The European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) offers an Emerging Field Group (EFG) funding scheme. The goal of the EFG initiative is to support the development of a research group focused on exploratory, innovative, and risk-taking research. EARLI supports the EFG over the course of a two-year period. See the following video for a short intro about EFG funding:
This year, the EARLI EFG committee awarded funding to the “Social- and Telepresence in Online Social Learning” emerging field group, which consists of Emmy Vrieling Teunter (Open University, Netherlands), Kamakshi Rajagopal (KU Leuven, Belgium), Karel Kreijns (Open University, Netherlands), Maartje Henderikx (Open University, Netherlands), Derya Orhan Göksün (Adiyaman University, Turkey), and Joshua Weidlich (DIPF, Germany).
The group will explore how perceptions of social-and telepresence are fostered in virtual learning environments (technological and social) and how these perceptions affect online (social) learning and its regulation. The extra funding will lead to the deepening of ongoing research in the field of social learning and strengthen international relationships in this area. Ultimately, this collaboration will lead to a new EARLI SIG community.