NLL Researcher Dr. Eileen McGivney recently received the Graduate Student Research Excellence Award from the Learning and Instruction Division of the American Educational Research Association. Dr. McGivney successfully defended her dissertation earlier this month, with Dr. Chris Dede and Dr. Tina Grotzer serving on her committee along with Dr. Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University.
Dr. McGivney’s dissertation, Promoting Learning, Agency, and Motivation in STEM Classrooms with Virtual Reality Field Trips, demonstrates the affordances and limitations of VR field trips to facilitate authentically situated learning in STEM classrooms by assessing how they support and hinder student learning, motivation, and sense of agency. In doing so, it addresses the need for more research on the multidimensional and longitudinal impact of VR in classroom instruction. You can learn more about Dr. McGivney’s research here.
