Northern Illinois University
Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment
College of Education

Project Coordinator

Colleen Cannon-Ruffo, Ph.D., is the project manager and provides overall coordination between NIU and SD203 for the successful implementation of the project. Cannon-Ruffo is a project manager for Learning Services in Naperville 203 and has worked with K-12 Science Project Manager Kelly Talaga, Ph.D., to implement the K-5 integration of educational robotics into the science curriculum. Cannon-Ruffo previously has designed, implemented and evaluated the integration of educational robotics into the fourth-grade science curriculum. She facilitated the design and development of the integration for all grade levels.

Principal Investigator (PI)

Ying Xie, Ph.D., provides coordination of research activities, data collection and observations. She is an associate professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

Co-principal Investigator (Co-PI)

Thomas J. Smith, Ph.D., provides directions on, and coordination of, assessment and research methodology, instrument development and data analysis. He is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

Senior Faculty Experts

Wei-Chen Hung, Ph.D., serves as a faculty expert and provides his expertise for the research design on problem-based learning and metacognitive processing. He is chair and professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

Todd Reeves, Ph.D., provides research methodological support (e.g., instrument development and data analysis). He is an associate professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

Michael Tscholl, Ph.D., focuses on analyzing students’ activities in terms of computational thinking and problem-solving. He is a visiting associate research professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

Research Associate

Angie Cheng provides data management support. She is a doctoral student in Instructional Technology at NIU.