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Getting IT Programs for Graduate Students Off the Ground

Abstract

Implementing a program for training graduate students in the use of instructional technology, forces one to address issues at once unique to graduate students and common to all IT-adopting instructors. This session will discuss the obstacles faced during the implementation of a graduate IT certification program, and approaches taken at other institutions. An outline for program and curriculum development may be formed by looking at these approaches and matching them to your institution.

Description

Graduate students may play a vital role in the adoption of instructional technology by university teaching faculty. Graduate students are less entrenched in their teaching methods than many faculty members, and more likely to come from a generation where such technologies were ubiquitous. As instructors, they may then serve as a valuable resource for instructional technology specialists and faculty alike: by providing a crucial marriage of technical skills and discipline-specific knowledge, and facilitating the dissemination of information on the use of instructional technology throughout their various departments of the university.

Still, a graduate student more familiar with word processing and web browsing than her dissertation adviser still needs to learn what the pedagogical motivations for using technology in the classroom are. Moreover, obstacles at once unique to graduate students and common to all IT-adopting instructors must be overcome.

Duke University's Graduate School has implemented a program for training its graduate students in the use of such technologies, and has had to address these issues along the way. This session will discuss the obstacles an instructional technology specialist at a private university has faced during the implementation of a graduate certification program in instructional technology, and will examine approaches taken at other institutions. By looking at the benefits and shortcomings of these approaches and matching them to your institution, those seeking to bring graduate students into the instructional technology enterprise will have an outline for program and curriculum development. Finally, suggestions for assessing the success of such programs will be offered.