Eva Bures
SALTISE Contributor
Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, QC
Full Professor
Eva Bures has been an assistant professor at Bishop’s since the fall of 2004 when she completed her dissertation work. She is also a faculty member of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), a research centre located in Montreal. She studied French literature as an undergraduate, earning a BA from Reed College (Portland, Oregon), and then studied educational technology at Concordia University, receiving her PhD in 2005.
Her main interest is how to support innovative learning processes through computer-mediated communication (‘talking via computers’), especially in small groups. In particular, she explores how to improve the quality of online dialogue and critical thinking, following a Vygotskian perspective. A true action researcher, this interest permeates her research and also her teaching, as her students who have become used to playing HipBone Games (and engaging in other unusual online activities) can attest to! She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded research project exploring how to improve the design of online systems to improve the quality of dialogue amongst university-level students. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Feenberg at Simon Fraser University and Dr. Philip Abrami at Concordia. She is also working on a project exploring how to assess electronic portfolios in K-8 in collaboration with Dr. Abrami and a team of researchers at the CSLP.
Bishop’s University website
Research Interests
- The Use of Online Labelling in Student Learning – One of Dr. Bures’ current research projects explores how to improve online learning through the use of structured online discussion features. She is examining whether these features help learners improve the quality of their online discourse and their learning when they are required and/or unrequired. Her study also analyses whether students choose to use the features and investigates the usability of these features.
- Assessing Students’ Electronic Portfolios: Now That we have Them, How Can We Judge Them? – Dr. Bures’ study aims to create credible, authentic assessment measures for teachers to use to assess student-centred learning in the form of students’ electronic portfolios. She believes that we need to find meaningful efficient scoring rubrics for translating a collection of student prose, reflections, revisions, video and audio material into authentic judgements of what and how students have learned. Dr. Bures’ research will develop assessment measures in collaboration with teachers integrating e-portfolios into their classrooms and will develop useful mechanisms to support teachers integrating the e-portfolios, helping them conceptualize and implement effective e-portfolios and assessment practices.