Brendan Eagan

Biography

Brendan formally began working in education as an undergraduate at St. Olaf College where he supported the Japanese language and Asian studies departments, specifically focusing on improving pedagogy with digital tools. That experience marked the germination of his interest in how technology can change what and how we should learn and teach. This interest has grown into a passion that has driven him into varied professional domains, including software development and quality assurance, training and professional development of educators, and instructional design. Brendan is currently a PhD student in Learning Sciences and works with David Williamson Shaffer in the Epistemic Games Group.

Brendan is interested in mixed methods in educational research and assessment of complex thinking. His research includes the development and application of two tools of Quantitative Ethnography: Epistemic Network Analysis, an innovative method for assessing complex thinking skills, and nCoder, a tool for the development, refinement, and validation of automated coding schemes. Additionally, he is working on a statistical method for the generalization of interrater reliability.