Category: Uncategorised

Time is Marching On: A 4 Q 2021 Update

david.ruttenberg.18Articles

While the original intent of this blog was to catalog the first years of my PhD Distance Learning Experience, I have returned now well into my penultimate year to provide a much-needed update. If not for any other reason, I needed a break from statistical analyses and am now prepared to take stock of what’s been accomplished during the last 18 months…

  • A little more than a year ago, and following my MPhil/PhD Upgrade, I accepted two posts at UCL including a PGTA to the Digital Media Masters Students Programme and a Content Developer for the EdD Education Programme. Both were incredibly gratifying and I was able to contribute, particularly leveraging my previously honed at-distance skills that came in handy when helping others migrate to new ways of learning and instruction online. After all, no one knew in 2018 of the coming pandemic.
  • Both PGTA and CD roles enabled me to pursue and receive Associate Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA, Advanced HE) from February, 2021.  Since that time, I’ve been fortunate to be welcomed as a Full Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and an Impact Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE).
  • On the research front, I’ve completed the design, pilot, production and data collection for the SensorAble project. I am “well down the road” regarding data analysis and have started to author my materials, including both the Methods and Results section for both my Dissertation and Journal Articles. I’ve also presented my findings at both UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Development Diversity Lab and at the University of Cambridge Cognition Education and Emotion Lab.
  • I am motivated to begin helping shape Public Policy by contributing on both sides of the Atlantic. This includes building upon my recent appointment as Chairperson for the Center for Autistic and Related Disabilities (CARD) at Florida Atlantic University, and in authoring forthcoming POSTNotes on invisible disabilities to Parliament. I’ll be making applications for various grants (small pots of money!) to help contribute to shining a light on neurodiversity issues relating to sensory, attention and anxiety at both HEI, employment and social venues.
  • Last summer, I began shifting my focus from doctoral training to cognitive and human computer interaction (HCI) knowledge building. The latter is now begin to catch up to the former as my research was decidedly less technologically oriented in the earlier phases. I am now happily exploring Open Learner Models, artificial intelligence, machine learning, multimodal learning analytics, etc.
  • As I look to publish my first journal article, I have participated in numerous conferences and continue to increase my communication and dissemination skills. Four OSF Pre-prints are now registered and available on GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, UCL Explore, and elsewhere.  I even managed to complete a peer review for an  article on behalf of my supervisor Sarah White, and also assisted my other supervisor Joni Holmes in editing her journal article.

There’s much more planned for the remainder of the next phase of my journey (i.e., the upcoming 18 months prior to defending my dissertation). It is my fervent hope that I will include these benchmarks in coming posts. For now…stay safe, healthy and enjoy the holidays!

End 2Q 2020 Update

david.ruttenberg.18Uncategorised

Greetings from the laboratory (stateside that is)! There is much to report regarding my PhD research. I will use this blog post to provide a “laundry list” of items that describe how I have been spending my time:

I. Training

A. Amazingly, all doctoral training has been completed! Mind you, I am still enrolling for many additional courses; however, the core requirements for the degree are “in the can”! I am thrilled to have been putting much of what was conveyed to good use.

B. I recently enrolled in a variety of support modules ranging from formatting your thesis to manipulating qualitative software to overcoming COVID-19 issues. All have been incredibly informative and I look forward to leveraging these techniques in the coming weeks.

II. Data collection

SensorAble Image

A. A huge thank you to each and every participant who contributed to the SensorAble focus groups and/or online surveys. Though I was sad not to be able to meet with you face-to-face (owing to the pandemic), it was wonderful to meet, greet, smile and converse online. I have made many new friends in the process, learned so much from all of you, and want you to know that you are appreciated beyond measure!

B. Transcriptions of all online videos, scrubbing of both qualitative data and quantitative data is now complete. They have been safely and securely archived and stored away on the UCL’s servers, whilst analysis is now just commencing and the data looks incredibly interesting. There are indeed many surprises, particularly those that break gender boundaries with regard to distractibility, focus and anxiety! I am looking forward to sharing everything, once I have confirmed the results.

III. MPhil/PhD Upgrade

A. I am delighted to report that the my first, annual progress report has been filed. A special thanks to my Primary Supervisor and Head of Knowledge Lab Departmental Research Director Professor Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta for her keen guidance and suggestions).

Thanks also to my UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Secondary Supervisor Dr Sarah White for her continued support relating to my preparation for the forthcoming upgrade.

I had a delightful online chat with my esteemed supervisor from University Cambridge Neuroscience, Dr Joni Holmes. It was wonderful finally meeting her face-to-face, albeit through the camera lens. We are synchronized with UCL and looking forward to a four-way meeting in early June.

B. And speaking of which, I am thrilled to announce that that upgrade will take place sometime on 15 July 2020 with Drs Sveta Mayer and Manolis Mavrikis comprising my panel. I have received final edits on my Upgrade Report and am finalizing my Presentation as I type this. I certainly look forward to communicating the outcome and results in a future blog post.

III. Conferences

A. And speaking of communicating, I am delighted to have made three attempts at submitting abstracts to discuss my research at forthcoming virtual conferences.

For now, I can report a variety of successful presentations at both the Developmental Diversity Lab (DDL) at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (actually my third presentation since enrollment). Tomorrow, I will have completed my first presentation detailing my Participant Public Information studies to the Knowledge Lab (my other home away from home laboratory). I am looking forward to having the opportunity to let everyone know what I have been up to.

Finally, I am delighted to report that I was the lead-off speaker at UCL Centre for Doctoral Education’s Summer 2020 Conference. Whilst this was an online conference, the recording of my and other speakers presentations was delightfully received and the ability to speak to an online audience and participate in questions, answers and comments was most welcoming.

Signing Off For Now

I will be in regular communication this summer once Upgrade, Presentation and Conference season winds down. In the meantime, if you have any comments or questions, please do get in touch. I would be delighted to hear from you.