis of the Students’ Response Variables from Online Tutoring System. We examined the correlation of 12 background variables determined from a student survey with assessment instruments including paper-testing instruments (e.g. final exam and weekly tests) and an electronic assessment from the results of a Web-based homework tutorial. On this basis we suggested that the use of un-timed Web-based tutorials can make an important contribution to assess student performance, without bias due to students’ background differences.
(11/97-05/01) University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Research Fellow. Research Fellow. Latin American Social and Public Policy (09/99- 04/01)
· Coordinated the Annual Graduate Student Conference of Latin American Social and Public Policy.
· Cuban and Andean Research Groups’ coordinator.
· Conducted research focused on economic development and higher education.
Graduate Student Assistant (GSA) (01/98-08/99) to:
· Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (08/98-08/99)
· University of Pittsburgh International Business Center (11/97-07/98)
· Global Information Networks in Education in the International Studies in Education (01/98-05/98)