Although faculty members at ATU are strongly encouraged to emphasize teaching, as Arkansas Tech University is primarily a teaching institution, my work in the scholarship area has allowed me to satisfy these two aspects of academia. Since I joint Arkansas Tech University in 2011, I have been engaged in a wide range of scholarly activities. Therefore, my scholarship effort was rated over my time at Tech as excellent as evaluated by the DPTC and department head (5/5). I have dedicated my scholarly work on the technology integration in teaching and learning because I realize the importance of connecting research with effective teaching. Much of my research focuses on the adoption and diffusion of technology in teaching and learning as it applies to the classroom in K-12 and higher education learning environments. The educational benefit of my research is to provide a better understanding of learning content design and diffusion of technology in teaching and learning. My main research areas can be broadly classified into two domains: one encompasses the related areas of online, hybrid and face-to-face teaching strategies such as project-based learning, collaborative learning and flipped teaching strategies. The second research domain focuses on multimedia learning content with the emphasis on students’ self-efficacy, metacognition, and self-regulated learning. These areas of research are extremely responsive to the innovative trends in the field of education. Furthermore, in my effort to support College of Education to renew the national CAEP accreditation, I was fortunate to take part in most of the steps taken by the College of Education to secure the national CAEP accreditation. I also worked with other faculty members to develop a new online teaching certificate and updated all courses to reflect the new emerging technologies and new trend in technology integration in teaching and learning.

 

Nearly all my research has been multidisciplinary and collaborative in nature. For example, up to 2020, I produced about 43 publications as principle author and more than 28 publications as co-author. The focus of the most of these publications is to critically examine educational technology and teaching strategies in relation to different learning settings and with diverse population. Furthermore, I worked with other scholars to develop multidisciplinary approaches to research efforts within my department, the university and internationally. For example, I collaborated with more than ten faculty members in my C&I department in research activities, with other Tech departments (e.g., Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Business), and with other universities (e.g., Ankara University, Turkey, Yildiz Technical University, Turkey, İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Turkey, Fredonia University, USA, Kuwait University, Kuwait, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA). My scholarship in application and integration of technology in education is promoted through several pathways, including publications, conferences, seminars, presentations at regional, national, and international professional meetings, conducting workshops, reviewing and editing articles, preparation of grant proposals, and development of courses and academic programs. Application and integration of my scholarship in these areas has presented me with the opportunity to be on the leading edge of issues within my discipline and helped me to develop research agendas through interaction with wide range of academics.

 

Between 2011-2021 academic years, I produced more than 65 scholarly peer-reviewed publications and 75 presentations at regional, national, and international meetings. Some of these research studies were published in top-tier journals; book and book chapters and proceedings as well as cited by other scholars in the field. For example, I published book by the LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, Germany, in 2016 and four book chapters by the New Forums Press in the book series “It Works for Me” in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015. Additionally, in 2013 I contributed two chapters to book published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was written by a team of Tech faculty members in C&I department to report the results of surveying teachers and administrators in Arkansas School Districts. While this book was primarily a practical and reflective guide for schoolteachers, administrators, counselors, and librarian, I included in these chapters many ways for teachers to use technology in Arkansas schools. I also published my articles in top journals such as the Advances in Autism journal (2019), the American Journal of Distance Education (2014) and the Journal of Learning, Media, and Technology (2012). These are key publishers in the field of education technology, and I continue publish in them as they offer outlets for discovery-based research and application. In addition to publishing scholarly work with top tear publishers, five of my publications received outstanding paper awards between 2012 and 2018 from the prestigious international organization in instructional technology: The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). When these award papers combined with other peer review publications, workshops, presentations, book, and book chapters, it indicates that such scholarship ultimately would impact positively our students at Arkansas Tech University.

 

To disseminate my research fully to those who can apply my results in the field of education, I expanded my research outlets to include a wide range of conferences, workshops, and seminars. Since I joint Tech in 2011, I have presented several workshops synthesizing research for practitioners in K-12 and higher education. For example, I conducted several workshops at Arkansas Tech University, at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), 2019, Tampa, Florida, at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Integrated STEM Education conference, Princeton University, New Jersey, 2018 and 2020, and at Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey, 2017. In summer 2015, I have been invited to conduct a half-day workshop at the International Islamic University Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on new trends of using technology in teaching and learning. In 2016, 2015 and 2013, I have been also invited by the Association for Teacher Educators (ATE) to conduct half-day workshops on developing professional e-portfolio, online pedagogy, and the use of free apps to flip the classroom instruction. Furthermore, I led several workshops for faculty members at Arkansas Tech University in conjunction with Tech professional development days. These PD days were organized by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Tech. The focus of these workshops is to model the use of different free technology tools to enhance classroom instruction. In these workshops I also shared my data collected from my classes of the effectiveness of teaching with technology to improve students’ learning.

 

In the area of grant writing, I collaborated with other Tech peers in writing grants for different organizations. For example, I collaborated in grant writings for National Science Foundation (NSF), Spencer Foundation, Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID), and different grants offered by Arkansas Tech University. For example, I was awarded funding 18 times from the Tech professional developments and faculty research grant to support scholarly activities. In 2020, I also participated in writing two grants with faculty members from Tech Electrical Engineering Department to The National Science Foundation entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things” and “Building Teachers' Capacity to Teach” (requested amount: $2,317,716 and $650,000). Although the proposals didn’t receive the funding and we are planning to rewrite the proposal again, the writing process and the skills of collaboration between faculty members across different disciplines at Tech is worthwhile. In September 2020, I completed an application for Fulbright US scholar Program for collaboration research for 9 months in Turkey and I am awaiting the final decision.

 

Interaction with professionals in the education field has allowed me to advance my research agenda, as well as the agendas of other faculty. I have served on the Editorial Board of several journals and collaborated with diverse scholars in the field of instructional technology and education. The network of associates that I have built up over the years within the field of educational technology has provided me the opportunity to address complex problems in my field. Furthermore, it has provided me a springboard in which I was able to build academic collaborations between Tech and other international higher institutions. As my CV indicates, I am regularly engaged in collaborated-oriented research. I consider collaboration with peers and graduate students to be an integral part of any educational technology program since it provides a critical linkage between the academic and the classroom practices. Several benefits accrue from collaboration activities. For instance, I have used the information that I have gained through collaboration to develop class teaching content. Another benefit of my collaboration, especially with international scholars, has been the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Arkansas Tech University and Ankara University for academic collaboration. As an outcome of the MOU, Tech hosted two Turkish scholars for a year to collaborate with me and other Tech faculty members in several research projects that were resulted on several publications and presentations.

 

Finally, I serve on several journals, academic organizations, and conference proposals reviewer. All journals and organizations are serving in the field of instructional technology such as International Journal for Innovation Education and Research (IJIER), The American Journal of Distance Education (AJDE), Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education Journal (CITE) CP, Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Transactions on Education Journal (IEEE), The Critical Questions in Education Journal (CQE) and the Mid-South Educational Research Association (MSERA). My scholarship also includes publishing and presenting with graduate students. For example, I advised, co-presented, and published with Tech graduate students in college of education in 2014 and 2013. Students’ research was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) E-LEARN, the Fifteenth Annual Student Research Symposium at Arkansas Tech University, and the International Conference of Society for Information (SITE) (for complete record, please check the scholarship supporting documents section).