• nhilliar@purdue.edu
  • (765) 494-3569
Research

Research


I am currently working to identify and refine my research interests within the field of learning, design, and technology. As I progress, I continue to gain experience and an appreciation for the various facets of our field.

For future work, I am considering an examination of how theoretical understanding impacts the fidelity of instructional implementations. I suspect there may be consequences when theory is incompletely or inaccurately understood, and these consequences may perpetuate through further instructional decisions, meant to be grounded in this theory, resulting in unanticipated outcomes that may contradict the intended instructional goals.

Research Interests

Student choice and the effects of context and experience on decision-making.

Choices impact every aspect of student life in education and the consequences of these choices may have serious long-term impacts on both academic trajectory and career success. It is important that students understand what choices they make and why the make them. Many factors, internal and external, may impact student choice, resulting in only illusory control of their decisions.

Impacts of theoretical understanding on the fidelity of instructional implementations.

Educators continually endeavor to provide effective, efficient, and meaningful instruction to their students. Ongoing advances in education research, as well as familiarity with the theories underlying this research, may provide vital insights for innovative educators. However, much of research and especially its foundational theories may be notoriously difficult for the typical practitioner to interpret. As a result, much instructional innovation stems from reproducing the instructional actions of fellow practitioners who have made efforts at interpretation. This strategy, however, subjects the educators to potential misinterpretation of the original works and potential misapplication of the resulting practices, which ultimately may do more harm than good. This is especially the case when educators rely on peers for their interpretations. Incomplete or inaccurate understanding of research results, generalizability, contextual constraints, and most importantly the theoretical basis for the work may lead to poor fidelity in reproduction of the research intent at best or perpetuation of flawed and counterproductive instructional techniques at worst. There should be concern for the accurate and appropriate implementation of instruction as well as an understanding of the foundational ideas that supported its development.

Preparation

Literature reviews

A brief systematized literature review focused upon instructor and student self-evaluated formative assessments as a strategy to track the progress of learning and foster deeper conceptual understanding.

A literature review examining how the discourse, experience, and context around pre-college STEM engagement experiences may unduly influence student decisions to pursue STEM majors in higher education.

Research Proposals

A proposal for a study to identify current undergraduate Biology students who feel discontented with their selected STEM major and examine the in- and out-of-school STEM outreach or engagement experiences most influential in leading students to the decision to pursue a biology degree.

Grant Writing

A Spencer Small Grant proposal linked to the Effects of Discourse and Experience on Student Choice of Biology STEM Majors in Higher Education project. While I am not in a position to qualify for grant funding of this sort due to my work status within the university, this proposal may be modified and submitted to support further work on this research topic.

IRB Protocol Contributions

IRB protocol for a proposed study to identify current undergraduate Biology students who feel discontented with their selected STEM major and examine the in- and out-of-school STEM outreach or engagement experiences most influential in leading students to the decision to pursue a biology degree.

Execution

Data Analysis- Quantitative

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Data Analysis- Qualitative

This is an excerpt from a collaborative autoethnography study where each member independently processed and coded reflections from each researcher/member to identify themes related to sensemaking on instructional design theory. Coding was open, and each participant/researcher interpreted the collaborative data through their own lens, identifying themes and relationships that were then used to further drive collaborative discussions on the findings and their meaning.

Another project, working through the coded transcripts from several student interviews about discontent in STEM. This uses a digital Post-It note-like board, where codes can be sorted and rearranged into themes.

Qualitative Codes Analysis Example – Miro Board

(see Appendix B worksheet for password)

Manuscript for Publication

As a part of collaborative ethnographic study examining how graduate learners make sense of the complex and abstract theories central to instructional design, a group of LDT peers and I shared in the execution, analysis, and publication of our article in Educational Technology Research and Development.

My primary areas of contribution to this manuscript include methods, literature review, qualitative data generation, and initial analysis and coding.

The accepted manuscript is available in the Publications section below.

Peer Review of Conference Manuscript

ASEE

I was offered the opportunity to review multiple pre-work manuscripts for the 2022 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exhibition. All manuscripts were part of the Educational Research and Methods division.

Dissemination

Conference- LDT/COE

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Evidence

Conference- National

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Evidence

Publications

Fiock, H., Meech, S., Yang, M., Long, Y., Farmer, T., Hilliard, N., Koehler, A., & Cheng, Z. (2022). Instructional design learners make sense of theory: A collaborative autoethnography. Educational Technology Research and Development, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-10075-8

Specialization

Certifications

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Evidence