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Spring 2024

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March 4, 2025
 

Conference and Call for Poster Proposals

Workshop
AI & Ethics Module Design Workshop (June 10-12, 2025)


Frontiers in Adult Education Research: Applying Process Data Techniques to the PIAAC Dataset (May 8-9, 2025)

The AI Measurement and Data Science (AIMD) Lab, the Data Science and Analytics Program and Massive Data Institute (MDI) at Georgetown University, in collaboration with the Georgia State University Adult Literacy Research Center (ALRC), are pleased to announce the conference and workshop “Frontiers in Adult Education Research: Applying Process Data Techniques to the PIAAC Dataset.” This event will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 8-9, 2025, at Georgetown University Hilltop Campus, Healey Family Student Center.

The conference will highlight interdisciplinary research in adult education, large-scale assessments, and data science techniques. Attendees can look forward to talks, poster presentations, and ample networking opportunities. This event aims to inspire educational researchers, policymakers, and instructors by showcasing insights provided by PIAAC and the potential of large-scale assessments in adult education.

This event consists of a one-day conference (May 8th) to showcase adult education research that includes PIAAC and uses innovative process data techniques. The half-day workshop (May 9th) will introduce how to analyze process data in large-scale assessments using PIAAC as an example. The conference and workshop are fully sponsored by grants awarded to GSU and GU by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and attendance is free for all participants.

At this conference, we also welcome poster proposals from researchers, faculty, policymakers, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • PIAAC-related studies
  • Adult education
  • Process data-related studies
  • Methodology innovation in large-scale assessments
  • Data science methods in adult education and lifelong learning

Conference/Workshop Registration click here. (Due by April 20, 2025)
Poster Proposal Submission click here. (Due by March 31, 2025. Decisions made by early April.)

All types of research are welcome, including quantitative, qualitative, and empirical reviews. Posters previously presented at local or national conferences and works in progress are also welcome. Abstracts should include a title, presenter names, affiliations, email addresses of presenters, and a 250-word (maximum) abstract. If the study is in progress, please include descriptions of anticipated results/analyses.

Questions?
Contact Dr. Qiwei (Britt) He (qiwei.he@georgetown.edu) or Dr. Elizabeth Tighe (etighe@gsu.edu).


NCME Special Conference: Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education

Save the date for an NCME Special Conferenced called the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con). It will be held in-person in Pittsburgh, PA, from October 27-29, 2025, at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. The theme is "Innovation and Evidence: Shaping the Future of AI in Educational Measurement."

The conference aims to gather an interdisciplinary group of experts from education, artificial intelligence, measurement, natural language processing, assessment, learning analytics, and technological development to foster leraning across all groups.

The AIME-Con will include training sessions on October 27, and a keynote, posters, and paper presentations on October 28 and 29. We welcome individuals to sign up to facilitate training sessions and review proposals. Proposal submissions for paper and training sessions will open in early spring and are due May 31, 2025. Notifications of acceptances will be sent around July 1, 2025.

For more information, please see the conference website. We are excited to see you in Pittsburgh in October!


AI & Ethics Module Design Workshop (June 10-12, 2025)

Join AI ethics experts and pedagogy experts for a three-day hybrid workshop on generative AI ethics for undergraduate STEM educators at Michigan State University:

  • Dates: June 10-12, 2025
  • Times: 10 am - 4 pm EDT
  • Location: Hybrid - attend in East Lansing, MI, or virtually via Zoom
  • Cost: Free, with some travel stipends and additional stipends available

Hosted by MSU's Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Evidence-Driven Innovation team, and Ethics Institute, this NSF-funded workshop series will provide content knowlege and dedicated working time for participants to develop AI ethics moduls for use in their undergraduate STEM courses.

We welcome from STEM disciplines, broadly defined. This includes the Sciences (natural, physical, social, and environmental); Computing and Data Science; Engineering & Technology; Health and Life Sciences; Mathematics & Statistics; and Education/Teacher Education in STEM.

Travel stipends. We are able to provide travel stipends for up to 20 in-person participants. Stipend amounts will start at $1,400 and may increase depending on total travel fund needs.

Additional stipends for qualified participants. We recognize that it might require additional funds to participate in workshops, and are providing $300 stipends to acknoqledge participant efforts and offset costs. These will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to ten participants employed by the following types of institutions:

  • Community colleges
  • Tribal Colleges or Universities
  • Historically Black Colleges or Universities
  • Hispanic-serving Institutions
  • Non-doctoral granting institutions

If we receive insufficient applicants from the above institution types, we will prioritize educators in non-tenure track and adjunct roles for these stipends.

Priority application deadline is 3/17/25. We will continue accepting applications on a rolling basis untilt he workshop is full or until 4/30/25.

Additional Questions? Please contact Dr. Hala Sun, sunhala@msu.edu.


 

February 18, 2025
 

Call for Submissions
Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium: Singapore, July 21-23, 2025

Grant Opportunity
AIMS EduData Initiative Funding Opportunity

Internships
ACT Summer Internships for PhD Students:


Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium: Singapore, July 21-23, 2025

The Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS) is an annual non-governmental professional meeting established to promote objective measurement and contribute to the research and development of Rasch measurement in the Pacific Region. This annual symposium serves as a platform for the international community of researchers and practitioners to learn about the latest developments in the field of measurement.

Call for Submissions
Theme: Next Generation Measurement: When Innovation Meets Objectivity

The theme emphasizes our commitment to objectivity or measurement invariance in the field in response to cutting-edge advancements and emerging technologies that reshape how we collect, analyze, and interpret data. It invites a critical examination of the ways innovation can enhance precision, accuracy and fairness in measurement practices across diverse disciplines.

Submissions from any field across the human sciences, including business, education, health and psychology are welcome. These could include research applying the Rasch model, advances in measurement practices, or reviews of modern measurement theory. These are due by March 31, 2025.

PROMS2025 Contact
More information on PROMS2025 is available at https://proms2025.com. If you have any questions, please contact proms@suss.edu.sg.

We look forward to receiving your submissions and welcoming you at PROMS2025!


AIMS EduData Initiative Funding Opportunity

A partnership between the Advancing Innovative Math Solutions (AIMS) Collaboratory and Learning Data Insights and Digital Promise will launch the AIMS EduData initiative on March 1. The opportunity will offer grants between $10,000 and $50,000, with the possibility of additional future funding, for recipients to:

  • Access rich datasets, including assessments and process data to advance math learning
  • Engage in a dynamic, supporting community of digital learning providers and research
  • Gain new career development opportunities

Emerging scholars interested in advancing math education are especially invited to apply. For more information, visit the AIMS EduData website. Applications are due by March 31, 2025.


ACT Summer 2025 AI/ML Research Internship (2 positions available)

The summer research intern will work with researchers and content developers within the ACT’s Design and Digital Science team. Our research goal is to establish ACT’s authority as a trusted leader in the field of educational research and to use this expertise and knowledge to increase the efficacy and equity of our products and solutions. 

In addition to gaining experience by working with the current team members to create and refine assessments and learning materials, candidates will have the opportunity to design and conduct original research studies on building machine learning applications in educational context and publish to peer-reviewed venues. Successful candidates will be matched to research studies in their field of study and interests. Possible research studies for Summer include, but are not limited to: 

  • Creating and refining machine learning models used for automated essay scoring
  • Develop AI/ML-based applications
    • To help subject matter experts to author assessment items, passage, or data visualizations
    • To streamline the editorial process
  • Automated item tagging
  • Sensitivity and bias analysis in AI/ML outputs
  • Improve accessibility and diversity of assessment items with AI/ML solutions

Typical work-related activities include:

  • Design and execute original research studies
  • Develop machine learning models and prototype applications
  • Data cleaning and analysis 
  • Write and share reports on analysis results

Minimum Qualifications: 

Education:  

  • BA in psychometrics, educational psychology, statistics, computer science, machine learning, human-computer interaction, or related field
  • Must be working toward Ph.D. in related field 

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: 

  • Proficient in programming languages (Python or R preferred) and AI/ML packages (e.g., scikit-learn, PyTorch, etc.)
  • Excellent writing skills 
  • Thrive in cross-team collaboration environments
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Strong work ethic 
  • Knowledge of:  
    • Artificial intelligence/Machine learning methods
    • Psychological/educational assessments
    • User-experience research/design methods

Link: https://careers-act.icims.com/jobs/2603/summer-2025---ai-ml-research-internship---phd-students/job

Contact: Chris.Oliva@act.org


ACT Summer 2025 Behavior and Skills Measurement Internship (2 positions available)

We are looking for two summer research interns to work with the Skills Research and Development (SRD) team within the Behavior and Skills Measurement group. The SRD team consists of researchers in personality psychology, social psychology, educational psychology, quantitative psychology, survey research, and career planning, and conducts research related to the development and assessment of essential skills, cross-cutting capabilities, and navigation skills. The team supports ACT’s Mosaic and WorkKeys products, as well assists learners in “finding their way” along their education and career journeys by conducting research on ACT’s navigation tools (e.g., the ACT Interest Inventory) and investigating the conditions that support effective education and career decisions and outcomes. The team also focuses on providing important insights into “student voice” – students’ perspectives and thoughts about current issues in education and workforce. These positions are a great fit for someone looking to gain research experience working with researchers who have diverse backgrounds in psychology and are focused on learners’ post-secondary and workforce outcomes. 

In addition to gaining experience by working with current Skills Research and Development team members to create and refine assessments, surveys, and supporting materials, candidates will have the opportunity to participate in original research studies. Successful candidates will be matched to research studies in their field of study that align with their research interests. Possible research studies for Summer 2025 include, but are not limited to:

  • Conducting validity research on a new measure of essential skills
  • Examining norms, criterion validity, and concordance in various samples of employed adults
  • Designing and executing studies that examine contextualization in situational judgment test items
  • Exploring new methods for measuring important aspects of career planning (e.g., Experience)
  • Exploring the use of big data to provide interest-related insights to students
  • Reviewing and assessing new constructs for potential inclusion in ACT’s Holistic Framework

Typical work-related activities can include:

  • Participating in original research studies related to developing and examining the validity and efficacy of assessments and curricula
  • Participating in original research studies investigating stakeholder perceptions
  • Cleaning and analyzing data
  • Writing and editing literature reviews
  • Designing, creating, and revising reports
  • Conducting cognitive lab and focus group studies

Minimum Qualifications:

Education:

  • BA in psychology, educational psychology, or related field
  • Must be working toward Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology, educational psychology, personality psychology, counseling psychology, or related field

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

  • Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Excel and Word
  • Proficient in statistical software (R preferred)
  • Excellent writing skills
  • Excellent teamwork skills
  • Strong people skills
  • Strong work ethic
  • Knowledge of:
    • Industrial-organizational psychology
    • Psychological assessment
    • Quantitative and qualitative research methods
    • Personality theory
    • Psychometrics
    • Career planning assessment

Link: https://careers-act.icims.com/jobs/2605/summer-2025---behavior-and-skills-measurement-internship---phd-students/job

Contact: Chris.Oliva@act.org


ACT Summer 2025 Validity and Efficacy Research Internship (1 position available)

The summer research intern will work within the ACT Academic Knowledge Measurement. Specifically the intern will work in the Validity and Efficacy Research group. The Validity and Efficacy Research group specializes in investigating and documenting the value of ACT products by researching the appropriateness of their proposed uses as well as their effectiveness in improving intended learner outcomes. The mission in Research is to establish ACT’s authority as a trusted leader in the field of educational research and to use this expertise and knowledge to increase the efficacy and equity of our products and solutions. The team in Research consists of researchers in psychometrics, validity and efficacy, artificial intelligence and machine learning, survey methodology, social and emotional learning (SEL), and industrial-organizational psychology. Candidates will be remote for the 10-week duration of the internship. 

The summer intern will work on the following study this year. The study proposes to isolate and quantify the specific impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on high school grade inflation and subsequent college performance. Unlike prior studies that broadly compare academic metrics across time or rely solely on regression-based analyses, this study will employ a difference-in-differences (DiD) design to isolate the causal impact of the pandemic. The DiD approach creates a more robust counterfactual by comparing pre- and post-pandemic cohorts, effectively controlling for underlying trends that are unrelated to COVID-19. This design allows us to identify the exogenous shock of the pandemic on grade inflation and assess how these altered practices affect key outcomes, such as first-year college GPA, enrollment, persistence, and graduation rates, beyond what standard pre- and post-comparisons offer.

Typical job-related activities include:

  • Programming in SAS (Base & Stat) - Suggested
  • Programming in R - Required
  • Performing statistical analyses such as descriptive statistics and difference-in-differences (DiD) design
  • Conducting a review of the literature on the topic
  • Participating in regular meetings with supervisor
  • Writing reports
  • Delivering presentations

Link: https://careers-act.icims.com/jobs/2604/summer-2025---validity-and-efficacy-research-internship---phd-students/job

Contact: Chris.Oliva@act.org


January 29, 2025


Courses
Online Short Courses with the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research at The University of Maryland

Resource
An Introduction to Qualitative Meta-Synthesis, a free guide from the Institute for Meta-Synthesis

Workshops/Institutes

Have something to share with the community? Click here to learn how to include your announcement in the next mailing.


Online Short Courses with the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research at The University of Maryland

The Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR) at The University of Maryland is pleased to announce the following popular online short courses. Participants may join us from anywhere in the world with a good Wi-Fi connection -- synchronously (real-time) or asynchronously (delayed/recorded).

Course

Date

Instructor

Cost student/ professional

Applied Causal Inference with Directed Acyclic Graphs

March 27-28, 2025

Dr. Peter Steiner, University of Maryland

$195/$375

Introduction to Social Network Analysis

May 15-16, 2025

Dr. Tracy Sweet, University of Maryland

$195/$375

For a complete list of available courses this year, please visit https://umd-cilvr.catalog.instructure.com/. Please reach out to cilvr-shortcourses@umd.edu if there are any questions. 


An Introduction to Qualitative Meta-Synthesis, a free guide from the Institute for Meta-Synthesis

The Institute for Meta-Synthesis (IMS) releases free user guide: An Introduction to Qualitative Meta-Synthesis: A Method for Equity-Minded Researchers

In this new user guide, the IMS team offers step-by-step guidance for building knowledge and skills in qualitative meta-synthesis methods. Topics in this open-source user guide (221 pages) include: 

  • Developing an effective synthesis question 
  • Searching for literature using forward and backward snowballing  
  • Developing and applying critical appraisal selection criteria 
  • Creating analytical memos
  • Coding and conducting thematic analysis 
  • Writing synthesis manuscripts and grant proposals 

This user guide is appropriate for graduate students and early career scholars, as well as for STEM faculty who are transitioning into STEM education.

Download the user guide here! Please share this link widely with your networks.

Questions? Reach out to metasynthesis@terc.edu

About IMS: The Institute for Meta-Synthesis was established in 2020 with the goal of providing researchers with diverse on-ramps for building knowledge and skills in qualitative meta-synthesis methods. Between 2020 and 2024, IMS taught over 2,400 researchers and provided online materials that were downloaded over 7,000 times. IMS is funded by the National Science Foundation's Building Capacity in STEM Education Research program (NSF-2024967 & 2422287) and is led by Division D member Maria (Mia) Ong, alongside Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Lisette Torres-Gerald, and Christina Silva at TERC, a STEM education research organization based in Cambridge, MA. To learn more about the Institute, visit the IMS website.


Applications Accepted for Meta-Analysis Training Institute Workshop

The IES-funded Meta-Analysis Training Institute (MATI) is currently accepting applications for a one-week intensive workshop in state-of-the-art methods to conduct large-scale research syntheses and meta-analyses. The MATI program is aimed at researchers interested in conducting research consistent with IES Exploration grants and SEER principles for rigorous research. The workshop will include a combination of lectures, hands-on activities implementing methods in R, and group activities. Applicants should have completed an introductory workshop on meta-analysis, worked on a meta-analysis, or completed an undergraduate or graduate course in meta-analysis. Applications are open and due March 2 nd. Please visit the MATI website for more information and the application: https://www.meta-analysis-training-institute.com/

Please email mati@gsu.edu if you have any questions.


Summer Institute in Liberatory and Decolonizing Research Methods, Revolutionizing Research for Social Change

George Mason University is excited to host its fourth annual Summer Research Institute, Revolutionizing Research for Social Change, June 8-14, 2025. This week-long (in-person) workshop on liberatory and decolonizing research methods to create space for fellows to develop research tools to revolutionize social science inquiry to improve its reach, relevance, and rigor. Workshop attendance is free (including campus housing and meals); travel is not included.

During this Summer Research Institute, participating fellows will:

  • Explore the racial and colonial history of social science research methods and methodology.
  • Examine the connections between power and knowledge.
  • Develop tools for ethical, equitable, and inclusive research practice as researchers.
  • Create research protocols grounded in liberatory and inclusive practices.
  • Learn and share strategies for equitable and transparent research partnering with historically marginalized communities and groups.
  • Build skills in participatory and community-based research practice for positive change in policy and practice.
  • Grow peer networks and connect with research mentors for ongoing collaboration beyond the workshop.

The Summer Institute emphasizes ‘appreciative’ social science approaches to inquiry to not reproduce or worsen, through our research methods, the very problems social science seeks to understand and address. The Summer Institute is part of a broader project to recover and reclaim approaches to knowledge creation that have been subjugated through colonial history and racial exclusion; to provide tools for knowledge building that is equitable, restorative and just, and not extractive; to conduct research with communities and groups that benefits them, builds trust, and honors the expertise people have about their own lives and communities.

The Summer Institute is held in person at George Mason University’s Fairfax, Virginia campus. Housing is located in the on-campus residence halls, and workshop sessions are held in on-campus academic buildings. Be aware that Mason has three northern Virginia campuses in Fairfax, Arlington, and Manassas. This can cause some confusion. This workshop will be held exclusively at the Fairfax campus.

For more information or to apply, please visit https://cssr.gmu.edu/initiatives/revolutionizing-research-for-social-change-workshop.


 

 
 
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