Written by Jennie Long, August 10, 2022
The Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) welcomed Fan Xu in July 2022 as an Instructional Development Specialist, a crucial role at CETE that will continue to innovate the future of CETE’s teaching and learning experiences.
Initially, her work will focus on the new Advancing Ohio’s English Learners (AOEL) project., designing, editing, and developing digital learning resources for English learners and their families who suffered from learning loss during the coronavirus pandemic.
Xu earned her Bachelor of Science in 2017 at Shanghai Normal University and her Master of Science the following year at The University of Hong Kong. She recently completed her Ph.D. studies at the College of Education and Human Ecology after working for three years as a part-time graduate research assistant at CETE, where she conducted research in computational thinking with middle school students. She is also a member of the Learning & Experience Design (LED) research group, led by CETE’s Director Dr. Ana-Paula Correia.
When asked what was most appealing to her in this new role, Xu said: “I admire that CETE respects each employee’s advantages and provides professional development opportunities to empower employees. I am excited to continue working with my awesome colleagues at CETE as I work to fulfill my career goals to benefit the community and society and deliver services for diverse audiences.”
Xu is passionate about creating aesthetically appealing and technology-assisted learning solutions in different formats. While studying at The University of Hong Kong, she participated in the development and evaluation of a series of interactive Massive Open Online Courses for the University. Through this process, she learned the importance of data-driven design and how to leverage student-generated data to inform design decisions. These experiences will offer new perspectives and insights into the possibilities for CETE’s myriad of online learning offerings and technology-enhanced education and training, including the online curriculum that is a component of CETE’s Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) movement.
In her free time, Fan enjoys hiking, acrylic painting, and playing Nintendo or jigsaw puzzles with friends. She is also a fan of Indie pop music; her current favorite artist is Bruno Major.