CV About Me
Lu Ding

CV

Assistant Professor
Instructional Design & Development
University of South Alabama

Research

My work sits at the intersection of learning sciences and instructional technology design and development, grounded in the ICAP framework for cognitive engagement. Current threads explore how generative AI can support self-regulated learning, and how non-technical learners (e.g., teachers, families) develop AI literacy.

  • Co-constructive learning & the ICAP framework
  • AI in education: LLMs as tutors and supports for self-regulated learning
  • AI literacy for non-technical learners
  • Gamification and engagement in asynchronous online discussion
  • Automated formative feedback and instructional design

Projects

  • Lead PI

    Co-Regulating Learning with a Transparent AI

    National Science Foundation

    This project examines how learners and AI systems can co-regulate the learning process when the system's model of what a student knows is made visible and open to revision. Grounded in research on self-regulated learning, it develops an adaptive approach in which students can inspect, question, and adjust the AI's representation of their knowledge, with the aim of strengthening their metacognitive awareness, sense of agency, and learning.

    $749,450
  • PI

    Generative Questioning for GenAI Learning

    Internal Grant: Faculty Development Council Grant

    The Generative Questioning project investigates how undergraduate STEM students can be taught to engage thoughtfully with generative AI rather than accepting its output at face value. Grounded in research on cognitive engagement, it advances an instructional approach in which students learn to ask constructive questions and to critically evaluate the responses that AI systems provide.

    $5,000
  • PI

    Family AI Literacy

    Internal Grant: Research and Scholarly Development Grant

    The Family AI Literacy project examines how parents and children co-construct their understanding of artificial intelligence together. Grounded in research on family learning, it explores how families collaboratively make sense of AI as they move between playing and designing.

    $25,000
  • PI

    Teacher Questioning Practice with GenAI

    Internal Grant: Early Career Faculty Award

    The Teacher Questioning Practice project examines how pre-service teachers can develop their questioning skills through practice with an AI-based simulation that helps teachers learn to ask questions that engage learners more deeply and to reflect constructively on their own practice.

    $1,000

More to come.

Other Works

I am a co-founder of EchoBot, a research platform that gives researchers customizable chatbots for academic studies.

EchoBot, which I built with a collaborator from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, lets researchers study how people learn from conversational AI without writing code or touching a database. Researchers assemble a study from reusable pieces, run conversations across multiple LLM providers to compare models side by side, and give participants a distraction-free chat interface, while every conversation is captured and coded for analysis. The goal is to lower the technical barrier to rigorous, reproducible chatbot research so faculty and students can focus on their questions, not the plumbing.

Selected Publications

1,675Citations
13h-index
16i10-index

  • Students’ perceptions of using ChatGPT in a physics class as a virtual tutor

    Ding, L., Li, T., Jiang, S., & Gapud, A. (2023). International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.

    324cites

  • An exploratory study of student engagement in gamified online discussions

    Ding, L., Er, E., & Orey, M. (2018). Computers & Education.

    333cites

  • Development of an AI literacy assessment for non-technical individuals

    Ding, L., Kim, S., & Allday, A. R. (2024). Contemporary Educational Technology.

    57cites

  • Applying gamification to asynchronous online discussions: a mixed-methods study

    Ding, L. (2019). Computers in Human Behavior.

    219cites

  • Studies of student engagement in gamified online discussions

    Ding, L., Kim, C. M., & Orey, M. (2017). Computers & Education.

    298cites

View all publications on Google Scholar

Teaching

I aim to empower students to take ownership of their learning, with adaptive approaches that honor diverse learning needs and preferences. Courses I teach in the Instructional Design and Development program:

  • ISD 610 Trends & Issues
  • ISD 613 Instructional Strategies
  • ISD 621 Instructional Design
  • ISD 653 Developing Online Instruction
  • EDM 510 Microcomputing Systems in Education

Work History

  • 2021–present
    Assistant Professor, Instructional Design & Development
    University of South Alabama
  • 2019–2021
    Instructional Designer & Adjunct Professer
    Eastern Illinois University
  • 2017–2019
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    Arizona State University

    Learning and Cognition Lab Directed by Dr. Michelene Chi

Education

  • 2017
    Ph.D., Learning, Design, and Technology
    University of Georgia

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor of Instructional Design and Development at the University of South Alabama, where I study how people learn with and through technology. My research lives at the intersection of the learning sciences and educational technology, and it all comes back to one stubborn question: how do we get technology to make people think harder, instead of letting them coast on autopilot?

Most of my work looks at how people co-construct knowledge with and through educational technology. I am less interested in technology that simply hands over information and more interested in what happens when learners engage with it actively, question it, and use it to think harder rather than just faster. That thread runs through most of what I do: how people learn with AI and make sense of AI, how to design educational videos that engage students cognitively, and how to motivate students in sense making through gamification. Underneath all of it is the ICAP framework, which keeps me honest about what real cognitive engagement looks like and how to actually teach for it. My goal, more or less, is to get the technical plumbing out of the way, both for the people learning with technology and for the people studying it, so everyone can spend their energy on the questions that actually matter.

Off the clock, you will usually find me drawing, listening to music and enthusiastically murdering songs I love, or chilling with my dogs and family.