Week 14 - Educational Technology Degrees for all!

     Tonight in R-511, Dr. Tiffany Roman, an Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University mentioned that her school recently began an undergraduate degree in learning design and technology.  This made me think of the article from Ritzhaupt and Kang, "Are we ready for bachelor's degrees in educational technology?" (2015).  Through their study, experts in the field were surveyed and largely agreed that a bachelor's degree in educational technology would be appropriate as a 4 year degree, and the majority agreed that the course should be a combination of face to face and online learning.  This blended approach was appealing to more than 70% of participants, but less than 45% would recommend either a full in person course or a completely online course. 

    Experts agree that there should be some pre-requisite knowledge such as computer skills, psychology, and composition, but that some other courses, such as Economics and Calculus would not be necessary for a successful degree.  

    One of the largest disagreements was what the degree should be called.  This comes up frequently in articles for R-511, and in discussions.  In fact, tonight, Dr. Merve Basdogan referred to this same topic from job posting research paper that she did as well.  Some of the included educational technology, instructional design, instructional technology, instructional design and technology, learning design and technology and more.  It seems that there won't be an agreement on this topic anytime soon, which does pose some potential challenges for job seekers in the field.

    I appreciate that the course that is proposed includes an HPT component.  This is ever changing and I feel that students will appreciate the vast scope of this course at a bachelor's level as well as a graduate level degree pursuit.  

*Note: At time of writing, University of Florida did NOT offer a Bachelor's in Educational Technology - there were, however, certificate programs in Instructional Design as well as Master's and Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs in Educational Technology. 

Ritzhaupt, A.D., & Kang, Y. (2015). Are we ready for bachelor's degrees in educational technology?: Perceptions from the field and a proposal. Educational Technology, 55(30), 14 - 22. 

Comments

  1. DreamCatApril 20, 2022 at 7:28 AM

    Hi Katie,

    Actually, I first learned about this field, Instructional Technology, when I came to America. I had no idea what ID/IT was. Perhaps that's because there wasn't a proper name for this field. The name should reveal the identity of the field, and I think it is because this field is unifying all fields. Dr. Basdogan's study also pointed out that several names for this field are used interchangeably.
    I agree with you. I think you need some prior knowledge to study in this field. "some pre-requisite knowledge such as computer skills, psychology, and composition, but that some other courses, such as Economics and Calculus would not be necessary for a successful degree." To be honest, I'm not sure if this major is suitable for undergraduates. As experts say, in order to study this field properly, you need to take basic courses as well as various basic skills. Personally, I think it's right to do it in graduate school. It seems a bit overwhelming for students who have just finished high school.

    What is your opinion?

    Thank you.
    Best,
    Sunmi

    ReplyDelete

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