In this talk, she will talk about her experiences collecting data during the pandemic and results of a multiple case study including both first-year and capstone design students. These results include insights into how instructor decisions influenced students’ social supports, such as how differences in instructor decisions effected students’ routines and interactions with their teammates. She will also briefly discuss ongoing research work as students’ experiences change over the course of the pandemic.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Johnston is postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University. As a postdoc, she is working on two projects; one aimed to better understand how instructional decisions and the move to remote instruction have affected engineering students during the COVID-19 pandemic and the other working under a Department of Defense (DOD) grant to integrate microelectronics topics into first and second year engineering courses. In May 2020, she completed her PhD in Engineering Education at Purdue University (advisor Tamara Moore). She also holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering and an MA in Education, both from UC Davis.