“Designing MOOCs in a Chinese Social Network Environment” by IISE Visiting Scholar, Dr. Xiufang Ma

Xiufang Ma is an Associate Professor of South China Normal University and has teaching experiences and research experiences in the areas of educational technology research methods, MOOCs, blended learning, online course, personal learning environment, flipped classroom, and electronic training course. She has written some papers on MOOCs, personal learning environment and interaction analysis between teachers and students, and has led two teams of graduate researchers from the South China Normal University (China) on similar research studies.

“A Reverse Mentoring Program in Elementary Levels during the Practicum in Monteria, Colombia” by IISE Visiting Scholar, Luis Mario Viaña Patrón

Luis Mario Viaña Patrón is a short-term visiting scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE). He is an undergraduate student from the English Language Teaching program at the Universidad de Cordoba in Colombia. Over the past two years, he has been working on research in the area of professional development, mainly in the field of reverse mentoring in education. He’s currently working on a reverse mentoring program with Professor Richard Donato.

“A Study on Cultivating Pragmatic Competence of Chinese EFL Learners” by IISE Visiting Scholar, Xiaoyan Xu

Xiaoyan Xu got her master’s degree in English Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in 2003 and has been an English teacher for more than ten years at the School of International Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong University. She has worked in the field of English pragmatic competence development of Chinese EFL learners. In addition, several papers have been published on language learning in peer-reviewed journals. Ms. Xu’s study in the Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE) at the University of Pittsburgh is to work under the guidance of Dr. Feifei Ye to develop a method to assess Chinese EFL learners’ pragmatic competence.