Sabrina Marie Cervantes Villa
Human systems engineering
Hometown: Tempe, Arizona, United States
Graduation date: Spring 2021
FURI | Fall 2020
The Effect of Deep-Level Reasoning Questions in Digital Learning Resources
Many online learning environments follow a structure that offers students digital learning resources to explore independently, followed by an assessment to test student comprehension of the resources. Student comprehension is affected by organization of information such as advance organizers or scaffolds. Previous research has shown that deep reasoning questions are one such discourse scaffold that is useful for improving comprehension. This study investigates the deep reasoning question effect with digital learning resources, which may be used more frequently by educators in virtual environments.
Mentor: Scotty Craig
It’s hip to be square.
Students presenting projects at the Fulton Forge Student Research Expo are encouraged to download this personal QR code and include it within your poster. This allows expo attendees to explore more about your project and about you in the future.
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Featured project | Fall 2020
What made you want to get involved in FURI?
FURI drew my attention with the concept of offering university-funded research experience. I chose my project after exploring the previous work of my mentor to find an area that seemed interesting to me as well.
What has been your most memorable experience as a student research in this program?
My most memorable experience as a student researcher in this program has to be the very concept of meeting with my mentor weekly, and having most meetings that were scheduled for only 30 minutes turn into well over an hour because there were so many relevant related topics to get into.
How will your engineering research project change the world?
My project is specifically focused on digital learning environments. I think that findings related to this topic will only become more important as technology advances and/or remote work continues to stand as the primary format for productivity — particularly for students.
How do you see this experience helping with your career?
I hope to lead several research projects following this one, whether that is strictly in academia or in industry settings. This experience has definitely contributed to my understanding of appropriate timelines and procedures to follow for a given research project.
What is the best advice you’ve gotten from your faculty mentor?
The best advice I have gotten from my mentor, Scotty Craig, was anything related to becoming more involved with my program. He is the one who introduced me to the idea of FURI as well as applying for my program’s 4+1 [accelerated master’s degree] route. His advice and guidance has led me to become much more involved and to pursue opportunities that will benefit me long-term.
Why should other students get involved in FURI?
FURI offers students the ability to become involved in a project they might feel personally passionate about, have it be fully funded and get paid for it as well — making it very much worth it.
