Peter Shea

Biography

Shea's research focuses on technology-mediated teaching and learning in higher education. He is currently leading a research team that is exploring how games in K-12 school settings can be utilized to increase student interest and learning in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The team is working to develop a blueprint for a new online program in games for learning. The researchers are considering such factors as the alignment of games with curricula, the appropriate implementation of games in K-12 settings, and the testing, distribution and ongoing refinement of games. The project also investigates how teaching students to design their own games can help them learn computer science principles and concepts. Shea is the author of numerous articles and several book chapters on the topic of online learning and co-author of "The Successful Distance Learning Student." He is a co-recipient of several national awards including the EDUCAUSE Award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning for the State University of New York, and Sloan Consortium Awards for Excellence in Faculty Development and Asynchronous Learning Networks Programs. Shea has also been the recipient of significant external funding for his recent work. This includes three grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to research faculty and student experiences in complete online learning environments and support for the development of hybrid learning environments at the University at Albany. He is now principal investigator on a US Department of Education grant to research and develop an online system to support the teaching of Chinese to children in K-12 public schools. Previously Dr. Shea was the Director of the SUNY Learning Network, the online education system for the 64 colleges of the State University of New York. Dr. Shea has also served as manager of the SUNY Teaching, Learning, and Technology Program and Project Director for SUNY's participation in the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), an international collaboration for peer review of discipline specific online learning resources. He is also a member of the USNY Technology Policy Council.

Research Interest

higher education; online learning; k-12 education