Open Mind 2022 is a brand new initiative by the Office of Graduate Studies and Professional Learning (GPL) that provides NIE graduate students with opportunities to interact with fellow students and experts in other disciplines. Participants signed up as individuals, and 11 teams of diverse expertise were formed. They were given the challenge of pitching a research proposal related to education that incorporated concepts from other disciplines besides education. After a few weeks of discussions and preparation, each team, comprising four graduate students and one NIE faculty member, presented their interdisciplinary research ideas through a short video. The NIE community was then invited to vote for their favourite proposal.

The team with the winning proposal was led by Assistant Professor John Komar, a movement scientist from Physical Education and Sport Science (PESS) Academic Group. The members included graduate students majoring in English language assessment and pedagogy, mathematics education, and digital signal processing. Their proposal idea “Can a computer teach communication skills?” explored the possibility of utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning to measure and analyse features related to visual, language, voice and gesture in “Three Minute Thesis” (3MT) presentations. They suggested that the identification of key features, coupled with effective and positive communication outcomes, can be used for developing a coaching app for users to improve the quality of their presentations.

The second prize went to the team led by Assistant Professor Edward Park, a geography expert from Humanities and Social Studies (HSSE) Academic Group. Coming up with the proposal “Envisionment-Building Through an Integrated Learning Environment” were graduate students from applied linguistics, electronic engineering, learning science and English literature. The concept involved an integrated technological learning solution that features three layers of learning environments for facilitating immersive and collaborative learning.

The third prize was won by the team led by Assistant Professor Wen Yun, a learning science expert from the Learning Sciences and Assessment (LSA) Academic Group. Her teammates, comprising graduate students majoring in bilingualism, sports psychology, plasma physics and educational psychology, were behind the proposal titled “TeachTok: Bridging the Research-Practice Gap with a TikTok-styled App”. The idea featured a TikTok-styled social media app that mediates teacher-researcher collaboration to instantiate learning designs that promote the integration of educational research and practice.

Visit the event website to learn more about the Open Mind 2022.