Areas of Expertise

  • Real-world problem solving
  • Case-based e-learning
  • Cognitive Task Analysis
  • Program Evaluation
  • Authentic Learning mediated by Virtual Reality

Education

  •  Ph.D. in Instructional Systems, 2002
    The Pennsylvania State University

Contact

 706-583-0794 (office)

Research Summary

Dr. Choi has led a series of innovative research and development projects for authentic learning (e.g., case-based e-learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, virtual reality-based learning) and real-world problem solving in education. Through his multi-disciplinary collaboration with leading scholars in the areas of health sciences (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, vet medicine), science, engineering, and teacher education, he explores the uncertain nature of various types of real-world problems, identifies individual and environmental factors influencing learning and problem solving, and investigates effective ways of promoting and evaluating the development of learners’ problem-solving abilities. Since 2015, he has established an interdisciplinary research lab with his colleagues, Research and Innovation in Learning (RAIL), with a pragmatic research mission, that is, to bring educational innovation to universal challenges by incubating ideas, innovating solutions, and impacting society. As a founding faculty of RAIL, he has been initiating socially responsive educational research programs that can address our current societal issues, such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) workforce development, diversity in cybersecurity and neuroscience, leadership and professionalism for graduate students, health professions career development/navigation, child pedestrian safety, and so on. A STEM-integrated robotics education curriculum and a Virtual Reality-based child pedestrian safety education program are the most recent examples of educational innovations that have been developed, validated, and disseminated globally through RAIL (http://rail.coe.uga.edu/).

Awards and Accolades

Outstanding Practice Award

Design & Development Division, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2019

Russell H. Yeany Jr. Research Award

College of Education, The University of Georgia, 2018

Outstanding Journal Article Award

Design & Development Division, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2016

Best Presentation Award

Korean Society of Medical Education, 2016

Jerrold Kemp Endowed Lecture Series Award

Design & Development Division, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2015

ETR&D Early Career Scholars Award

Advisee's Dissertation, ETR&D Board, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2021

Young Researcher Award

Advisee's Dissertation, Research and Theory Division, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2020

ETR&D Young Scholars Award

Advisee's Dissertation, ETR&D Board, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2019

Robert M Gagne Award

Advisee's Dissertation, Design & Development Division, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2017

AERA SIG-IT Best Student Paper Award

Advisee's Dissertation, American Educational Research Association, 2017

ETR&D Young Scholars Award

Advisee's Dissertation, ETR&D Board, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, 2016