Byunghoon (Tony) Ahn, PhD, MEd

abhtony@mail.ubc.ca
Full Publication List

Dr. Byunghoon (Tony) Ahn is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Health Education Scholarship (CHES), University of British Columbia. He is an education research and development specialist with focus on simulation-based education, health communication, and applied learning sciences. His work emphasizes multimodal methods with instructional technology to support feedback and assessment in healthcare and education. At CHES, his current projects include examining the feasibility of 3D video–based simulations designed to strengthen communication skills in clinical training.

As a former postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at the University of Victoria and a PhD graduate in Experimental Surgery from McGill University, Tony applies an interdisciplinary approach to healthcare education, digital learning experiences, and resilience-focused interventions. Tony seeks to integrate design thinking into sociomedical sciences to advance how research and practice prioritize patient- and learner-centered experiences in knowledge dissemination, skill acquisition, and the social dimensions of health.

Methodologically, his interests include wearable physiological sensors for multimodal emotion analysis (e.g., electrodermal activity, heart rate variability, and electroencephalography); machine learning and AI-assisted qualitative methods (e.g., sentiment analysis, AI-based content analysis); and case study approaches.

Beyond health professions education research, Tony contributes to community and public oriented research relating to affective science such as emotions. Examples include a study in Gyeonggi-do examining emotion regulation profiles, community belonging, and psychological distress among young adults to inform resilience-oriented supports. Another example is a story-driven digital resource developed during his appointment at the University of Victoria that helps Asian parents identify racial bullying, discuss identity and stress with their children, and access culturally responsive guidance.

Award

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Doctoral Award (2022-2024)

Grant

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Insight Development Grant (2025-2027)

Research Interests

My research interests include:

• Simulation-based education design and evaluation
• Nontechnical skills training: teamwork, communication, leadership
• Instructional technology: VR, 3D video, analytics
• Multimodal assessment and actionable feedback
• Knowledge translation and implementation science

Publication Highlights

• Ahn, B. T., et al. “Multimodal Cluster Analysis of Medical Residents’ Emotions During High-Fidelity Harassment Bystander Simulation.” Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2025.
• Ahn, B. T., et al. “Learning Activity Sequence, Simulation, and Productive Failure in Anti-Harassment Education.” Simulation in Healthcare, 2025.
• Harley, J. M., Ahn, B. T., et al. “Evaluating an Animated, Story-Driven Media Literacy Video to Improve Media Credibility Accuracy and Understand the Role of Epistemic Emotions in Credibility Ratings.” European Journal of Psychology of Education, vol. 40, no. 3, 2025, p. 70.
• Peters, H., Ahn, B. T., et al. “Anti-Harassment Policies across Canadian and International Medical Programs: Strengths, Areas for Improvement, and a Need for Standardization.” Canadian Medical Education Journal, 2025.
• Johnson, M. J., Ahn, B. T., et al. “Get Over It: Surgical Residents’ Responses to Simulated Harassment. A Multi-Method Study.” Journal of Surgical Education, vol. 82, no. 3, 2025, article 103397.
• Ahn, B. T., et al. “A Scoping Review of Emotions and Related Constructs in Simulation Based Education Research Articles.” Advances in Simulation, vol. 8, no. 1, 2023, article 22.

Presentation Highlights

• Ahn, B. T., et al. “Creating Parent Scenarios Based on Qualitative Interviews: Visual Narratives to Support Asian Canadian Families Facing Racial Bullying.” Where’s the Patient’s Voice in Health Professional Education 20 Years On? Nov. 2025, Vancouver, Canada. Poster to be presented.
• Lee, S., et al. “Emotion Regulation Profiles, Community Belonging, and Psychological Distress among Young Adults in Gyeonggi-do, Korea.” APS Global Psychological Science Summit, Oct. 2025, virtual conference. Poster to be presented.
• Matin, N., et al. “Physiological Arousal in Anti-Harassment Simulations: Addressing Harassment in Medical Education.” International Conference on Motivation and Emotion (ICM), Aug. 2024, Bern, Switzerland. Paper presented.
• Ahn, B. T., et al. “Maximizing Sims: Video-Based Sim Prebriefing.” SimOps, July 2024, Aurora, US. Video course presented.
• Ahn, B. T., Johnson, M., Matin, N., Sun, N., Derby, N., German, E., Hug, L., Solomon, H., and Harley, J. “Educating Medical Residents on Harassment with Simulations and Videos: Does Order of Educational Activities Matter?” American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Apr. 2024, Philadelphia, US. Paper.
• Ahn, B. T., Lau, C., and Harley, J. “Using Hierarchical Time Series Clustering to Capture the Trajectories of Epistemic Emotions: The Case of Confusion.” International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), June 2023, Montreal, Canada. Poster.