Hi there! I am Sya Azmeela Shariff

I am currently a Senior Lecturer in Informatics Department, at Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics. The place I call home is located in a hip area called Subang Jaya, Selangor. I love doing outdoor activities and exploring new skills.  Welcome to my website!

Dr. Howard J. Sullivan taught at Arizona State University’s Education Department from 1971 to 2006, retiring at age 75. He was nationally known for mentoring the top master’s and doctoral students in the field of educational technology. When he received ASU’s top Mentor Award in 2002, it was said that he was responsible for more than 100 Ph.D.’s. A contributor to several psychology and education journals, he taught his students the value of thorough research and concise writing. His students now teach and mentor education students throughout the world; many have remained in touch with him over the years, some quite often.
 
 
While attending graduate school at Florida State University, Sya Azmeela Shariff was very fortunate to have an excellent mentor who happens to be one of the best people in the field of Instructional Systems and Technology, Dr. Robert Reiser. Dr. Reiser was mentored by Dr. Sullivan.

Education

2000

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY WITH EDUCATION IN LIVING SKILLS  
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia

2002

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY-EDUCATION
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia

2012

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS 
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
United States

2014

POSTDOCTORAL IN
PHYSICS EDUCATION
Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA
United States

Completed Research Projects

Team Formation Study
Harvard University
Fall 2014 – Spring 2015

The Team Formation study was an extension of the previous research projects, which includes Project 1 (Formulating Team Assessment), Project 2 (Team Effectiveness Index), and Project 4 (AP50b Summary of Keirsey Report). In this research project, student teams are assigned based on selected criteria.

Peer Instruction Online Module 
Harvard University
Spring 2014 – Summer 2014

The Peer Instruction Online Module is a part of a large project funded by the National Science Foundation in United States, titled “Collaborative Proposal: CI-TEAM DIFFUSION: PORTAL, Pedagogical Open-access Research-based Tools for Advancing Learning in Science and Engineering “. This project is a collaboration between Harvard University and the University of Texas, Austin.

Team Effectiveness Index
Harvard University 
Spring 2014 – Summer 2014

Team Effectiveness Index is a metric that would be used to measure the level of goals and performance accomplished by each teams and comparing them to other teams in the same class. The team performance was evaluated by using the Readiness Assurance Activity (RAA) Hake gain. RAA is a student activity where content-specific goals and problem solving skills is assessed. Hake gain captures the performance growth of teams for each RAAs.

Formulating Team Assessment
Harvard University
Spring 2014 – Fall 2014

Students studying Applied Physics (AP50b) in semester Spring 2014 at Harvard University were assigned into three different teams for three projects, namely Ecotricity, Crack-a-thon, and inSPECT. There were several factors that determined the assigned teams, which included gender, pre CSEM scores, and personality index scores on Keirsey, MSLQ, 5Dynamics, and 6Hats. This research project focused on preparing the Team Assessment questionnaire that was distributed to students after the completion of each project. The questionnaire was used to measure which team formation method was effective in affecting students’ learning and attitude in AP50b course. The teams were formed based on a diversity of personality index scores (Keirsey, MSLQ, 5Dynamics, 6Hats).

Think-pair-share Class Activities via Mobile App
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
October 2012 – November 2014

This research was funded by the New Academic Staff (NAS) grant from UTM. The research is titled “The effects of think-pair-share in promoting active learning assisted with ARS using mobile phone”. This research was enhanced from my dissertation study. Instead of using clickers, my team and I designed an online interactive system that can be used to promote active learning by using think-pair-share in postgraduate classes at UTM AIS. The results indicated that students were more active in the class activities when engaged with think-pair-share via mobile app.

Biography

Sya Azmeela Shariff is a Senior Lecturer in Informatics Department, at Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics. She has had a few years of experience as an Instructional Designer, while working as a lecturer. To get more biography information, please click on the following link.