Educational Research in Action is a supportive community of faculty, staff, and graduate educators at the University of Oregon who are passionate about improving teaching and learning through educational research. Whether you're curious about classroom-based inquiry, developing new assessment strategies, or understanding student learning more deeply, this group is a space to explore, collaborate, and grow.
What We Do
- Collaborative Spaces: Engage in dialogue, explore shared interests, and build a research-informed teaching community.
- Interactive Workshops: Topics include IRB processes, research design, survey methods, interviews, data analysis, and more.
- Tools & Resources: Explore actionable ways to investigate teaching and improve student learning.
Upcoming Events
Practical Strategies for Literature Reviews and Citation Searching
Facilitators: Ali Söken (TEP) & Abby Johnson (UO Libraries) | Friday, May 8, 10:00–11:00 AM | Zoom
Building a literature review is one of the core skills in educational research and SoTL — and it starts with knowing how to search well. This interactive Zoom session covers practical strategies for database searching, citation chasing, and discovering relevant studies, and explores where AI tools like Elicit and Web of Science can fit into that process. You'll practice in real time, so bring a topic, a broad research question, or just a few keywords from something you're curious about.
GenAI: What UO Students Are Experiencing
Thursday, June 5, 2026
Join the GenAI CAIT team for a presentation of research findings on how UO students are experiencing and navigating generative AI policies across their courses. Includes a student panel discussion and open conversation about implications for teaching practice and policy. Everyone is welcome.
AY 2025–26: GenAI Focused Educational Research Project CAIT
Theme: Teaching in the Age of Generative AI
This year's CAIT team is actively conducting research on how generative AI is reshaping student experiences at UO. The team is investigating what motivates students' use of GenAI tools and how students navigate varying policies across their courses — combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to generate insights that can directly inform teaching practice.
Research findings will be shared at a public showcase on June 5, 2026. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Past Events
- IRB and Human Subject Research (Jan 2026) – Navigating research ethics and approvals
- Qualitative Interviews (Dec 2025) – Designing and conducting qualitative interviews, including open-ended questions, ethical data collection, and approaches to analysis
- Survey Design (Nov 2025) – Inclusive and effective survey design for classroom-based research
- Qualitative Research 101 (May 2025) – An intro to structured interviews and practitioner inquiry
- Designing Effective Surveys (Apr 2025) – A hands-on session on survey instruments
- From Teaching Challenges to Research Questions (Mar 2025) – Framing researchable questions
- IRB and Human Subject Research (Feb 2025) – Navigating research ethics and approvals
Contact
Ali Söken
Teaching Engagement Program
alisoken@uoregon.edu
541-346-1182