EdTech Align Team
Why and when did we build EdTech Align Assessment System?
EdTech Align is led by a group of researchers who are dedicated to assisting in-service and preservice teachers with integrating edtech into their instruction. The team members consist of experts in edtech integration that have real-world teaching experience. This project was initiated in 2018 when the research team was preparing for an accreditation visit for their college of education. The team searched for valid and reliable instruments with which to measure edtech competencies, aligned to professional edtech standards. However, the few empirically validated instruments that did exist were considerably limited by their generalizability, currency, and known reliabilities.
Dr. Fegely presented this gap in the literature to Dr. Lee as an opportunity to create such an instrument to share with the edtech field and education community. With the support and direction of Dr. Winslow, the research team embarked on a rigorous, multi-year process to create a valid and reliable instrument for measuring edtech competencies aligned to the ISTE, AECT, AACE, and National Standards for Quality Online Teaching professional edtech standards. The rationale for the team adopting this purposeful approach was threefold: (1) to mitigate concerns about the validity of a single set of standards, (2) to increase the instrument’s overall generalizability for different educational institutions, and (3) to accommodate online and hybrid instructional modalities in a post-pandemic world.
The research team filtered 33 organizational construction and 141 indicator statements from the four prominent sets of professional edtech standards to saturation, revealing five categories: (1) CREATIVITY, (2) CITIZENSHIP, (3) DIGITAL LITERACY, (4) PEDAGOGY, and (5) LEADERSHIP. The research team revised the statements within the categories for content validity through constructive response and cognitive interview feedback. Four phases of Rasch empirical analysis and four populations of in-service teachers were then used to examine the validity and reliability of the instrument and to inform revisions. At every step, the team’s progress was documented and disseminated to the education community through refereed international presentations and peer-reviewed publications. The result was an instrument with evidence of validity and reliability that is shared here.
EdTech Align Researchers
Alex Fegely, Ed.D.
Dr. Alex Fegely is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Instructional Technology programs at Coastal Carolina University. Previously, he was a lecturer at Coastal Carolina University, a social studies teacher at the National Blue Ribbon acclaimed Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology, a digital media teacher at PALM Charter High School, a web developer, and a graphic designer. Dr. Fegely received his B.S.Ed. from Temple University in Social Studies Secondary Education as well as History, his M.Ed. in Learning and Teaching and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology from Coastal Carolina University, and his Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Educational Technology from the University of South Carolina. He is an active member of SITE, AECT, and AERA. His research focuses on emerging technologies in teacher education.
Corey Lee, Ph.D.
Dr. Lee is an associate professor of the instructional Technology program at Coastal Carolina University. Throughout his career in teaching, he developed strong interests in the areas of distance education, mobile learning, interactive multimedia, and graphic/website design. Dr. Lee leads a research-based project (eLearnReady - https://elearnready.com/). This project received a 2023 Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) Classics Award. The MERLOT Awards program recognizes and promotes outstanding online resources designed to enhance teaching and learning and to honor the developers of these resources for their contributions to the academic community. As of today, more than 100,000 students have taken advantage of eLearnReady.
Joe Winslow, Ph.D.
Dr. Winslow is a professor of Instructional Technology and chair of the Educational Studies department. He previously served as Director of the Coastal Office of Online Learning (COOL) and prior to that was a Department Chair and Program Coordinator for the College of Education and Social Sciences. His current research interests include user experience (UX) / learning interaction design, multimedia learning object design, and their impacts on learner cognition and performance. He has co-authored a textbook, Applied Technologies for Teachers, as well as numerous Instructional Technology professional journal articles. Off campus, Dr. Winslow is an avid surfer, windsurfer and fisherman.
Michael McKenzie, M.Ed.
Michael McKenzie is currently a lecturer and an Instructional Technology Specialist at Coastal Carolina University. He has experience in the classroom as a science teacher, STEM teacher, and virtual teacher. He also served in leadership roles in a school district for instructional technology, assessment preparation and chemical safety. He has taught professional development to educators pertaining to classroom technology and science. His passion is to educate others in an engaging environment that promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and skills that can be used in real-world situations.
Marvin Evans, Ph.D.
Our Publications and Presentations
Publication History
- Fegely, A., Winslow, J., Lee, C., & Setari, A.P. (2023). EdTech Align: A valid and reliable instrument for measuring teachers’ edtech competencies aligned to professional standards. TechTrends. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-022-00824-8
- Winslow, J., Fegely, A., Lee, C., & Setari, A. (2021). Continued Rasch development and validation of a standards-based instrument to measure teacher educational technology competencies. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 339-345). United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219677/
- Winslow, J., Fegely, A., Lee, C., & Setari, A. (2021). Toward the development and validation of a standards-based instrument to measure teacher educational technology competencies. In E. Langran & L. Archambault (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 981-985). Online, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219245/.
Presentation History
- Fegely, A., Winslow, J., & Lee, C.-Y., & Setari, A. P. (2023, October). The construction of a valid and reliable standards-aligned instrument for the measurement of teachers’ edtech competencies: Introducing EdTech Align. Concurrent session presented at Association of Educational Communications & Technology International Conference (AECT 2023), Orlando, FL.
- Winslow, J., Lee, C., & Fegely, A. (2023, July). Using EdTech Align to measure in-service teacher educational technology competencies. EdMedia & Innovate Learning Conference (EDIL 2023), Vienna, Austria.
- Fegely, A., Winslow, J., Lee, C., & Setari, A. (2022, April). Measuring educators’ edtech competencies: Refinement and validation of a standards-aligned instrument using Rasch analysis. Brief paper presented at Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference (SITE 2022), San Diego, CA.
- Winslow, J., Fegely, A., Lee, C., & Setari, A. (2021, July). Continued Rasch development and validation of a standards-based instrument to measure teacher educational technology competencies. Brief paper presented at EdMedia & Innovate Learning Conference (EDIL 2021), virtual.
- Winslow, J., Fegely, A., Lee, C., & Setari, A. (2021, March). Toward the development and validation of a standards-based instrument to measure teacher educational technology competencies. Brief paper presented at Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference (SITE 2021), San Diego, CA.