Research

Projects

Raising your hands, asking the right questions - find the right research questions -- that is what research is almost all about. And then the real work starts...

So far, I was involved in a lot of different kinds of research projects in Informatics (developing technologies) and applied educational sciences (e.g., tablet classrooms).

On this page, my involvements in projects are listed in chronological order, starting with the recent year.

Research Projects, 2022-active

Professor of Learning Technologies, at University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN)

  • BMBF funded project "LeadCom (UTN)", PI, with FAU as project coordinator , 8/2023-7/2026, details follow soon

This funded project focuses on school development and how to support and collaborate with digital change agents (e.g., teachers) in K-12 schools to develop education and lessons  with digital technologies. 

  • Learning Technologies Lab (2022-active)

The "Learning Technologies Lab" (head: Dr. Isa Jahnke, Professor) at the Department of Engineering, University of Technology Nuremberg (www.utn.de/en) focuses on investigating and advancing the field of learning technologies – and learning experience design – through research and development. Its primary goal is to explore the intersection of education and technology, aiming to enhance and optimize the learning process across various domains.

The lab engages in a wide range of activities, including:

  1. Research and Development: The lab conducts research on emerging technologies, such as learning experience design, usability, and user experience methods. It explores how these technologies can be effectively applied to enhance teaching and learning experiences.
  2. Experimentation and Prototyping: The lab designs and develops experimental prototypes to test the feasibility and effectiveness of new learning technologies. These prototypes often involve interactive learning environments or mobile applications.
  3. Pedagogical Innovation: The lab collaborates with the DIGITAL LEAD Lab at UTN StaRs, with educators and instructional designers to explore innovative pedagogical approaches. It investigates how learning technologies can be integrated into curricula and instructional practices to improve engagement, personalization, and learner outcomes.
  4. Evaluation and Assessment: The lab conducts evaluations and assessments of learning technologies to determine their impact and efficacy. It employs research methodologies, data analysis, and user feedback to measure the effectiveness of different tools and approaches in supporting learning objectives.
  5. Collaboration and Partnerships: The lab fosters collaboration with academia, industry, and educational institutions. It works closely with researchers, educators, and technology developers to exchange knowledge, share resources, and drive innovation in the learning technologies field.
  6. Knowledge Dissemination: The lab disseminates its research findings through publications, conferences, workshops, and online platforms. It actively contributes to the academic community and shares insights, best practices, and lessons learned to benefit the broader field of learning technologies.

Overall, the Learning Technologies Research Lab serves as a hub for interdisciplinary exploration, experimentation, and advancement of technologies that have the potential to revolutionize how we teach and learn. Its work contributes to the ongoing evolution of educational practices, ensuring that technology is harnessed to its fullest potential in facilitating effective, efficient, and engaging/appealing learning experiences.

Research Projects, 2015-2021

Professor at University of Missouri-Columbia

LeXMizzou

Students as Game Designers for Learning eXpeditions at Mizzou: LeXMizzou

2016-2017

Funded by MU Interdisciplinary Innovation Fund

LeXMizzou stands for Learning (Le) Expeditions (X) at the beautiful campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia MO, in short Mizzou. A team of students, post-docs and faculty members have designed and developed an interactive learning expedition. This is however just a first prototype. We are working on further developments and new versions. You may explore different locations on campus while being engaged in activities, interaction and crossaction, and multimedia features. Three case studies:

  • 150 Brazil students on campus and sense of belonging with the AR app (Ringbauer et al., 2016)
  • Open course for all students on campus to design location-based AR gamified learning expeditions (Jahnke et al., 2020: "artifact-generated learning").
  • Study on group dynamics and how it = affects identification of authentic online information when using AR apps (Jahnke & Kroll, 2018, DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00653)

UX/LX in Bioinformatics and Healthcare

Campus Cyberinfrastructure, CC* Integration: End-to-End Performance and Security Driven Federated Data-Intensive Workflow Management (Award #1827177)

2018-2020

Funded by NSF

Project Partners: Prasad Calyam (PI), Trupti Joshi, Isa Jahnke (Co-PI), Saptarshi Debroy (Co-PI), & Tim Middelkoop (Co-PI)

My team's role:

  • User Experience studies for the iterative design and development in the two case studies of Honestbroker and KBCommons
  • Access to big data in the health care field helping learners/users and data provider to improve the process
  • Publication: Singh., K. et al. (2020), A Formative Usability Study to Improve Prescriptive Systems for Bioinformatics Big Data. IEEE BIBM.

The Cave System (VR)

MRI: Acquisition of a Virtual Reality System for Expert Decision Making and Immersive Learning

Ye Duan (PI), Kannappan Palaniappan (Co-PI), Prasad Calyam (Co-PI), Joi Moore (Co-PI), Bimal Balakrishnan (Co-PI). I am involved as senior personnel. 

2020-2023

Funded by NSF

My team's role:

  • Studying new forms of teaching and learning in a VR system
  • How does CAVE infrastructure will be used by teachers to support or enhance new forms of teaching, how does it foster student meaningful learning, and new forms of student collaboration?

FREFS

Kinect-based Fall Risk Evaluation & Feedback System

2016-2017
Funded by MU Research Council,
PI Lorraine Phillips, CoPIs Isa Jahnke and Marge Skubic

The TUG test is a Kinect-based fall risk and evaluation feedback system for elderly users developed by Dr. Phillips Lorraine and MU engineering students. The TUG test times an individual to rise from sitting in a standard armchair, walk 3 meters, turn, return to the chair, and sit down. It is a measure of functional balance and a sensitive and specific measure of fall risk in community-dwelling balance-impaired older adults. The test used Kinect depth cameras to compute gait parameters. The IE Lab conducted a usability testing and offered refinement of the Kinect-based fall risk evaluation and feedback system. We applied observation, interviews, System Usability Score survey (SUS), observation note table, and Morae recorder softwar

Learner Experience Lab

2015-active

Information Experience Lab (IE lab): https://ielab.missouri.edu

I am Director of the lab.

Projects are funded by diverse stakeholders.

Examples of our research projects:

  • (2020-2021). A Learner and User experience study of the CAFNR online learning module about risk-based assessment of food import.
  • (2019). User Experience and Efficacy Study: Mobile- Microlearning Course - 'The 5 C's of Writing News for Mobile Audiences'.
  • (2019). A SMS-platform to provide a 2-way local news and information service - an analysis of user numbers, growth of engagement and interaction.
  • (2019). Content Creators Using 360° Video and VR Environments.
  • (2018-2019). Online Course at MU Extension - Usability of Online Courses.
  • (2018). Mobile Applications for Microlearning: A Review of Academic and Industry Implementations.
  • (2017). Usability Research for St. Charles City-County Library Website.
  • (2016). Usability Research for Panacea's Cloud.
  • (2016). User experience of the Kinect-based Fall Risk Evaluation and Feedback System: Time Up and Go Test.
  • (2015-2017). Strategic Improvement Planning in Schools - A Comprehensive Usability Research for ElevatEd (Hook Center).

Cont. IE lab: A Learner Experience  Lab

The IE lab team conducts research in the area of usability and user experience with different stakeholders. We adopt a sociotechnical design approach to integrate user experience in technical designs and usability testing. The IELab is striving towards new usability methods for new flexible devices or VR/AR environments. There is also a need to rethink existing usability methods for new groups of users such as smart city applications, multiple incidents managements with Social-VR, and to enhance the technological usability heuristics with pedagogical heuristics that strengthens the evaluation of technology-enhanced learning environments.

Our studies range from mobile microlearning (iterative design and development), user experience in VR/AR platforms for content creators in immersive environments, or pedagogical usability of online courses. We work with diverse stakeholders such as the School of Journalism, School of Nursing, College of Engineering, St. Charles Library St. Louis, MU Extension, CAFNR, and others.  All projects are listed on the  IElab website: 

 
 

Research projects, 2011-2015

Professor (Umeå University, Sweden)

Tablet-Classrooms

Designs of Digital Didactics: What Designs of Teaching Practices Enable Deeper Learning in Co-located Settings

2014-2016

Funded by the Swedish Research Council, Vetenskapsradet

The team studied tablet classrooms in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Publications, for example,

Isa Jahnke, Peter Bergström, Eva Mårell-Olsson, Lars Häll, & Swapna Kumar (2017). Digital Didactical Designs as Research Framework - iPad Integration in Nordic Schools. In: Computers & Education (2017). Volume 113, October 2017, pp. 1-15. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.05.006

Isa Jahnke & Swapna Kumar (2014). Digital Didactical Designs: Teachers' Integration of iPads for Learning-Centered Processes, In Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, Vol. 30, Issue 3. pp. 81-88. DOI:10.1080/21532974.2014.891876

Kaarina, Finland

Tablet-mediated learning in Finnish schools

2014-2015

Funded by the City of Kaarina, Finland (travel budget) and Teacher Education Council, School of Education at Umeå University,

The team studied tablet classrooms in Kaarina, Finland.

DDD2015

International Symposium, "Digital technology as door opener for new learning spaces?"

June 2015

Funded by Riksbanken and VR Sweden

The team organized an International symposium to share research results. What is the new normality of digital teaching and learning? Challenges and unexpected factors were discussed from different research studies. On Day 1, research studies around tablet-mediated classrooms in the Nordic Countries were presented and discussed. Day 2 focussed on the international perspective.  We invited, for example, Gerry Stahl (USA), Ulrich Hoppe (Germany), Yishay Mor (UK), Andreas Lund (Norway), Ilona Buchem (Germany), Staffan Selander (Sweden), Swapna Kumar (USA) and Sean P. Goggins (USA).

DK: Odder's 1:1 tablet-program in Schools, 2012-2014

The municipality Odder in Denmark implemented iPads for all their 7 schools. Approx. 200 teachers (in October 2011) and 2,000 students got iPads in january 2012 (1:1 program). The decision was made due to their old laptops. Instead of buying laptops for all students and teachers, the municipality, school leaders and teachers did decide to try media tablets. When they made the decision in 2010, there was no other equal media tablet on the market in comparison to the Ipad. (Today they also could have chosen other tablets). In 2010, they decided to try iPads. The municipality project leader Lise Gammelby was looking for a research team and we said yes.

The research team had three central questions: a) What are the understandings of the school teachers and what forms of designs for teaching and designs for learning  do they construct? b) What do they do in practice in the classroom; how do they use the  tablets for what kind of learning? Are there any new forms of didactical designs, which ones? c) To what extent *could* the  tablet be used in the classroom from International experts' point of view? What are the possibilities?

Research projects, 2008-2011

Junior-Professor (HDZ, TU Dortmund)

HDHF

Research Network Activities for the German Ministry of Education's research programme called "Empirical research on higher education," Congress HD-HF

2009

Funded by BMBF Germany

Project Partner: Prof. Dr. J. Wildt (TU Dortmund)

  • Research on didactical approches as part of institutional research and university research
    (Hochschuldidaktische Forschung als Teil der Hochschulforschung)
  • Organizing a symposium for research projects funded by BMBF within the research programme titled "Institutional research for professionalizing university teaching" (Hochschulforschung als Beitrag zur Professionalisierung der Hochschullehre - Zukunftswerkstatt Hochschullehre)
  • 2-days symposium took place Nov/26-27 in 2009
  • Publication in April 2010

PeTEX

PeTEX, Platform for elearning and Telemetric EXPerimentation

2008-2010 (2 years)

Funded by the EU within the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLLP) / Sub-Programme LEONARDO DA VINCI (ICT)

Project partners: Prof. A. Erman Tekkaya (TU Dortmund, FK Maschinenbau IUL), Prof. Mihai Nicolescu (KTH Stockholm),  Prof. Livan Fratini, Roberto Licari (University of Palermo), Prof. Dr. Johannes Wildt (TU Dortmund)


  • PeTEX laid groundwork for today's remote labs in engineering education

A lot of publications, e.g.,


  • Winner of Best paper Award. Claudius Terkowsky, Christian Pleul, Isa Jahnke & A. Erman Tekkaya (2011): Platform for E-Learning and Telemetric Experimentation (PeTEX). Tele-Operated Laboratories for Production Engineering Education, In Proceedings IEEE EDUCON 2011, Amman/Jordan
  • Isa Jahnke, Claudius Terkowsky, Christian Pleul, A. Erman Tekkaya (2010): Online Learning with Remote-Configured Experiments. In: DeLFI 2010.


DaVINCI

Creativity-enhanced learning cultures in higher education

2008-2011 (3 years)

Funded by BMBF -- FKZ: 01PH08019A

Project partners: Prof. Thomas Herrmann, Angela Carell (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Verbundkoordination), Peter Weil (Institut für Angewandte Kreativität, Köln), and
HDZ (TU Dortmund): JProf. Dr. Isa Jahnke, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Johannes Wildt, Dr. Tobias Haertel


Publications

  • Isa Jahnke, Tobias Haertel & Michael Winkler (2011): Sechs Facetten der Kreativitätsförderung in der Lehre - empirische Erkenntnisse. In: S. Nickel, CHE (Hrsg.), Der Bologna-Prozess aus Sicht der Hochschulforschung. Analysen und Impulse fuer die Praxis. Online. S. 138-152.
  • Isa Jahnke & Tobias Haertel (2010): Kreativitätsförderung in der Hochschule - ein Rahmenkonzept. [Fostering creativity in higher education - a conceptual framework] In: Hochschulwesen. Universitätsverlag Webler. 3/2010, S. 88-96.

Research projects, 2005-2008

As a post-doctoral fellow (wiss. MA at IAW, Ruhr-University of Bochum),
I was involved in following projects:

Maris

Maris - a case study

2006-2008 (3 years)

Funded by BMBF (German Ministry)

Project partners: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, TU München, Uni Stuttgart

I organized a case study in 2007-2008

  • Modular Architectures and Assessments for Internationalization of Service Offerings (called Maris)
  • Process modeling with the Sociotechnical Walkthrough Method (STWT); Design-based Research
  • Case study at GeoContent GmbH (German firm)
  • Objectives: a) to understand the work processes within the firms and b) to improve working processes

eGOV

eGOV, E-Government in North-Rhine Westfalia (Germany), an analysis of roles, topics and trends

2006-2007 (1 year)

Funded by Informationsbuero d-NRW, Germany

Project partner: MTM-IAW, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann)

  • Study on research activities with regard to eGovernment, especially in the state of North-Rhine-Westfalia (NRW), Germany
  • State-of-the Art of E-Government in NRW - Analysis of Actors, Topics/Issues, Tendencies"

WINK

WINK - Knowledge management in networks: Analysis of seven research projects called Wissensmedia

2004-2007 (3 years)

Funded by BMWI (Germany)

Project partners: a) Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund (Prof. Dr. J. Howaldt), b) Zentrum für Weiterbildung, TU Dortmund (Prof. Dr. U. Wilkesmann) c) IMTM-IAW, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (Prof. Dr. Th. Herrmann)

Knowledge management in networks

  • Evaluation of seven projects in the field of "knowledge development" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (titled "Wissensmedia")
  • Evaluation of the three connected elements Human-Technology-Organization
  • Designing key principals for knowledge development in Industries
  • Creating a manual "How to integrate knowledge management in SME and public government services?"

BMBF-Eval

Ex-post- and Ex-ante-Evaluation of the German BMBF research programme Innovative Design for Workplaces

2005-2006 (2 years)

Funded by BMBF (German Ministry)

Project partners: TÜV Consulting Rheinland (Dr. Heiko Klick), IMTM-IAW, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann)

Ex-post & Ex-ante Evaluation of the National German Research Programme "Innovative Arbeitsgestaltung in einer modernen Arbeitswelt" (applied work sciences) created by the "Federal Ministry of Education and Research" (BMBF)

  • Evaluation of the research framework
  • Creation of a new research programme
  • Designing a research programme that "learns", a) Modeling of processes for a "learning programme" and b) including the development of "learning loops" and "methods for a learning programme"

Research projects, 2001-2004

As a doctoral student (wiss. MA at Univ. of Dortmund),
I was involved in following projects:

WIS & InPUD

WIS: Knowledge management for organizing the study program of Computer Science, Initiating the InPUD-community

2001-2004 (4 years)

(Follow-up study in 2006-2009)

Funded by state North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), Germany

Project Leader: Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann (TU Dortmund)

WIS = Knowledge management for organizing  Computer Science study programs for students

  • Study on success factors and obstacles in a Computer Science Study
  • Analyzing & designing learning communities and knowledge management at the Department of Computer Science, TU Dortmund university
  • Cultivating the "InPUD-Community" = Informatics Portal University of Dortmund
  • Research aim: to study emerging social structures in a new digital environments of discussion boards (new at that time)

Werk-Stadt Dortmund


Sociotechnical Design of the interactive platform Werkstadt-Dortmund

2002-2003 (1 year)

Funded by Kooperationsstelle Wissenschaft-Arbeitswelt (KOWA), Germany

Project leader: Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund

Project Partner: Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann (TU Dortmund)

  • Designing sociotechnical structures and an online communcation system for the users of  the Werkstadt-Dortmund; a participatory design process with different stakeholders

LernDo-Connect

The Learning Region of Dortmund (LernDo), sub-project LernDo-Connect, Designing for knowledge sharing web-based cooperation platform BSCW

2002-2004

Funded by BMBF (German Ministry)

Project leader: Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund

Project Partner: Prof. Dr. Thomas Herrmann (TU Dortmund)

  • I was involved in the sub-project "LernDo-Connect"
  • Designing knowledge sharing and providing support for social networks and users who use a web based cooperation platform (BSCW)