Program alignment with professional standards ensures that students gain competency-based skills that can be transferred to the workplace environment. Employers continue to place a greater value on these skills. Establishing curriculum alignment with professional standards can assist with annual program evaluations, student learning outcomes, and…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how learning design and educational technology degree programs prepare students to evaluate in practice. This study involved the curricular mapping of 16 graduate instructional design programs and 29 semi-structured interviews with program faculty and recent postgraduates. Based on information…

The online environment presents a unique challenge to higher education. Shifting from the face-to-face format to online not only involves rethinking course design, but requires careful consideration of when and how to teach students, how to find and evaluate information needed to successfully complete coursework. One solution is faculty teaming…

This article reports the views of recent graduates of a competency based, blended learning teacher education programme for specialist resource teachers of children with learning and behaviour difficulties in New Zealand. Identifying and developing the competencies needed by teachers in the field of special needs education is important in ensuring…

The benefit of external, often industry-based, speakers for a seminar series associated with both undergraduate and graduate programmes is relatively unchallenged. However, the means by which such a seminar series can be encapsulated within a structured learning module, and the appropriate design of an accompanying assessment methodology, is not…

The Educational Technology Certificate (ETC.) courses at Michigan State University are a set of three courses that can be taken as a standalone qualification or as the first three courses in the Master's of Educational Technology degree. Together, the courses emphasize the development of technology skills and advanced mindsets for technology…

A graduate course, ETEC543 ("Technology and Learning I"), was revised to better serve increasing new student population, international students, in an academic program. Project-based learning, Google Docs, and instructional strategies fostering diversity and critical thinking were incorporated into the course redesign. Observations,…

The Great-Plains IDEA Gerontology Program is a graduate program developed and implemented by the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (Great Plains IDEA). The Great Plains IDEA (Alliance) originated as a consortium of Colleges of Human Sciences ranging across the central United States. This Alliance's accomplishments have included…

With contemporary requirements for objective measurement, program evaluation is a certain necessity. Most program evaluation is designed in response to external demands for assessment. Moreover, such evaluation is typically developed only after programs already exist. However, the proliferation of online learning provides new opportunities for…

A purpose-built blend of teaching and learning activities was used with trainee teachers on a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course, and subsequently evaluated in a cyclical action research study, over a period of two years. The purpose of the blend was to engender the formation of a learning community, by giving them access to each…

Describes and contrasts selected graduate programs so that patterns and directions of this emerging field can be examined by the community of educational researchers, and reviews the programs of a few major institutions in an attempt to define general characteristics among, and differences between them. (Author/JEG)

This paper presents an empirical study of how Second Life (SL) was utilized for a highly successful project-based graduate interdisciplinary communication course. Researchers found that an integrated threefold approach emphasizing project-based pedagogy, technical training and support, and assessment/research was effective in cultivating and…

What should the curriculum of a graduate program that focuses on education, technology, and society be? What would be the proper balance of skills, theory, and concepts? What should be the difference between such a program in the School of Education and a computer science program? What do students expect of such a program? These were questions…

This paper offers a case history of one university academic department's experience with the pressure to create online scholarship opportunities for professional educators. As tertiary education transforms its course delivery to Web-based learning management platforms, instructors are challenged to transform career-long practice suddenly and…

This paper describes selected issues and concerns facing students who are deciding upon a masters or doctoral program in instructional technology. Issues of recognition, program identification, and environment are considered to help students trying to choose a program from the nearly 200 masters level and over 60 doctoral level programs offered by…