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Washington State University
College of Education

Olusola Adesope

Adesope_photo02

Sola Adesope

Associate Dean for Research and External Funding
Boeing Distinguished Professor of STEM Education
Professor of Educational Psychology
Pullman campus
Cleveland Hall 356
Pullman, WA  99164

509-335-2771
olusola.adesope@wsu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

ResearchGate || GoogleScholar || LinkedIn

“I’m an Agent of Change by standing up for every student’s right to get a top-notch education no matter where they come from.”

Sola was nominated by Arumala Lere-Adams for 2020’s Washington State University Chosen Coug Award presented by BECU.

In the nominating form, Arumala wrote:

“As an international student from Nigeria, I came into graduate school at WSU knowing next to no one. My very first encounter with Dr. Sola was inspiring as I could relate with someone who looked just like me and was committed to excellence on and off the job. I would go on to work with Dr. Sola as a research assistant and he would constantly look out for me to see how I was faring academically considering the cultural and climate changes I was undergoing by resuming in the spring of that year. He made me realize from the beginning the demands of graduate school and the requisite effort. That spurred me to give my best shot at difficult classes, homework, and projects. Prior to my coming, Dr. Sola had a thanksgiving tradition of opening his home to guests, especially international students, and November of 2019 was no different. That meant a lot of turkeys too!

“Overall, he makes a student feel very capable of executing a task by building confidence along the way. His track record of national and international awards and grants are a testament to his influence on the college experience on myself and other students alike.”

Research interests

Sola Adesope’s research is at the intersection of educational psychology, learning sciences, instructional design and technology. His recent research focuses on the cognitive and pedagogical underpinnings of learning with computer-based multimedia resources; knowledge representation through interactive concept maps & diagrams, evidence-based practices through meta-analyses and empirical research, learning analytics, and investigation of instructional principles and assessments in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) domains.

Teaching interests

Dr. Adesope teaches the following courses: Theoretical Foundations of Learning and Instruction, Principles of Research, Quasi-Experimental Designs, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis as well as Advanced Educational Psychology with Emphasis on Multimedia Learning Theories, Principles and Research.

Recent achievements

Recent Grants and Awards (Selected)
  • 2018 – 2022 – Co-Principal Investigator on National Science Foundation grant entitled “Collaborative Research: IUSE:EHR: EDUC-ATE: Educating Diverse Undergraduate Communities – Affordable Transport Equipment”; ~$2.64 million.
  • 2018 – Article entitled “Rethinking the Use of Tests: A Meta-Analysis of Practice Testing” published in the Review of Educational Research (impact factor 5.263) was announced as one of the top 10 most read education research articles in 2017.
  • Distinguished Paper Award – IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC) on our paper entitled “The Effect of Poor Source Code Lexicon and Readability on Developers’ Cognitive Load”.
  • 2017 – 2021- External Evaluator on National Science Foundation grant entitled “Culturally Responsive Indigenous Science (CRIS): Connecting land, language, and culture for Indigenous STEM (ISTEM) education”; $2,481,274.
  • 2016 – 2018 – WSU Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant entitled “An Instrument and Adoption Framework for Student Cognitive and Social Engagement with a Course”; $800,000
  • 2016 – Successfully completed the Provost Leadership Academy Program
  • 2015 – 2018 – Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant entitled “PERKS: Power Electronics Refined learning via affordable Kit and Software tutor; $249,995
  • 2015 – Published article on the meta-analysis of intelligent tutoring system spotlighted by the Journals Program of APA
  • 2014 – Presented the “Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award” for American Educational Research Association’s Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning Special Interest Group – Philadelphia, PA.
  • 2014 – Presented the Washington State University’s College of Education “Excellence in Research” award
  • 2014 – 2018 – Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant entitled “Affordable Desktop Learning Modules (DLMs) to Facilitate Transformation of Undergraduate Engineering Classes”; $714,706
  • 2013 – 2017 – Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant entitled “Exploring Social Programming Environments in Early Computing Courses”; $549,763
  • 2013 – 2015 – Co-Principal Investigator on a Mathematics and Science Partnership grant entitled “Enhancing Understanding of Scientific Concepts and Practices with the Science Writing Heuristics Approach, Concept Mapping, & Instructional Design”; $518,189
  • 2013 – 2014 – Principal Investigator on a project funded by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, Paris-France), entitled “Statistical Analysis of Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)”; $30,000
  • 2013 – 2014 – Principal Investigator, W.S.U. College of Education Faculty Funding Award; $5,000
  • 2013 – WSU Honors College Thesis Advisor Award
  • 2012 – 2013 – Principal Investigator, W.S.U. College of Education Faculty Funding Award; $5,000
  • 2011 – 2013 – Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation grant entitled “Collaborative Research: Building Theories That Inform Practice: Exploring Engineering Epistemologies Through Cross-Disciplinary Data Analysis”; $276,369
  • 2011 – 2012 – Co-Principal Investigator. Analysis of Differences between Three Groups of Washington State Schools. Funded by Washington Education Association; $29,900
  • 2011 – Principal Investigator, W.S.U. College of Education Faculty Funding Award; $9,000
  • 2011 – G.M. Dunlop Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Educational Psychology in Canada, presented by the Canadian Association for Educational Psychology.
  • 2011 – Grants Program Invited Participant – American Educational Research Association (AERA) Faculty Institute for the Teaching of Statistics with Large-Scale Data Sets – Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
  • 2011 – AERA Division C (Learning and Instruction) New Faculty Mentoring Program Invited Participant – New Orleans, Louisiana.
Selected Recent Publications
  • Adesope, O. O., & Rud, A. G. (2018). Maximizing the affordances of contemporary technologies in education: Promise and possibilities. In O. O. Adesope, & A. G. Rud (Eds), Contemporary Technologies in Education – Maximizing Student Engagement, Motivation, and Learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Schroeder, N., Nesbit, J. C., Anguiano, C., & Adesope, O. O. (2018). Studying and constructing concept maps: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30, 431 – 455.
  • Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D., & Sundararajan, N.  (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of the testing effect. Review of Educational Research, 87, 659 – 701.
  • Adesope, O. O., Cavagnetto, A., Anguiano, C.+, Hunsu, N.+, & Lloyd, J. (2017). The comparative effects of computer-based concept maps, refutational texts and expository texts on science learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 55, 46 – 59.
  • Ardasheva, Y., Wang, Z., & Adesope, O. O.  (2017). Exploring effectiveness and moderators of language learning strategy instruction on second language learning and self-regulation outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 87, 544 – 582.
  • Wang, Z., & Adesope, O.O. (2017). Do focused self-explanation prompts overcome seductive details? A multimedia study.  Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20, 47-57.
  • Wang, Z., Sundararajan, N., Adesope, O. O., & Ardasheva, Y.  (in press). Moderating the seductive details effect in multimedia learning with note-taking. British Journal of Educational Technology.
  • Srivastava, A., Hahn, A., Adesope, O. O., Hauser, C. H., & Bakken, D. E.(in press). Experience with a multi-disciplinary, team-taught smart grid cyber infrastructure course. IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.
  • Ardasheva, Y., Wang, Z., Roo, A., & Adesope, O.O (in press).  Impacts on Science Reading Comprehension and Interest: Do Visuals Always Help English Learners?  Journal of Educational Research.
  • Hunsu, N., & Adesope, O. O., & Bayly, D.  (2016). A meta-analysis of the effects of audience response systems (clickers) on cognition and affect. Computers & Education, 94, 102-119.
  • Abdul, B., Adesope, O. O., VanWie, B. J., & Thiessen, D. (2016). Comparing the effects of two active learning approaches in an engineering education classroom. International Journal of Engineering Education, 32, 1-16.
  • Wang, Z+., & Adesope, O. O. (2016). Exploring the effects of seductive details with the 4-phase model of interest. Learning and Motivation, 55, 65-77.
  • Adesope, O. O., Zhou, M., & Nesbit, J. C. (2015). Achievement goal orientations and self-reported study strategies as predictors of online studying activities. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 53, 436 – 458.
  • Schroeder, N. L., & Adesope, O. O. (2015). Impacts of pedagogical agent gender in an accessible learning environment. Educational Technology & Society, 18(4), 401-411.
  • Ma, W., Adesope, O. O., Nesbit, J. C., & Liu, Q. (2014). Intelligent tutoring systems and learning outcomes: A meta-analytic survey. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106, 901-918.
  • Schroeder, N. L., & Adesope, O. O. (2014). A systematic review of pedagogical agents’ persona, motivation, and cognitive load implications for learners. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 46(3).
  • Adesope, O. O., & Nesbit, J. C. (2013). Learning with animated and static concept maps. Learning and Instruction, 27, 1-10. 
  • Nesbit, J. C., & Adesope, O. O. (2013). Animated and static concept maps. In G. Schraw, M. Mccrudden, & D. Robinson (Eds.), Learning Through Visual Displays. (pp. 303-328). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
  • Schroeder, N. L., Adesope, O. O., & Barouch-Gilbert, R. (2013). A meta-analysis of the effects of pedagogical agents on learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 49, 1-40.
  • Adesope, O. O., & Nesbit, J. C. (2012). Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning environments: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 250-263. 
  • Panchal, J., Adesope, O. O., & Malak, R. (2012). Designing undergraduate design experiences – A framework based on the expectancy-value theory. International Journal of Engineering Education, 28, 1-9.
  • Trevisan, M. S., French, B. F., & Adesope, O. O. (2012). Including contextual factors in the reporting of school improvement data. The WERA Educational Journal, 5, 2-7.
  • Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2011). Best practices in teaching literacy to ESL immigrant students: A meta-analysis. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 629-653. 
  • Nesbit, J. C., & Adesope, O.  O. (2011). Learning from animated concept maps with concurrent audio narration. Journal of Experimental Education, 79, 209-230.
  • Adesope, O. O. (2011). Learning Statistics with multimedia aids. Cases on inquiry through instructional technology in Math and Science: Systemic Approaches. IGI Global.
  • Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2010). A systematic review and meta-analysis on the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80, 207-245.

Educational background

  • Ph.D. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
  • M.Sc., Simon Fraser University, Surrey, B.C., Canada
  • P.G.D., Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
  • H.N.D. , Yaba College of Technology