Selected projects are described below. For details on projects not listed here, please direct tweet me @nobukofujita

ACE (Adapt, Create, Extend) Grants (2019-2020)

I am currently the Office of Open project lead on 2 open textbook development projects:

• Graduate Approaches to Qualitative Research open textbook, an adaptation of the open modules developed in 2016 (PI: Glynis George, Patti Weir)
• Engineering Management and Globalization (PI: Zbigniew Pasek)

eCampus Ontario Research & Innovation Grants (2016-2018)

• PI on an innovation project investigating user perceptions of needs from learning analytics reports and visualizations to develop a best practices guide for higher education institutions.
• Co-investigator with Prof. Werner Keller on a project examining student engagement in technology-enhanced courses at the intersection of business and law; and
• A collaborator on Prof. Mark Lubrick’s project evaluating lightboard videos in online astronomy courses

eCampus Ontario Online Program Development and Open Content Initiative Grants (2016-2018)

I was the Office of Open Learning project lead on 2 projects:

• an online graduate diploma program in Industrial and Organizational Psychology with 5 online courses and an internship
• an open e-textbook on Pension Finance and Management

Shared Online Course Fund Development (2014 – 2016)

As part of this project, I supported faculty in the development of 6 online courses in the Cross Border Institute, Forensic Sciences, and Business.

2 projects involved creating open educational resources with CC-BY-SA 4.0 licensing, including:

1. Graduate Approaches to Qualitative Research (PI: Glynis George; Dusty Johnstone, Patti Weir) – includes four online modules intended to support instruction of graduate students in the general area of qualitative research:An Introduction to Qualitative Research
   Methods and Techniques of Qualitative Investigation
   Qualitative Data Analysis
   Practical Application and Relevance of Qualitative ResearchThese online modules can be used as standalone learning modules, or as components in a graduate research methods course. The modules are each designed to be equivalent to 20-30% of a 36 credit hour course, and can be combined to create a complete course if desired.
2. Writing Skills for Human Services Professionals (PI: Jim Coyle) – 2 online modules included in this set are intended to support students learn work-related writing skills for human services professionals. Students can use them as stand-alone, self-paced learning modules or instructors can embed them as online resources in an instructor-led face-to-face, blended or fully online course delivery. We developed the modules to fill a gap in the existing postsecondary course offerings to meet the needs of students who are becoming social workers, psychologists, nurses, kinesiologists, and other human services professionals that are required to write in the context of their work.

Examining student perceptions on the use of e-Portfolios for personal leadership development in a MBA program (2013 – 2015)

I was an interdisciplinary collaborator and committee member on this MBA major paper project led by Natalie Yun, supervised by Dr. Martha Reavley. This pilot study explores best practices in using e-portfolios for personal leadership development for MBA students and instructors at the Odette School of Business.

Odette School of Business, University of Windsor

Assurance of Learning Task Force, AACSB Accreditation Review (2013-2014)

As Distance Education Course Development Coordinator and member of the Assurance of Learning Task Force, I contributed to curriculum mapping and rubric development in the successful AACSB Accreditation process at the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor.

Faculty of Education, University of Windsor

Formative Assessment using the Repertory Grid Online (FARGO) to Support Teaching and Learning (2011 – 2013)

This project, funded by an internal SSHRC seed grant, used an online formative assessment tool, a Facebook app called FARGO (Formative Assessment using the Repertory Grid Online), to support teaching and learning in higher education settings. This work extends postdoctoral research done in collaboration with Dr. Chris Teplovs on the NEXT-TELL project. The first iteration of this project at University of Windsor examined preservice student learning and teaching in a blended course setting. The second iteration of this project examined online graduate student learning. Read the report here

Graduate Studies Online Course Development and Course Delivery Model (2011-2013)

Funded by a Strategic Priority Fund awarded to Drs. Darren Stanley, Erika Kustra, Chris Greig, and Glenn Rideout, I collaborated with colleagues and Graduate Research Assistant, Xuan Nguyen, to investigate student and instructor perceptions and experiences in online delivery of existing and new courses in the M.Ed. program. The aim of this project is to design and deliver exceptional and supportive online courses and programs for current and prospective graduate students in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor.

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Copenhagen Business School

Next Generation Teaching and Learning for Life (NEXT-TELL) (2011)

I worked as a postdoctoral fellow on the NEXT-TELL project. The main objective of this large scale European ICT (FP7) project is to provide, through research and development, computational and methodological support to teachers and students so that they have nuanced information about learning when it is needed and in a format that is supportive of pedagogical decision making, thus optimizing the level of stimulation, challenge, and feedback for students.

Project Work During PhD (2003-2009)

I worked as a graduate research assistant on many of my supervisor,Dr. Brett’s research projects. I also collaborated with other faculty members

Electronic Interlanguage Pragmatic Project
Project Director: Prof. Julie Kerekes

I collaborated with Prof. Kerekes and Zhanna Perhan on this project, which examines speech act realizations in email communications between university instructors and students. This research will help teachers and learners understand how second language learners acquire pragmatic competence and use politeness strategies. I co-designed an instrument for coding content and speech act realizations in naturally occurring email communication, a non-traditional approach to investigating politeness.  We co-authored a paper investigating questions in teachers’ written feedback to foster idea development at the North American Workshop on Pragmatics, and are in the process of preparing a manuscript for journal submission.

SMART Ideas –  Infusing ICT Through Collaboration

This school-university partnership project investigated the impact of teacher candidate-associate teacher partnerships on infusing interactive whiteboard technology into classroom teaching. I contributed to the design, implementation, and evaluation of ICT infusion components in the Midtown option, a cohort in the initial elementary teacher education program. I co-authored 2 conference papers (Canadian Society for Studies in Education Annual Conference, Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association) and the final report with Mid-Town Coordinators John Duwyn and Cathi Gibson-Gates.

Investigating Research Apprenticeship in Online Graduate Education

The overall goal of this project funded by SSHRC and the CFI is to develop a set of social and technical tools that support the formation of an online community to engage graduate students in activities related to educational research across course boundaries and through their degree programs. In 2005-2006, Dr. Brett, Wendy Freeman and I collected questionnaire data from current graduate students and recent graduates who have taken online courses at OISE/UT to understand students’ understandings of their experiences in graduate school. This study informed the design of GRAIL environment.

Beyond Best Practice: Research-Based Innovation in Learning and Knowledge Work

Initiative for the New Economy SSHRC Project Director: Prof. Marlene Scardamalia
Prof. Brett was a collaborator on this grant, and I contributed to her sub-projects reportable for this grant.

• The OISE/UT Technology Infusion Project

Prof. Brett and I interviewed five faculty using Knowledge Forum® in their preservice teaching to assess existing best practices. We asked these them to reflect on their instructional goals; how explicit they were in talking about knowledge building theory with preservice teachers; strategies they found effective for conveying key concepts and functionality; and the potential they saw, and challenges they experienced in using this pedagogical approach. The best practices gleaned from these interviews inform the IT infusion faculty workshops that Dr. Brett and Kimberley Mackinnon have been offering at OISE/UT.

• Teacher Online Discourse Project

Prof. Brett and I collaborated with Prof Thérèse Laferrière, Dr. Mary Lamon and other colleagues on this subproject. My thesis research directly deals with one of the difficult problems in measuring online discourse that this project is pursuing: When do we know idea improvement has taken place? To this end, I am trying to identify the knowledge building trajectories of graduate education students (many of whom are inservice teachers) in online discourse.