$11 million from the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council
by Christine Hearn
Photo by Raeff Miles
0
MARK FETTES’ project is
one of five SFU projects to receive Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council (SSHRC) grants. In total, the university was awarded
three of the seven projects funded nation-wide through the Initiative
on the New Economy (INE); each project gets $3 million over the
next four years. Two other projects funded through SSHRC’s
Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) funding program get
$1 million each. The total is more than any other Canadian university
and is nearly double the annual research grant funding the university
has received from SSHRC recently.
INE projects are designed to look at how health and education issues
are being affected by technology. CURA supports projects involving
research partnerships between local or regional community groups
and university-based researchers. Projects in both categories must
have broad, national interest.
Photo by Greg Ehlers
0
Education professor DAVID KAUFMAN
of the learning and instructional development centre will use his
INE grant to see how video games and simulations, particularly in
health care, can help us stay healthy. Kaufman’s researchers
are already working on a computer game for 9- to 12-year-olds to teach
them about contagious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and West Nile disease.
Photo by Carol Thorbes
0
The communication faculty’s ELLEN
BALKA will study the impact on health care decision-making
of increasing computerization of information. Balka and her team
will look at health care issues such as how information is interpreted
when individuals go online to self-diagnose, whether increasing
computerization helps or hinders health care professionals in doing
their jobs, and in what contexts new technologies are used. The
goal is to design new technologies to better meet users’ needs.
Photo by Carol Thorbes
PHIL WINNE of the faculty
of education has an INE grant to work on software to give adults
and students the skills to learn more effectively. Called gSTUDY,
the software can be applied to learning in any medium by allowing
learners to evaluate their studying and improve learning skills.
The software will also help instructors synchronize their knowledge
and design of learning materials with the users’ learning needs.
Photo by Carol Thorbes
0
MARJORIE GRIFFIN COHEN of the
department of political science and women’s studies will lead
a team of 40 academic and community partners in a five-year CURA-funded
project to look at changes in the British Columbia public service.
Cohen and her team will investigate policy changes in areas including
social assistance, employment standards, and community health to
see what effect the changes have on vulnerable populations. aq
