
Research Background
My Research Experience
I have 9 years of research experience, ranging from medicine and genetics to psychology and education. I began my involvement in research as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I worked as a research assistant in internal medicine during and after my undergraduate years before moving on to graduate work and a focus on education. My experience includes large industry-sponsored trials, small investigator-driven studies, and everything in between.
Below you'll find a summary of some of my more recent educational research work, as well as a list of recent presentations and publications. Feel free to scroll down or use the buttons on the right to navigate the page.
The Driving Insight Project - Research
The Driving Insight project's primary goals are to understand how drivers learn about new advanced car safety technologies like Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), and to design learning materials to meet driver education needs. We have previously investigated how drivers learn collaboratively about ACC, as well as the effects of different types of instruction on performance in a driving simulator.
My most recent work has examined the effects of learning about ACC through open educational resources (in writing/publication process).
The Driving Insight project is part of the larger MyCarDoesWhat public information campaign.

A view from within a driving simulator at Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator.

The Merging Traffic scenario. Participants are asked to explain how ACC will behave in the bottom situation.

A screenshot of the plAyCC simulation, around which we created three interactive problem scenarios to assess learning.

A view from within a driving simulator at Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator.

I have presented at the Games+Learning+Society Conference on the design of learning games for the workplace

Feature image for a publication discussing the struggle of serving students who are suffering from psychological disorders

Screenshot from the Iowa Children's Museum tabletop game for early physics learning

I have presented at the Games+Learning+Society Conference on the design of learning games for the workplace
Other Research Work
While much of my time has been spent on the Driving Insight project detailed above, I have also engaged with other research projects in recent years. Here are just a few examples:
As part of a self-driven project, I examined the design of games for workplace learning using the Joint Media Engagement framework and presented my findings at the Games+Learning+Society Conference in 2015.
In 2012, I contributed to a research and policy piece discussing how to best serve students who are suffering from psychological disorders.
More recently, I've had the opportunity to participate in the early design, testing, and research surrounding a tabletop pre-physics learning game as part of the Iowa Children's Museum's Notion of Motion Exhibit.
Selected Publications and Presentations
-
DeVane, B., Dietmeier, J., Missall, K., Nanda, S., Brand, M., Miller, B., Valentine, E., & Dunkhase, D.M. (2019). Dropping in to game design: Iterations of a skatepark physics game for a children’s museum exhibit. Information and Learning Sciences, 120(9/10), 663-678.
-
Valentine, E., Zhou, Y., Moore, J.L., & DeVane, B. (2018, April 16). Playful and Collaborative Inquiry into Adaptive Cruise Control. Poster presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, New York.
-
Miller, B., Zhou, Y., Valentine, E., DeVane, B., & Moore, J. (2016, August 17). Grand Test Auto: Designing Simulator Assessments of Game-based Mental Models of Automotive Safety Technology. Poster presented at the 2016 Games, Learning, & Society Conference, Madison, Wisconsin.
-
Valentine, E., Zhou, Y., DeVane, B., & Moore, J. (2015, October 24). Driving Insight: Designing Open Educational Resources with the Classroom in Mind. Presentation at the 2015 Iowa Conference on Higher Education, Hiawatha, Iowa.
-
Valentine, E. (2015, July 9). Learning for Doing: Designing Instructional Games for the Workplace. Paper presented at the 2015 Games, Learning, & Society Conference, Madison, Wisconsin.
-
Devane, B. M., Moore, J. L., & Valentine, E. (2015, April 16). Design Research for Driving Insight: Iterative Interventions for Understanding Automobile Safety Systems. Paper presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois.
-
Eberlein, M., Bauer, C., Winnike, H., Valentine, E., Sieren, J., Beichel, R., & Zabner, J. (2014, February). Chest wall strapping increases expiratory airflow and the number of small airways. Poster presented at the University of Iowa Department of Internal Medicine Research Days, Iowa City, IA.
-
Allman, L., Valentine, A.M., & Valentine, E.P. (2012). She’s come undone: serving troubled students. Community College Journal, 83(1), 42-47.