Liyan Song

Professor

Liyan Song

Contact Info

Phone:
Office:
Hawkins Hall, Room 413L

Education

Ph.D., Instructional Technology,
University of Georgia, 2005

M.Ed., Instructional Technology,
University of Georgia, 2002

M.Ed., Educational Leadership,
University of Georgia, 2000

B.A., Science English, Beijing Institute of Light Industry (now Beijing Technology and Business University), 1994

Areas of Expertise

Online learning and teaching

Learning experience design

Technology integration

Conceptual change

Epistemic beliefs

Biography

Dr. Liyan Song received her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from The University of Georgia in 2005 and has been working at Towson University since then. Her research is mainly focused on learning experience and curriculum design through the use of innovative and emerging technologies. Her other areas of research include conceptual change and the role of epistemic beliefs in learning preferences and behaviors. Dr. Song is the program director for the Instructional Technology Master’s program (Educational Technology concentration) and she advises dissertation research of doctoral students.

Selected Publications

  • Song, L., Cai, Q., Duan, S., Collins, S., Deng, L., Guo, Y., & Sadera, W. (2024). The integration of learner experience and instructional design in design thinking instruction across three disciplines: Education, anthropology, and computer science. In Schmidt, M., Earnshaw, Y., Exter, M., Tawfik,, A., & Hokanson, B. (Eds), Transdisciplinary Learning Experience Design: Futures, Synergies, and Innovation (pp. 243-258). Springer.  
  • Stellmann, E., & Song, L. (2024). Essential elements of digital citizenship: Insights from the literature. TechTrends, 68(4), 749-760.  
  • Song, L., Bailey, E., Siff, B., Boyd, T., Boettinger, J., Santi, L., Neimeyer, L., & Oladipo, T. (2024). Instructor’s and students’ perspectives on HyFlex learning: A collaborative self-study. Canadian Journal of Action Research, 24(2), 44-62.  
  • Dyer, L., & Song, L. (2023). Professional development for online faculty: Supporting conceptual change through conceptual conflict activities. The Journal of Faculty Development, 37(3), 20-27.   
  • Cai, Q.W., Hong, H., McNary, S., & Song, L. (2023). Developing a robotics program to support Students’ computational thinking: A Design-based Study. TechTrends.   
  • Song, L., Cai, Q., Hong, H., Liu, X., Jin, L. & Li, Q. (2022). Sustaining a self-initiated professional learning community: A story of six teacher educators’ experiences. In E. Baumgartner, (eds), A Retrospective of Teaching, Technology and Teacher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic, (pp. 81-86). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).   
  • Stellmann, E., Song, L., & Tucker, S. (2021). Reexamining digital citizenship: Pandemic lessons to prepare teachers and students for digital learning environments. In Ferdig, R.E., & Pytash, K. (Eds.), What teacher educators should have learned from 2020 (pp. 113-124). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).  
  • Cavanaugh, A., & Song, L. (2021). A comparison analysis of five instructors’ commenting patterns of audio and written feedback on students’ writing assignments. Journal of Response to Writing, 7(1), 5-35.   

Grants and Contracts

  • Promoting Students’ Design Thinking Skills through Curriculum Development and Design Competitions. Towson University School of Emerging Technologies, 2024, $7,000.  
  • Elevating Multilingual Learners’ Happiness and  Success: A Robotics-Infused Journey to Flourishing. Kahlert Foundation, 2023, $9,900. 
  • Engaging underrepresented students and preservice teachers in robotics education: A design-based research study. Towson University Office of Sponsored Programs & Research, 2022, $9,588. 
  • Establishing Maker Learning Ecosystems Cohort. The Digital Promise, 2021, $5,000. 
  • Developing makerspace activities to help improve preservice teachers’ technology integration competency. Towson University School of Emerging Technologies, 2019, $16,000. 

Honors and Awards

  • TU College of Education Excellence in Teaching Award: 2024, 2020, 2010
  • USM Board of Regents Faculty Award nominee in Mentoring, 2023-2024