Can anyone answer or explain the following questions:
- How many universities in the United States offer an educational/instructional technology program?
- How many universities in the United States offer a learning sciences program?
- Why are there rare undergraduate ed-tech programs or learning sciences programs in the United States? Why are most of them graduate level?
- What are some considerations when a university is going to offer an ed-tech program or a learning sciences program?
Are there any papers or books discussing these questions?
Hello, To answer part of your question: I am in a Learning Technologies program. The University of North Texas is one of the few universities in the USA to use the label "Learning Technologies." Almost all of the other universities call it "Educational Technology." I am enrolled under the College of Information. Yet I have seen other universities offer similar courses through the College of Education or in the Psychology department. Some universities dwell on neuroscience. However, the courses I have taken spend more time investigating instructional design models. I hope this helps. Happy New Year!
Scott Mavers Hi Scott, thank you for posting an answer to my questions! I'm a 4th-year doc student in the ISLT program at the University of Missouri. I know that UNT has a Learning Technologies program, and Dr. J. Michael Spector, a distinguished professor in the ed-tech field, works in your program. Actually, I have several friends in your program. They are either Ph.D. students or visiting scholars. Happy new year!
All right, let me answer my questions.
Question1: How many universities in the United States offer an educational/instructional technology program?
AECT collected information on degree programs in educational communications and technology and published the directory 'Degree Curricula in Educational Communications and Technology' (AECT, 2015). Here is the website:
https://members.aect.org/Curricula/
In this list, we have 142 universities offering an ed-tech degree. However, the list is not up-to-date. For example, Florida Gulf Coast University offers both master's and doctoral degrees in ed-tech, but this university is not listed.
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Question 2: How many universities in the United States offer a learning sciences program?
Not yet found any valuable information.
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Question 3: Why are there rare undergraduate ed-tech programs or learning sciences programs in the United States? Why are most of them graduate level?
There are 13 universities in the United States offering undergraduate ed-tech programs (AECT, 2015). For example, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of Texas at Brownsville, and Western Illinois University (Hu et al., 2017). However, the article written by Hu et al. was published in 2017, so things might have changed.
Regarding why there are rare undergraduate ed-tech programs in the U.S., according to Hu et al. (2017), ed-tech is an applied discipline that expects its students to have knowledge about a specific domain before starting their learning and study in the ed-tech field. While high school graduates and undergraduate students rarely have knowledge or work experience in a specific domain or industry field, it is then unnecessary to offer ed-tech programs in the undergraduate stage.
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Question 4: What are some considerations when a university is going to offer an ed-tech program or a learning sciences program?
According to a friend of mine from Florida State University (who conducted an unpublished study regarding undergraduate ed-tech programs in the U.S.), there are rare undergraduate ed-tech programs because not enough students would apply for such a program. Applicant size is a very practical consideration for university/college administrators.
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References
AECT. (2015). Curricula Data of Degree Programs in Educational Communications and Technology. Association for Educational Communications and Technology [AECT]. https://members.aect.org/Curricula/
Hu, L., Zhang, B., Cheng, L., & Zhang, J. (2017). What Caused the Weakened Undergraduate Educational Technology Major in China——A Case Study on the Abolishment of Undergraduate Educational Technology Major at a Comprehensive Research University. Modern Distance Educational Research, 2017(2), 77-87.
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