Kevin Oliver Named Head of Division of Trainer Training and Studying Sciences

Kevin Oliver, a professor of studying, design, and expertise at NC State’s Faculty of Training, would be the subsequent head of the Division of Trainer Training and Studying Sciences (TELS), efficient July 1, 2022.

“Kevin has been a pacesetter in our faculty for a few years in several capacities, and it’s nice to see his management acknowledged. He has the assist of the school in TELS, and I’m positive he can be a profitable division head,” mentioned Paola Sztajn, dean of NC State’s Faculty of Training. 

“I’m honored to obtain the endorsement of Dean Sztajn to tackle this vital management function in TELS,,” Oliver mentioned. “I’ve been occupied with increased schooling administration since taking over program coordinator and committee chair roles early in my tenure at NC State with diverse efforts towards program, curriculum and faculty growth. I’m excited to use what I’ve realized to assist the broader division obtain its programmatic objectives and improve nationwide fame.”

Oliver has been a member of the Faculty of Training school for 17 years after incomes his Ph.D. in tutorial expertise from the College of Georgia. Inside NC State’s Faculty of Training, he has coordinated the Studying, Design, and Know-how (LDT) packages in any respect ranges and mentored many doctoral college students within the Ph.D. in Trainer Training and Studying Sciences: Studying Design and Know-how program space of examine, together with serving as chair of 13 accomplished doctoral dissertation committees and 12 energetic doctoral dissertation committees. 

As head of TELS, Oliver will present management for a division that’s house to about 50 school members and over 700 college students. They conduct analysis and examine throughout almost 10 disciplines and fields inside schooling, together with elementary schooling, literacy and English Language Arts, studying design and expertise, center grades schooling, curriculum growth, enterprise and advertising, particular schooling and academic psychology. The division presents North Carolina’s solely STEM-focused elementary schooling program and has graduated essentially the most grasp’s-level literacy specialists within the state over the previous decade.

“As division head, I hope to assist TELS easily transition again from the pandemic to strengthen neighborhood amongst college students, workers and school,” Oliver mentioned. “I additionally hope to assist TELS college students and school strengthen connections with on-campus and off-campus constituencies with whom I’ve networked to disclose new alternatives for instructing, analysis and extension improvements (e.g., DELTA, NC State College Libraries, the Friday Institute, Workplace of Analysis Commercialization, UNC System, UGPN community, European Middle in Prague, Fulbright Affiliation).”

Oliver has acquired greater than $3 million in externally-funded awards in assist of his analysis into technical cultural representations, distance schooling and casual expertise packages. He additionally has been actively concerned in worldwide work, co-leading eight examine overseas packages for greater than 140 Triangle-area academics to observe technical cultural representations in preparation for culturally-responsive instructing. In 2017, he served as a visiting lecturer for Charles College in Prague and performed a sabbatical examine on the function of expertise in examine overseas with the NC State European Middle in Prague. 

For his worldwide work, Oliver earned NC State’s Gertrude Cox Award for Modern Excellence in Instructing and Studying with Know-how, membership in NC State’s Academy of Excellent College Engaged in Extension and Engagement (AOFEE), and three nominations by the Faculty of Training for NC State’s World Engagement Award. He additionally holds a present four-year tenure (2021-25) on the Fulbright Specialist Roster with eligibility to work on short-term initiatives at companion worldwide establishments. He has acquired two fellowships from the UNC System centered on tutorial improvements with expertise and was designated a Friday Institute Analysis Fellow in 2013, tied to his work with the Friday Institute for Academic Innovation to judge state-sponsored expertise pilots.

Oliver can also be a 2022 UNC College Fellow. This program offers a mentored studying alternative to college occupied with educational affairs points, and this yr the main target is “Know-how Enhanced Instructing and Studying.” Oliver and two different fellows are reviewing the present literature on innovation in increased schooling and conducting a examine of technology-intensive educational packages and bodily areas throughout the UNC System to raised perceive how they assist innovation (e.g., makerspaces, entrepreneurship facilities, design studios, libraries).