Dr. Yukun Zhao’s main research interests are positive education, self-determination, and big data. He serves as the Vice Director of the Positive Psychology Research Center at Tsinghua University, China. In this role, he organizes events like China International Positive Psychology Conferences, develops programs like Positive Education that has been applied in more than 50 schools, produces MOOCs and other online courses in positive psychology, and oversees the Positive Psychology Certificate Program at Tsinghua University that has trained more than 2000 people. He is a member of International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) board of directors, International Positive Education Network (IPEN) global representative to China, and co-founded Beijing Positive Psychology Association. He received his PhD from Tsinghua University, and the Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from University of Pennsylvania. He also holds Master degrees of Computer Science and Chemistry from Rutgers University. Yukun has published five books in China, and co-edited/co-translated four books.

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>Presentation Topic: Positive Online Education: What can technology do for positive education?

Online education is becoming more and more important nowadays. However, students’ learning motivation and effectiveness in online education are questionable compared to traditional classroom education. In this talk, we examine real examples of MOOCs, APPs, and online learning platforms in China to discuss how positive psychology can be used to combine with new internet technology to boost students’ learning motivation and effectiveness, by increasing their PERMA (Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning, Accomplishment) in online learning. Future challenges in positive online education are also discussed.      

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