Lei Ye, a 3rd year PhD student in the ITLS Department, was among a select few graduate students at Utah State University who received a $4,000 Enhancement Award from the Graduate Student Senate. This competitive award recognizes excellence in graduate research at the university and provides recognition and support for research and educational expenses.

Lei Ye is currently working on a National Science Foundation-funded research project, led by Drs. Mimi Recker, Andy Walker, and Victor Lee, that connects high school Earth Science teachers to high quality internet resources that can be used for their instructional planning. Her research involves building complex multilevel statistical models to determine the effect of internet resource use on teachers and students in five different school districts. Lei has also contributed to research that will appear in Educational Technology Research & Development, one of the leading academic journals for instructional technology, and the 2012 International Conference of the Learning Sciences, one of the premier venues for current research in the learning sciences.