J. Patrick Biddix, associate professor of higher education, was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for the academic year 2015–2016. In the fall of 2015 he served as the Visiting Research Chair for Person and Society at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His research focused on how college students learn with technology. He interviewed students, conducted observations in classrooms and informal spaces, and contributed new questions to an existing survey about the role of technology in learning. Specifically, he studied how mobile devices allowed students to learn alone and in groups. While there, he also worked with colleagues in Yeungnam, Korea to replicate the survey and is negotiating additional sites for comparisons with several US and European institutions.
Biddix is a UTK alumnus (B.A. in Classical Civilization, 2001) who returned to his alma mater as a faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in 2011. His main areas of expertise include college student experiences and outcomes, research design and methodology, and technology use in higher education. His published research has appeared in prominent student affairs, communication, and technology journals. In 2015, he received the John Tunstall Outstanding Faculty Award from the College of Education, Health, & Human Sciences. Most recently, he co-authored the 2nd edition of Assessment in Student Affairs (Jossey Bass, 2016), a primary textbook for student affairs graduate programs.