The National Science Foundation (NSF) is currently seeking reviewers for proposals. If you are interested, please complete the survey using the following link: Reviewer Interest Survey. You can also find more information here about reviewing for the NSF.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) invites you to participate in a town hall meeting to stimulate a national conversation on the topic of Data Science in Education. This town hall meeting will explore Data Science and its impact across all levels of education from K-12 through higher education, including community colleges, minority serving institutions, and graduate institutions. The town hall will be conducted virtually via Zoom. Pre-registration is required.
October 8, 2021
10:00 am – 3:45 pm EDT Read more →
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released its NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FYs) 2021-2025. This updated plan articulates NIH’s highest priorities over the next 5 years.
The plan is organized around a framework of three key objectives:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will hold its Fall 2021 Virtual Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration Monday, November 1 – Thursday, November 4. Mark your calendar for an opportunity to learn, share, and meet virtually with NIH and HHS experts.
Effective January 2022, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will require updated formats for the biosketch and other support documents. NIH recommends transitioning now to the updated formats and instructions. Resources are accessible from the biosketch and other support webpages.
To help navigate the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants systems, the electronic Research Administration (eRA) website provides numerous resources. Here are the three most commonly accessed resources you may find helpful:
Join UF senior leaders for an interactive discussion on research integrity and ethical decision making. Spots are limited. Register at https://research.ufl.edu/rcr/rcr-training/2021-uf-leadership-roundtable/. You will receive a link to the livestream once registration is confirmed.
Don’t forget to submit your questions to the panelists here!
August 24, 2021
10:00 am – 11:30 am EDT
Two free, fully online trainings on statistics software will be offered during the fall term. Faculty, staff, postdocs, TAs, and graduate students can learn how to perform statistical analyses on research data while earning a certificate in SPSS and SamplePower 3 or the R programming language. Pre-registration is required. Use the links below to view the course flyer and to register:
SPSS and SamplePower 3
Aug. 23 – Oct. 7, 2021
Register
R Programming Training: An Introduction for Data Analysis and Graphics
Oct. 4 – Dec. 3, 2021
Register
You have been approached by a company that is interested in your research work and potentially sponsoring a research project. They want to meet with you to discuss the possibilities. They send you a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) or a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to be signed and sent back. You are about to sign the CDA and then you think, “Should I sign this CDA? And what does it cover?” The answer to the first question is a definite “no.” CDAs and other agreements related to your sponsored research require the signature of an authorized signatory of the university obtained via submission of the document to UFIRST.
Updating documents is at the heart of many revisions and changes requested in myIRB. Whether it is the study protocol, the informed consent document, recruitment flyers, or questionnaires, making sure the IRB has the most recent version of your study documents is key to compliance. Learn more about how to update documents in myIRB to ensure that your changes can be processed quickly and smoothly.
The Study Title and Staff Smart Form is the first step in filling out an IRB submission in myIRB. Questions 5 and 6 ask for information about the study PI and study staff who will be carrying out the study. Here are some tips on how to best assign functions to your research team in myIRB.
Accurately acknowledging federal funding is important to help ensure proper stewardship of taxpayer funds and to recognize federally sponsored research. Principal Investigators should review the terms of their awards from each federal agency to determine the requirements for proper acknowledgments of all work resulting from federal support. Non-federal sponsors may also have requirements for acknowledgments. See the following agency links for more information:
Congratulations to Christy Gabbard for her award from the Florida Department of Education; Herman Knopf for his award from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation; Philip Poekert for his subcontract awards DHHS Flow Through from Florida’s Office of Early Learning; Paige Pullen for her award from Trident United Way; and Wanli Xing for his award from Schwab Charitable.
For more details, see the Awarded Projects table.
Best wishes to Pasha Antonenko, Swarup Bhunia, and Mary Jo Koroly for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Benjamin Lok and Pasha Antonenko for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Anthony Botelho for his subcontract proposal NSF Flow Through from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Lynda Hayes for her proposals to the Florida Department of Education; Maya Israel for her proposal to the National Science Foundation; Wei Li for his proposal to the National Science Foundation; Elliott Douglas and Erica McCray for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Robert Moore for his subcontract proposal NSF Flow Through from North Carolina State University; Philip Poekert for his proposal to the Lafayette Parish School System; Matthew Schmidt for his subcontract proposal NIH Flow Through from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Darbianne Shannon for her subcontract proposal Administration for Children and Families Flow Through from the University of South Carolina; Patricia Snyder and James Algina for their subcontract proposal IES Flow Through from Vanderbilt University; Patricia Snyder and Mary McLean for their subcontract proposal California Department of Education Flow Through from Napa County; Joni Splett for her subcontract proposal U.S. Department of Education/OSERS Flow Through from the University of South Florida; Wanli Xing, Wei Li, and Huan Chen for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Philip Feng, Wanli Xing, Jing Guo, and Glorida Kim for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Sandip Ray, Wanli Xing, and Janise McNair for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Wanli Xing for his subcontract proposal NSF Flow Through from the University of California San Diego; Sharon Chuyew Yee and Wanli Xing for their proposal to the National Science Foundation; Wanli Xing for his proposal to the National Science Foundation; and Kejun Huang, Swarup Bhunia, and Wanli Xing for their proposal to the National Science Foundation.
For more details, see the Submitted Projects table.
Q & A with Seyedahmad Rahimi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning
My research aims to answer questions such as “how can we assess and enhance hard-to-measure constructs such as creativity at scale using technology-rich environments (e.g., digital games)?” or “what aspects of technology-rich environments can foster or hinder learning?” or “how can we embed learning content in digital games without sacrificing the fun to enhance students’ interest, engagement, and learning?” The list could go on. In general, my research interest is at the intersection of learning sciences, learning analytics, instructional design and technologies, psychometrics, and computer sciences. Specifically, my research focuses on assessing and fostering students’ 21st-century skills (focusing on creativity) and STEM-related knowledge acquisition (focusing on physics understanding). Toward that end, I design, develop, and evaluate immersive learning environments (e.g., educational games) equipped with stealth assessment and educational data mining and learning analytics models. These learning environments can diagnostically assess students’ various competency levels, predict different outcomes, and act accordingly in real-time (e.g., adapt the game challenges to students’ level of competency or support students’ learning by triggering the appropriate learning supports). I am also actively researching various aspects of educational games (e.g., game mechanics, game difficulty, cognitive and affective supports, dashboard design, and incentive systems) and how they affect students’ motivation, performance, and learning.
When I think about my research, I see the following keywords in a cloud above my head: stealth assessment, validity, reliability, fairness, equity, games, technology, learning analytics, machine learning, improvement, learning, creativity, and STEM-related knowledge. I think the combination of these concepts makes my research interesting. I can categorize these keywords into three groups: (1) methods: stealth assessment, validity, reliability, fairness, equity, learning analytics, (2) tools: games, machine learning, technology, and (3) outcomes: creativity, learning, improving, STEM-related knowledge. Using new methods to develop tools (e.g., games) that can accurately assess and enhance people’s critical skills in life, such as creativity and STEM-related knowledge, makes my research interesting. When it comes to STEM-related knowledge acquisition, I am interested in helping the minority populations build interest in STEM-related topics which can help them in the future. For instance, in our previous studies (with my former advisor Dr. Valerie Shute), girls always had lower prior physics knowledge than boys. However, they had higher or equal posttest scores (after playing Physics Playground—an educational game) than boys—this is very interesting to me. When it comes to creativity (one of the essential skills moving human civilizations forward), I am interested in automatic and accurate ways of assessing creativity or creative potential. Most of the creativity assessments in the literature need human judgment, are time-consuming, costly, limited, and subjective. Using techniques such as stealth assessment and machine learning, I want to develop tools (e.g., video games) that can assess creativity without involving human judgment. These tools can then use the real-time diagnostic assessment to enhance people’s creativity as well. Creativity is not just reserved for a small group of people. We all can be creative. My goal is to create research-based tools available at scale to help more people become creative with practice—this is very interesting to me, which keeps me up at night.
As a fresh assistant professor, I am currently setting up my research lab, Game-based Assessment & Measurement in Education Lab (GAME Lab), at the Institute for Advanced Learning Technologies (IALT) at UF. Read more →
