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Virtual Learning Research

During my senior year at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2023, I completed my year-long thesis project.  My published thesis, titled "Attention Contagion in Online Courses: Examining Student Attention During Recorded Lectures", examined the intersection of social and cognitive influences on the effectiveness of online learning.  Additionally, I was accepted to UCF's Student Scholar Symposium and presented my research to both my peers and the public.  A video editing sample from my study materials, along with my research poster from the symposium, are found below.

Screenshot of an edited video used in the study.

01

Video Study Materials

My study involved creating manipulated recorded lectures.  The sample to the left is not a real recorded lecture; rather, I utilized my video editing skills to individually add each participant box on top of an initial recording.  Additional details can be found in my published thesis.

02

Research Poster

For the Student Scholar Symposium during UCF's 2023 Student Research Week, I created and presented a research poster to communicate my study's findings.  The poster can be viewed through the PDF document below.

© 2025 by Makenna Connolly

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