September 14, 2020
IDP Faculty Highlight: Dr. Xi Lin
The Department of Interdisciplinary Professions began a series this fall called “IDP Faculty Highlights.” The series fulfills IDP’s goal of “harnessing the power of IDP’s faculty teaching, research and creative activity, and service in time of a pandemic and social justice movement.”
Every month, the department will spotlight the important work of one faculty member as a way to connect, disseminate and celebrate creative activity, teaching or service efforts that relate to yearly efforts.
Dr. Xi Lin
September’s spotlight is Dr. Xi Lin from adult education. Dr. Lin has been an ECU faculty member since fall 2018. She received her doctoral degree from Auburn University in Alabama.
A fun fact about Dr. Lin:
“I LOVE playing video games. I have been playing both console games and online games. My favorite game type is role-playing games. I was a game vlogger for a short period of time with 1273 fans. I hope to run my vlogger again when I have more time in the future. Another thing I am proud of is that I published three scholarly articles regarding applying games in teaching and learning. I look forward to continuing combining my favorite hobby (playing video games) with my favorite job (teaching and research) in the future.”
What her research focuses on:
“Online and distance learning. I am especially interested in seeking ways to engage students in class, increase their interaction with the instructor and their peers, as well as enhancing their sense of community in online learning environments.”
“One of my most recent studies discusses an innovative discussion method that allows learners to comment in an asynchronous online video hosted by Canvas Studio, and their comments will appear at a specific timestamp of the video when they created the comments. This innovative discussion method would potentially engage students and encourage them to communicate with their instructor and peers in online learning environments. Based on an interaction research framework, results of this qualitative study indicate that the video timeline comment enhances students’ interaction with their instructor and peers. This function also motivates students to engage with the learning content and keep them focus on the asynchronous online lectures. Additionally, the video timeline function further develops a real-time between online and offline social networks.”
Dr. Lin’s study is currently under review by a peer-reviewed journal. However, an exploratory study discussing potential benefits of using this innovative discussion for distance education was published in 2018 in the Educational Media International journal.