Andrew Walker
Utah State University

Professor Andrew Walker has been the ITLS department head since 2014. He has a bachelor’s degree in English, but he is a self-taught statistical nerd who gets excited about objectively awesome stuff like bayesian network meta-analysis and multilevel modeling. In his off time, he likes to spend his time hardscaping his yard and hunting down ugly sweaters. Andy is famous for winning the ITLS Ugly Sweater contest every year.

Andrew cares about helping his students engage with learning experiences that will prepare them for what they’ll experience in their careers. In his research, he uses approaches that allow research to happen in the real world, rather than in clinical settings. Andrew’s work focuses on understanding what happens in Problem-Based Learning and finding new ways of assessment and analysis with innovative meta-analysis methods. He looks for innovations for meta analysis from outside of the Learning Sciences field. Much of Andrew’s work (such as a systematic reviews) is something that people can be trained in quickly. He also likes being pushed in new directions. Some of his favorite students to work with have brought existing passions to the table, including attachment theory, interests in graduate level academic writing, or STEM.