Support for “plug-and-play” Educational Tool

College of Education (COE) Associate Specialist Ariana Eichelberger

College of Education (COE) Associate Specialist Ariana Eichelberger is the 2019–2020 Hubert V. Everly Endowed Scholar in Education. She will receive $10,000 over two semesters to support the development of a “plug-and-play” tool to help educators make online open educational resources (OER) more engaging for their students.

“Receiving this award is so exciting for me.” Eichelberger said. “My hope is that, together with the college’s Distance Course Design & Consulting (DCDC), we can build and research something that will be truly useful.”

With the Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) department since 2000, Eichelberger is the college’s Instructional Designer. Her history with the college goes even deeper as she earned both her MEd and PhD from the COE.

Eichelberger was selected based on the quality, uniqueness, and potential impact of her proposed program. The “plug and play” tool will allow educators to customize OER textbooks by adding interactive assessments to enhance student retention, engagement, and accountability.

“Ari has been instrumental in our team's work on expanding the affordances of online OER texts,” said Technology & Distance Programs Director Paul McKimmy. “Her research and development on engagement and learner progress will help faculty leverage and expand the benefits of OER.”

The tool will track students’ activities and visually display their progress to both instructors and students via dashboards. Designed using open-source software, the tool will be freely available to educators at our college, the university, the state, and beyond.

LTEC Chair Curtis Ho said, “We are proud to have an LTEC faculty member receive this honor. The proposed tool will benefit the department, college, and university and the research being conducted will be a significant contribution to our field."

Dean Hubert V. Everly was Dean of Teacher’s College in 1956 until it became the College of Education where he was the longest serving dean (1959–1979). Among his numerous honors, Everly received the endowed scholar position, which was established in his name, and a COE Lifetime Achievement Award. The endowment supports the career of faculty members whose work will result in a positive impact on the college and on education throughout Hawai‘i.