Curt Bonk, Professor in Instructional Systems Technology, recently won two prestigious awards at the Association for Educational Technology and Communications (AECT) Conference: First Place, Quantitative Journal Article, and the David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award.

Bonk won the Quantitative Journal Article award with Min Young Doo, an alumna of IST, and Heeok Heo, for their article, “A Meta-Analysis of Scaffolding Effects in Online Learning in Higher Education.” Bonk said he was very grateful to receive the award, adding, “I am so delighted and lucky to work with such smart and hardworking people."

The David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award, in particular, is meaningful to Bonk, as Jonassen was a friend of his: “I have admired his work since my first days in the field back as a new graduate student in the mid-1980s. I remember writing to David Jonassen for advice when I was a graduate student at Wisconsin after reading an article of his in the UW Madison Education Library…I did not expect a response from my letter, but I quickly got one in the mail. I was totally flabbergasted! With that piece of snail mail, we formed a lasting friendship.”

“Clearly, David Jonassen’s brilliance in research and theory has made a lasting impact on the field; he pushed the entire field ahead and every person in it (including me). As such, it is a real honor to receive this prestigious award. No one can match David’s level of scholarship, but we can all aspire to build upon and expand it in new and exciting directions,” Bonk added.