Research Activities – Psychology Faculty

The research activity of the Psychology Faculty addresses the priorities established in University’s research mission: the internationalization of scientific and technological research and development of distance networks for addressing these priorities. Actually, the Faculty program can be considered as an experimentation laboratory for new teaching and e-learning theories and modes. A permanent and completely independent research activity of the Faculty, in synergy with the other UNINETTUNO Faculties, and in particular with the Engineering one, is the psycho-pedagogic research associated to distance training models, carried out based on the psycho-pedagogic model designed and developed by Prof. Maria Amato Garito in the framework of her many research projects.

The results of these studies allow for a constant updating of the multimedia educational platform which, by now, represents an international standard in this sector. UNINETTUNO e-learning platform offers many opportunities for research advancement in the field of educational development and instructional design. In this context, this research work is connected to the design of two functions: at one side, this research work can contribute to the enhancement of educational design and at the same time it can result into new theoretical knowledge. In particular, the Psychology Faculty academic staff carried out activities related to learning technologies and educational design within e-learning settings, the students’ perspective as it regards their learning environment and efficient strategies to face any individual or situational difficulties that may hinder the students’ training path.

The research work activities of the Psychology Faculty witnessed a significant development during the 2008 – 2010 years, both in terms of national and international projects and in terms of development of interest in individual research of single lecturers and researcher and represents an essential contribution to the full development and implementation of the University research mission. Actually the research program and activities aim at studying the potentials of the various technologies (computer-based and telecommunication networks, digital television and education, hypertextual and multimedia systems, cognitive interfaces models etc.) in order to be able to create a coherent body of theoretical and operational knowledge which establishes a fair balance between engineering and cognitive technological components, the methodological and cultural and educational ones that pertain to information technologies.

The internationalization of scientific and technological research and the use of distance networks are the priority features of the research program of the Faculty both in terms of prevalence of European projects that characterized it and for the nature of cyclical development of the program designed by the Faculty. The research program follows two steps: the first step, which was achieved in 2010, starting from an internal design of the University, involved lecturers and researchers having a specific interest in these research issues and aiming at consolidating the research reference frame. The second step, that will be developed between 2011-2014 aims at involving scholars of International renown interested in this field and aiming at developing its internationally innovative character.