Pursuing a career in academia is one of my ultimate goals. In my opinion, the dynamic nature of academia challenges me to dive into the unknown. Through my journey in the educational technology field, I am intrigued to explore ways to foster excitement and enjoyment in learning activities.
In my first professional career as a training analyst in an IT solution provider, I gained meaningful experiences in applying instructional designs for businesses and industries. The primary products of the company were hospital information systems and education management systems. In both projects, I worked with system developers, business analysts, and stakeholders to design and implement on-the-job training for our clients (i.e., hospitals). The goal of the training was to ensure that our clients (hospitals and universities) successfully transformed their business processes into a more seamless and productive system. On a practical basis, I worked on developing a training curriculum and materials that guided our clients (i.e., end-users) to utilize the new systems. For the first time, I engaged in the process of ADDIE and was able to see how instructional designs can be beneficial for improving work performance.
During my tenure as a university instructor from 2014 to 2019, I was fortunate to have different teaching, research, and service experiences in different institutions and departments in Indonesia. My first instructor position was in the Department of computer education and Informatics in a private university, where we prepared pre-service computer science (CS) teachers for secondary-level education. I was thrilled to engage in this program because we had unique educational goals that were to prepare CS teacher candidates for rural areas in Indonesia. We strived to make a strong connection and adjustment between the national standards for CS educator competencies and the educational needs and readiness in rural regions. In specific, this experience gave me the opportunity to see the learner analysis process in practice, where collaboration with the stakeholders was one essential key to designing an excellent preparation program.
Later in 2015, I continued my endeavor in academia by working as a college instructor at a state university in Indonesia. I joined the Department of educational technology as an instructor and junior researcher. In this role, I had more opportunities and support to extend my teaching and research experiences. In some studio-based courses, such as videography and photography, I was able to facilitate my students to engage with project-based learning that in the end provided them with experiences of managing exhibitions in public spaces. During this tenure, I was also fascinated by the integration of game design elements (or motivational information systems) into learning activities. I was challenged by the questions of how instructional design theories and principles can accommodate the leverage of game design elements in achieving learning outcomes. This question intrigued my curiosity to explore the interplay between instructional design and motivational information systems through in-depth inquiries.
That curiosity became the ground for me to join as a Doctor of Philosophy Student in the Instructional Systems Technology program at Indiana University in 2019. I believe that joining the program will allow me to illuminate unexplored areas of instructional designs and motivational information systems.
Background
The following works highlight some of the related experiences that have supported my understanding and shaped my interest in instructional design and gamified learning.
Research goals and primary research area
My current research area is focused on the interplay among instructional designs, motivational information systems (e.g., gamification), and learner-centered learning environments. Among the primary objectives of this agenda is to examine the role of instructional designs in optimizing gamification (game design elements) for learner-centered environments (Deterding et al., 2011). The questions are centered on 1) how to create alignment between instructional objectives, game rules, and game elements, 2) how to structure tasks and content that are achievable for completion, 3) how to utilize feedback in game-like experiences, and 4) what design processes that accommodate the integration of gamification into learning activities (Huang & Hew, 2021). In my first inquiry project (first-authored study), I investigated the role of competition as one of the essential game design elements in gamified online discussions on learners’ behavioral and cognitive engagement in learning.
First Authored Study
The Effects of Competition in Gamified Online Discussions on Learners’ Behavioral and Cognitive Engagement
The study aims to seek the role of competition in gamified online discussions on learners’ behavioral engagement (i.e., number of post and earned points) and cognitive engagement (the quality of learners’ posts). We draw from the theory of social comparison that explains there exists a drive that human evaluate their opinions and abilities through comparison to others (Festinger, 1954). Based on this theory, digital leaderboards were used in gamified online discussions to escalate the feelings of competition among learners. Despite some studies found that leaderboards can be seen as a threat to learning, proper use of leaderboards can actually yield positive outcomes (Landers et al., 2017). As a result of our quasi-experimental study, we found no evidence that competition on leaderboards influences engagement in learning, both behaviorally and cognitively.
Research Group Participation
Throughout my studies at IU, I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to experience collaborative work in some research groups. The following are the research groups I have engaged in.
Interdisciplinary Research Group (2020)
PI: Dr. Yonjoo Cho
During my participation in Dr. Cho’s research group, I learned how to conduct literature review and formulating research questions, as well as building a blueprint of a research proposal. This opportunity gave me a valuable lesson about managing research from the initiation stage.
Precedent Study (2021 – Present)
PI: Professor Elizabeth Boling
I joined Professor Boling’s Design Research Group to gain understanding of the scientific process of designing learning/instructional activities. When I first joined the group, I was involved in a research project that aimed to understand the role of precedent knowledge in design processes among practitioners. I engaged in the process of extended literature review and data analysis, as well as taking part in writing manuscript for publication.
I-ACT Teacher Professional Development working group (2020 – 2021)
PI: Dr. Glazewski & Dr. Brush
During my participation in this working group, I was involved in designing webinar events as a part of teacher professional development program. The purpose of the webinar was to update teachers’ knowledge on problem-based learning in school science classrooms, as well as to give teachers opportunities to experience a game-based learning environment that supports collaboration among students.
IU Racial Justice Research (2021 to 2022)
PI: Dr. Priscilla Barnes (School of Public Health)
Title: Exploring the Racial Justice Conversation in Midwestern Rural Communities: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Media in 31 Southern Rural Indiana Counties.
I was involved in this study as a part of a practice of what I learned from discourse analysis and my minor study in the Media School. In this project, we explored how newspaper media in rural areas of Indiana where BIPOCs are minority voice their opinions about the death of George Floyd. Through the project, I was fortunate to engage in the process of grant proposal writing, data collection and analysis, and writing project report.
Teaching goals
I find teaching to be one of the most rewarding aspects of working in academia. I had taught undergraduate students for five years before joining IU. Most of the taught courses were centered on production-based courses, such as multimedia learning, educational video, and photography. Consequently, I immersed myself in designing project-based courses for facilitating my students’ learning. My philosophy for those classes was that throughout the engagement with project-based learning, my students had to earn relevant knowledge and skills to prospective markets (i.e., individuals or organizations).
During my study at IU, I am fortunate to have teaching experiences that the IST department has granted me. I have been assigned to teach as an Associate Instructor for the W200 course: Using Computer for Education from Fall 2021 to Spring 2023. This experience offers me valuable experiences in several aspects. First, since this is my first-time teaching within a totally different culture, to assimilate myself into the culture, I observed my colleagues’ classes to fully understand the climate in the W200 classroom. The observations illuminated me to see the teaching approaches that work or need adjustment. Second, I worked with a team in a cohesive and constructive climate to design, develop, implement, and evaluate the course. This comprehensive process for me is an example of a great onboarding when a new instructor joins a teaching team.
Service goals
Through service work that I contributed, I found the experiences gave me the opportunities to strive to do what is meaningful for myself and my communities.
Prior experience
After finishing my master with government funding, I was involved in a government project where they sent the awardee to teach in rural areas of Indonesia. In that service work, I traveled far away from my hometown and spent six months to teach students in remote areas of Indonesia. The experience confirmed what I believed so far that there existed economic disparities among different regions in Indonesia that created inequalities in human development, including education progress. It is evident that a lack of teachers and facilities like school buildings, learning materials, and electricity prevented the children and youths from receiving a quality education.During my tenure as a university instructor (2014 to 2019), there were various service jobs that I completed both individually and in a group. For individual service, I joined a professional organization in the Educational Technology field in Indonesia. In this role, my service was in the form of working as a reviewer and managing editor of some peer-reviewed journals managed by the organization. In this role, I was able to gain understanding and practical experience on manuscript circulation, as well as conducting good review process. As a group, I work with other faculty members to organize training for teachers about the use of open education resources for learning (2015, 2017, and 2018).
During the doctoral program
During my doctoral studies so far, I was involved in some service work for the IST department, AECT, and Research Communities. In the Graduates in IST (GIST), I served as the Residential Student Representative for GIST (2020-2021), as well as taking part in the creativity team for the 2020 and 2021 IST conferences. During the AECT conference in 2020, I volunteered as a proposal reviewer for the design and development division, emerging learning technologies division, and design and development showcase. For research communities, I have been volunteering as a reviewer for Common Ground Research Networks – University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (2020 to date), Journal of Education and Learning, Canadian Center of Science and Education (2020 to date), and as an ad hoc reviewer in the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL) (2022 to date).
Breadth and integration
My journey in doctoral studies has progressively shaped my focus in academia (i.e., for research, teaching, and service areas). The IST doctoral program has offered me extensive perspectives about the research and practices of the IST field in various educational contexts. The inquiry courses that I completed prepared me to see research problems from a multitude of scientific views and paths. In addition, my minor in the Media School has broadened my understanding of the research scope in the IST field. Theories and research from media studies helped me to understand how people process information and how to deliver information meaningfully from the perspectives of socio-culture and psychology. Most importantly, I was introduced to different measures of attention, emotion, attitude, and memory, which are essential parts of learning. To sum up, I am motivated to enhance my knowledge, skills, and understanding of instructional designs and motivational information systems. And I believe through research, teaching, and service, I will gain valuable experiences that will shape my expertise.
References
- Deterding, S., Sicart, M., Nacke, L., O’Hara, K., & Dixon, D. (2011). Gamification. Using game-design elements in non-gaming contexts. In CHI’11 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2425–2428).
- Festinger, L. (1954). A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202
- Huang, B., & Hew, K. F. (2021). Using Gamification to Design Courses: Lessons Learned in a Three-year Design-based Study. Educational Technology & Society, 24(1), 44–63.
- Landers, R. N., Bauer, K. N., & Callan, R. C. (2017). Gamification of task performance with leaderboards: A goal setting experiment. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 508–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.008