Doctoral study in Digital Worlds

Educational research into developing in digital worlds has several features. It is focused across the educational life course from early childhood through to tertiary contexts. It includes:

• The development of instructional and digital tools in both Māori medium and te Reo Māori, as well as for English medium settings.
• Coding and digital citizenship; Computational thinking; and Designing and developing digital outcomes as elements of the New Zealand curriculum that inform some of our research and practice.
• How and why people use digital media and platforms (including social media, videogames and mobile devices), the way they do, and the meaning-making and learning that occurs in the communities and cultures surrounding them.

Research programmes have produced prototypes and tools with widespread applications to support language and literacy learning (including media and information literacy skills). Examples include:

• Identity formation through digital storytelling and online games
  Our voices
• Social and emotional learning
  Hāpaitia te Ngākau Aroha | Elevate Empathy
• Complex cognitive skills
  Collaborative reasoning
  Developing in Digital Worlds | Te Whakawhanake i roto i te Ao Matihiko
  Subject areas such as music and science
  EXTended REality Multi-modal Education and Training (EXTREME)

The research is cross-disciplinary with partners in Computer Science, Engineering and Design as well as outside IT designers.

Pursue your topic with us and benefit from exceptional standards of support and supervision from nationally and internationally recognised researchers in the following broad research areas:

AI

Piata Allen, Laura Ann Chubb, Megan Clune, Lisa Darragh, Maree Davies, Kerry Lee, Brian Rodgers

Digital learning

Piata Allen, Blake Bennett, Megan Clune, Lisa Darragh, Kerry Lee, Mei Lai, Lawrence May, Selena Meiklejohn-Whiu, Stuart McNaughton, Jacinta Oldehaver, Brian Rodgers, Sean Sturm, Constanza Tolosa, Aaron Wilson

Game studies

Jean Uasike Allen, Megan Clune, David Fa'avae, Lawrence May

Media / social media

Liz Beddoe, Toni Bruce, Lisa Darragh, Maree Davies, Jay Marlowe, Lawrence May, Stuart McNaughton, Alan Ovens, Joanna Ting Wai Chu

Virtual reality / augmented reality

Laura Ann Chubb, Megan Clune, Frauke Meyer, Brian Rodgers, Jo Smith, Tauwehe Tamati, Joanna Ting Wai Chu

We also currently have two academics with Fast-Start Marsden projects:

Lisa Darragh who is looking at mathematics identity in the context of online mathematics instructional platforms.
See Justice and Ihumātao, and maths identities: Marsden success

Jean Uasike Allen whose work focuses on understanding more about Pacific girl gamer experiences of online gaming and how this contributes to wellbeing, identity, and relationships.
See Māori and Pacific wahine projects get funding boost

'Building Capacity for Teaching with Technologies in Higher Education: The Value of Networking' | Supervised by Associate Professor Sean Sturm and Dr John Egan

'Conceptualising boys (and) video gaming: "Communities of Practice"?' | Supervised by Associate Professor Robyn Dixon and Professor Louisa Allen

'Exquisite corpses: Narrative emergence in multiplayer zombie video games' | Supervised by Associate Professor Allan Cameron and Professor Neal Curtis

'Fostering peer interactions in online learning environments: The potential of videoconferencing for interactional abilities of foreign language learners in New Zealand secondary schools' | Supervised by Professor Martin East and Dr Constanza Tolosa

'Implementation of Mobile Technologies in Higher Education: A case study of how one tertiary education organisation decided to implement and use iPads as teaching and learning tools in New Zealand' | Supervised by Professor Toni Bruce

'Investigating global pre-tertiary computing curricula and teachers’ perspectives of computing students' | Supervised by Dr Nasser Giacaman, Dr Kerry Lee and Professor Andrew Luxton-Reilly

'On Using Gamification to Effectively Influence Student Activity in Online Learning Environments' | Supervised by Associate Professor Ewan Tempero and Associate Professor Dawn Garbett

'Rebooting Assessment: Introducing Computers into Summative Assessment in New Zealand Secondary Schools' | Supervised by Associate Professor Kane Meissel and Associate Professor Frauke Meyer

'Science Teachers’ Instructional Design Practices for a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Environment in New Zealand Secondary Schools' | Supervised by Associate Professor Cathy Gunn, Dr Rena Heap and Dr Lawrence May

'Student-created digital learning objects (SC-DLOs): Transformative, design-for-learning practices for 21st century e-learning ecologies' | Supervised by Professor Stuart McNaughton and Professor Rebecca Jesson

'Teaching Presence in Online Postgraduate Courses: A Critical Realist Social Network Analysis of University Teacher-Educators’ Course Design and Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic' | Supervised by Dr Kerry Lee and Associate Professor Sean Sturm

'Understanding and Enhancing Learner Engagement in a Massive Open Online Course' | Supervised by Professor Jason Stephens, Dr Claire Donald and Dr Marion Blumenstein

'Developing Moana Educational Identities Through Digital Storytelling and Counter-Storytelling Explorations' I Supervised by Professor Rebecca Jesson and Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Suani

There are several scholarships you may be eligible for when you decide to pursue your doctoral studies in Digital Worlds.

• University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships

Do you want to chat further about your studies? Contact us using the details below.

Email: foed-doct@auckland.ac.nz