Perspectives: Sidney D'Mello
Channel: Center for Online Innovation in Learning
Date: 2016-07-15

In this video, COIL Co-Director Larry Ragan interviews Sidney D'Mello, Associate Professor of Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Perspectives is a video interview series developed by the Center for Online Innovation in Learning at Penn State University exploring emerging trends and forces in higher education with thought leaders from the world of online innovations.

Throughout this series, we ask leading thinkers a set of three questions derived from COIL's regular environmental scanning efforts. The questions are intended to explore their thoughts related to online innovations and their impacts on learning. The questions asked in this video are:

1. What does the word retention mean to you in the context of online learning?
2. If you had no limits on time or money, what system would you build to enable students to maintain progress toward and achieve their educational goals?
3. Could you describe a good first step to building such a system and improving the retention rates for our students?

Sidney D’Mello is an Associate Professor with joint appointments in the departments of Computer Science and Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. His primary research interests are in affective computing, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, speech and discourse processing, and computational models of human cognition. Dr. D’Mello conducts basic research on affective and cognitive states (e.g., confusion, boredom, mind wandering) during complex learning and problem solving, develops real-time computational models of these states, and integrates the models in learning environments that coordinate feeling and thinking during digital learning. He has co-edited five books and has published over 200 journal papers, book chapters, and conference proceedings in these areas.

Visit http://coil.psu.edu/ to learn more.

This video is available in alternative media upon request. Please contact coil-accessibility@psu.edu with any accessibility requests and we will be happy to assist you.