Author: Maiga Chang

Dr. Junfeng Yang is a professor in Hangzhou Normal University, and also a visiting professor in Beijing Normal University. He serves as the vice-dean for Educational Informatization Strategy Research Base (Beijing) established by Ministry of Education China in 2020. He earned his doctor degree in 2014 from Beijing Normal University majoring in Educational technology, and visited Athabasca University from 2014.12 to 2015.12. He has been working on ICT in education since 2010, and served as consultants for different level policy makings on ICT in education and smart education. He has published more than 40 academic papers, including SSCI journal papers and outstanding Chinese journal papers. He earned the title of “Zhejiang creative and leading talent in higher education”, “Zhejiang Young Zhijiang social science scholar”, “Hangzhou new century 131 scholar”. He serves as the associate editor of the journal of Smart Learning Environment published by Springer. Dr. Dejian Liu, senior engineer, graduated from the University of Kansas, USA and received a Ph D degree from Beijing Normal University, China in 2020. Currently working as Chairman and Executive Director at Net Dragon, he also serves on the Board of Directors at Fujian TQ Digital, Inc., on the Board at Baidu, Inc., and as a Member of the Standing Committee at Fujian Science Association. The Vice-Chairman of the Fujian Young Entrepreneur Association, he has received numerous awards, including a Business Venture Hero award, Excellent Entrepreneur award, Youth Entrepreneurship Achievement award, and Science and Technology for Young People award. Dr. Kinshuk is the Dean of the College of Information at the University of North Texas. Prior to that, he held the NSERC/CNRL/Xerox/Mc Graw Hill Research Chair for Adaptivity and Personalization in Informatics, funded by the Federal government of Canada, Provincial government of Alberta, and by national and international industries. He was also Full Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems and Associate Dean of Faculty of Science and Technology, at Athabasca University, Canada. After completing first degree from India, he earned his Masters’ degree from Strathclyde University (Glasgow) and Ph D from De Montfort University (Leicester), United Kingdom. His work has been dedicated to advancing research on the innovative paradigms, architectures and implementations of online and distance learning systems for individualized and adaptive learning in increasingly global environments. Areas of his research interests include learning analytics; learning technologies;, mobile, ubiquitous and location aware learning systems; cognitive profiling; and, interactive technologies.  Dr. Ahmed Tlili currently is Associate Professor in Beijing normal University and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, China. His research areas include game-based learning, smart learning environments, technology enhanced learning, learner modeling, adaptive learning systems, learning analytics, and educational psychology.  Dr. Maiga Chang (Member, IEEE) is currently a Full Professor with the School of Computing Information and Systems, Athabasca University, Canada. He has given more than 105 talks and lectures in different conferences, universities, and events. He has participated in more than 310 international conferences and workshops as a Program Committee Member. He has (co-)authored more than 225 edited books, special issues, book chapters, journal and international conference papers. His research interests include game-based learning, training and assessment, learning behavior pattern analysis and extraction, learning analytics and academic analytics, data mining and artificial intelligence, health informatics, natural language processing, intelligent agent technology, multi-agent systems, mobile health, mobile learning, and ubiquitous learning. He is also an Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Computers and Applied Science Education. He is also the Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee of Learning Technology (IEEE TCLT), an Executive Committee Member of the Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE), the Global Chinese Society for Computing in Education (GCSCE), and the Chinese Society for Inquiry Learning (CSIL).  Dr. Elvira Popescu is currently working as Full Professor at the Computers and Information Technology Department, University of Craiova, Romania. I am in charge of three BSc courses (Web Applications” Design, Multimedia Technologies in e-Learning, Human-Computer Interaction) and three MSc courses (Semantic Systems, Social Interaction and Collaboration Systems, Web Services Technologies). Dr Popescu is also the Head of the Research Laboratory in Computers and Information Technology (Interdisciplinary Research Center in Computing, Automation, and Robotics, University of Craiova). Her current research interests include: technology enhanced learning, adaptation and personalization in Web-based systems, computer-supported collaborative learning, social learning environments, learning analytics, intelligent and distributed computing. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 publications, including two books, journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. I have participated in over 15 national and international research projects, four of which as principal investigator (grant director); Dr Popescu received several scholarships and awards, including five best paper distinctions.