Prof. Rustam Shadiev

Zhejiang University, China

 

Prof. Rustam Shadiev is a Tenured Professor at the College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, specializing in advanced learning technologies for language learning and cross-cultural education. He earned his Ph.D. in Network Learning Technology from National Central University in 2012. Prof. Shadiev is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He also serves as a Graduate Faculty Scholar in the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida, USA.
In 2019, Prof. Shadiev was honored with the title of Distinguished Professor of Jiangsu Province, China. He has published over 200 academic studies, with more than half appearing in journals indexed by the Social Sciences Citation Index. Additionally, he has been recognized as one of the most cited Chinese researchers in the field of education by Elsevier, Scopus, and Shanghai Ranking for four consecutive years, from 2020 to 2023.
Prof. Shadiev serves on the Editorial Board of several prestigious journals, including the Journal of Educational Technology & Society, the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, and Smart Learning Environments. He also guest edits special issues for various esteemed journals, such as the Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Sustainability, and Frontiers in Psychology.

 

Assoc. Prof. Jianhua Yang

Warwick University, UK

 

Dr. Jianhua Yang currently serves as an Associate Professor - Reader at WMG, Warwick University. He began his career in higher education in 2006 as a postgraduate research fellow at Warwick University, while pursuing his Ph.D. His PhD research focused on the topic of intelligent data mining using artificial neural networks and evolutionary computing. Jianhua earned his PhD in 2010, and subsequently, he worked as a bioinformatics researcher, initially on a European Union Framework No. 7 project, and later as a lecturer, teaching a variety of ICT courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in addition to supervising PhD research projects. Prior to his return to Warwick in 2018, Jianhua also gained experience in the automotive industry. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Jianhua is a Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy where he co-leads the AI in Education Learning Circle.

 

Assoc. Prof. Celina da Silva

York University, Canada

 

Celina da Silva, MN/ Collaborative Bioethics, PhD holds the position of Associate Professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her research is centered around virtual serious games (VSGs) and virtual reality. She has received grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada and eCampus Ontario to support her work in this area including a recent SSHRC grant received in 2024.
Dr. da Silva’s recent study, backed by SSHRC funding focuses on developing open-access VSGs tailored for International Educated Nurses (IENs). She is collaborating with IENs using a co-design approach and leveraging the Morai open-access framework to create culturally relevant VSGs. These immersive virtual experiences aim to tackle the challenges faced by IENs as they transition into the Canadian healthcare system. Additionally she has partnered with research teams to explore the transitional needs of post-secondary students and mid-career workers with disabilities. The objective of these initiatives is to develop engaging digital tools customized for the unique needs of marginalized communities, through a person-centered approach.
Leveraging her multifaceted expertise in game design, virtual reality, and community-engaged scholarship, Dr. da Silva occupies a pivotal role in harnessing the power of transformative digital tools for positive social impact. Her innovative projects aim to enhance learning, wellbeing, and accessibility in the virtual world by centering the “lived experiences” of end-users and prioritizing social good.

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Jessica Humphreys

University of Warwick, UK

 

Jess Humphreys is the Director of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy and an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. WIHEA leads educational excellence at Warwick by empowering staff and students to forge meaningful connections and vibrant communities that seek to develop, recognise, and embed outstanding learning and teaching practices that enhance student opportunities to 'learn beyond boundaries.' Before joining WIHEA, Jess worked in Academic Development, leading the institutional, professional development of digital education and the Learning Design Consultancy Unit (LDCU) created during the pandemic. The LDCU brought colleagues together from across the institution to share practice and support around blended learning design. As part of this work, Jess also created, led and coordinated the Technology Enhanced Learning Forum and Technology Enhanced Active Learning Festival (TEALFest) with colleagues from Academic Technology and across the institution. The LDCU work received the Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) in 2022. Jess champions design thinking methodologies, exploring new ways to embed the student voice in design, particularly around digital education. She has co-led a new initiative at Warwick, bringing staff and students together to design solutions to education challenges. This work has culminated in blog posts, conference papers, journal articles and a book chapter. The Designing Together team were also recognised with the institutional Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in 2024.
Jess’s area of research includes student voice in design, the power of communities of practice in transforming education and creating safe spaces for innovation and scholarship. Outside of Warwick, Jess is Chair of the ALT-ELESIG (formerly the Evaluating Learner Experiences of E-learning Special Interest Group) and co-leads a scholar scheme initiative with colleagues from across the UK. Jess is a reviewer for several journals including 'Innovations in Education and Teaching International Journal' and the 'Association for Learning Technology Review Journal'.

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Eamon Costello

Dublin City University, Ireland

 

Dr Eamon Costello is an Associate Professor of Digital Learning in Dublin City University. He has degrees in English and History, Computer Science and a Doctorate in Education. He is deeply curious about how and why we learn in particular environments, offline, online and everywhere in between. He is also concerned with how we actively shape our world so that we can have better and more humane places in which to think, work, live and learn. Ultimately this has become an increasing focus of his work: to determine how students and teachers can work together and hold each other accountable for building mutually shared worlds. This work has been widely published in journals relating to critical education, ethics of educational technology, open education, digital learning pedagogies, learning design, speculative methods and AI in education. He is an accomplished public speaker and is known for his creative approaches to teaching and multimodal research and outreach. He was formerly Head of Open Education in Dubin City University and is currently a national ambassador for the DigiEduHack European Digital Education initiative. He is an advocate of using the right tool for the right job – or sometimes none at all, for not everything can be fixed nor should be built. You can read more on his university profile and connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

 

 

Prof. Fahriye Altinay

Near East University, Cyprus

 

Prof. Dr. Fahriye Altinay graduated from the Faculty of Communication. She completed her master's degree in educational sciences in the field of educational technology, distance education. She completed her master's thesis as the subject of "communication barriers in distance education". She graduated from the Near East University, PhD program in Educational Administration.
The subject of the doctoral thesis is the adaptation of learning organizations and distance education institutions. Later, she completed her doctorate program in Educational Technology at Middlesex University. In her doctoral thesis, she worked on how student and teacher participation can be realized in the learning and teaching process with a focus on interaction in distance education.
In the field of educational technologies, especially in the field of distance education, since 2002, it has been sharing scientific studies with the academic world and conducting academic studies within the framework of international cooperation on current issues in this field. She works full-time at the Near East University and serves as the Vice Director of the Graduate Studies Institute and the Co-Chair of the Social Research and Development Center. It carries out social projects and scientific studies on disability, women and children.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2ObLuS8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8452-5992

 

Co-Presenter: 

 

Prof. Dr. Zehra Altinay

Near East University, Cyprus

 

Prof. Dr. Zehra Altinay completed her master's degree in Educational Sciences with his thesis in the field of Education Technology, Distance Education. She graduated from the Near East University in the field of Educational Administration. Prof. Altinay completed the doctoral program in the field of Educational Technology at Middlesex University. She is a full-time faculty member at Near East University. Prof. Dr. Zehra Altinay teaches at doctoral, master's and bachelor's degrees.

Prof. Dr. Zehra Altinay is the Chair of the Center for Social Research and Development, affiliated with the Center of Excellence. She is the head of the Educational Sciences Ethics Committee and also the head of the Monitoring Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She takes part in national books, international books, projects and scientific studies on the scope of social issues.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h4Ogu68AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6786-6787

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Zoran Wittine

University of Zagreb, Croatia

 

Zoran Wittine is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Economics, Vice-Dean for infrastructure and business processes at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business and a member of the University Senate. In addition, he is also a member of the Commission on Customs and Trade Facilitation within the International Chamber of Commerce; member of International project management association (IPMA) and a senior member of the International Economics Development and Research Center. His areas of expertise include international business, international entrepreneurship, social innovation education, social entrepreneurship and risk management. He is a member of the editorial boards of several international scientific journals and was a member of the organizational and technical committee of many international conferences. He was a leader of many international/EU-funded projects, of which most of them were focused on the topics of education development, digitalization, social innovation, social entrepreneurship, innovation, skill development and capacity building. In addition, he was an associate on many professional projects and had an active role in creation of the “Industrial strategies of The Republic of Croatia 2014-2020”. Before taking up a position at the University of Zagreb, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey&Company, where he worked on projects of corporate restructuring, corporate integration processes, improvement of corporate efficiency, etc.

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Yanlan Shi

Beijing Language and Culture University, China

 

Yanlan Shi, Doctor of Literature, Associate Professor, Beijing Language and Culture University. The major field of study is international Chinese language education. She has been teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages for 29 years and has extensive experience in both language teaching and intercultural communication. She went to Japan and Singapore several times to teach Chinese or give short-term lectures. She was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the city of New York during 2007-2009. In 2013, she received the certificate of completion from the Institute of Chinese Culture and Cross-Cultural Communication at Beijing Foreign Studies University. In 2014, she earned the certificate of completion for the Senior Workshop on Sustainable Development of Culture and International Language Education at Beijing Normal University. From 2015 to 2019, she was a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA. She designed and implemented personalized teaching plans based on students’ needs and proficiency levels, utilized various teaching methods to stimulate students' interest in learning, cultivated students' autonomous learning abilities, and encouraged their active participation in class discussions and practical activities. The published articles include 'Teaching Dimensional Digitized Newspapers Course' (Digital Chinese Teaching, July 2014) and 'A Brief Review on the Development of Digital Teaching Chinese' (Modern Educational Technology, December 2013). The book 'The Subject Words Group and Related Research Based on the Dynamic Circulation of Mainstream Newspapers in China' was published by Guangming Daily Press, Beijing, in April 2021. Current research interests are international communication, Multimodal Teaching, and Blended Teaching.

 

 

Prof. María José Latorre-Medina

University of Granada, Spain

Prof. María José Latorre-Medina holds a PhD in Education from the University of Granada, Spain. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and School Organisation at the Faculty of Education, Economy, and Technology of Ceuta, University of Granada, Spain. Her research career began more than twenty years ago at the same university, where she has carried out her main scientific and technical work. Since the completion of her doctoral thesis, which focused on the practical knowledge of future teachers, her scientific production has been continuous and intense, developing various studies that have resulted in numerous specialised publications. Many of this works have been published in indexed scientific journals. She has been a member of the FORCE research group (School-centred Teacher Training). From 2021, she leads the FYDAD research group (Training, Development and Teaching Activity). Her main research areas are professional knowledge, teacher training and quality of education.
In terms of internalisation, she has taken part in teacher mobility programmes. She has spent several periods in universities of excellence abroad. She has had the privilege of working with professors from York St John University and the University of London in the UK and from Maryland, Columbia and Connecticut in the US.
Throughout her career, she has also held the position of Vice-Dean of External Practices and Educational Innovation at the Faculty of Education, Economy and Technology in Ceuta, University of Granada. She was also the coordinator of the Early Childhood Education degree at the same faculty.
URLs Scientific Production:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2237-9341
https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=rACxz_IAAAAJ&hl=es&oi=sra

 

 

Asst. Prof. Zi Yang

Xiamen University, China

 

Dr. Zi Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education, Xiamen University, China, and recognized as “High-level Talent” in both Shenzhen and Xiamen, China. She holds a Ph.D. and MPhil in Education from the University of Cambridge and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her main research areas include educational technology, curriculum and instruction, educational psychology, and interdisciplinary studies within these fields. She has received grants from the Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education of China, focusing on innovative practices that aim to enhance teaching and learning at the university level. She participated in the project “Infinite Possibilities: World Higher Education Digital Development Report,” commissioned by the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education from 2022 to 2024, which is the world’s first digital strategy report on higher education led by China. She served as the Co-chair of the workshop at the 31st International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE, 2023). Currently, she is a board member for the 29th Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education. She also serves as the guest editor for the journal Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence.

 

 

Assoc. Prof. Seuk Wai

Universiti Malaya, Malaysia  

 

Dr. Seuk Wai PHOONG is an Associate Professor in the Department of Decision Science, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She is a member of the Malaysian Mathematical Science Society (PERSAMA). Her research interests include applied statistics, econometrics, time series analysis, bibliometric analysis, and education. She has led 8 research projects out of 24 research grants. She has published more than 60 papers in WoS and Scopus journals, such as Sage Open, Artificial Intelligence Review, Humanities and Social Science, Mathematics, International Journal of Mobile Communications, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Energies, Symmetry, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, etc. She is also an academic editor for several journals, including PLOS One, Asian Journal of Business and Accounting, and SAGE Open.