Category: AECT

#AECT2017 Early Career Symposium: Now Accepting Applicants

AECT’s Research and Theory Division will be hosting the 2017 Early Career Symposium this year sponsored by AECT. The symposium will be held as a half day online conference October 28th and at the annual AECT International Convention on Tuesday, November 7 (half day 1-6 PM starting with lunch) and Wednesday, November 8 (half day, 7:30AM – noon, ending with lunch together with the AECT Board), 2017, in Jacksonville, Florida. The symposium will thus engage participants in a day and a half of focused career mentoring and networking.

The symposium will reimburse Early Career faculty and Advanced Graduate Students with the conference fee ($395 for Early Career Faculty and $240 for Advanced Graduate Students). Reimbursements are pending submission of receipts after the symposium.

http://www.aect.org/events/mentor/CareerSymposium.asp

 

IDT (or related field) Departments/Programs Social Media Spreadsheet

We (George Veletsianos, Royce Kimmons, and I) would like to compile a list of PUBLIC social media outlets that instructional design (or related fields) departments/programs use to interact with their graduate students. Please help us by entering the information about the social media outlets used by your program, in this spreadsheet [Thank you]:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19aNLroDOo9cx8sIZnnDOUO8s7WTSmPUqt7lovrbaiQE/edit#gid=0

 

 

 

Learning from Las Vegas #AECT16 [Recap]

It has been a year of conference planning and work in preparation for #AECT16. I am happy with the outcome of the Research & Theory Division (RTD) division sessions and I am confident on the quality of the presentations. Since I had several president-elect commitments I was not able to attend many of the sessions but I received good feedback from those who attended the sessions. Thanks to all that helped and supported the Research and Theory Division before and during the conference.

The preparations for #AECT17 started already. RTD PD Professional Coordinators are already working on the grant preparation for the Early Career Symposium. Our RTD conference planner & research and theory coordinator had their first Convention Planning Committee meeting. Also, during the RTD membership meeting several topics related to research methodology and theoretical perspectives were mentioned as recommendations for the professional development coordinator-elect to consider. The RTD board, specifically our past president, has already started looking for potential nominees to serve in our division during the 2017-2018 service year. We are also preparing to launch several initiatives that will serve to connect graduate students and faculty members.

On a personal note, I am so grateful to be part of the AECT family and all my other sub-families (ESU IDT, ODU IDT, and UT IDT). I am very grateful that I was able to attend the AECT conference this year (since I was not able to attend #AECT15). I made new connections with first timers or individuals who I’ve never had the opportunity meet in the past. As usual, it was great to see and talk to those who I consider not only colleagues but also my friends. Hope to see everyone next year in Jacksonville!

For quick access to the #AECT16 hashtag tweets click here:

Sneak Preview: #AECT16 Research & Theory Division Highlights

Yesterday, I purchased my plane ticket to Las Vegas (to attend the AECT 2016 International Convention later this year).  This reminded me that I wanted to share a sneak preview of the AECT Research & Theory Division (RTD) sessions. As you know (if you read my blog posts regularly), I have the pleasure of serving as the AECT RTD Convention Planner as well as the Featured Research (FR) Sessions planner. The peer review process for all the sessions was earlier this year (it was not an easy process). The AECT RTD had a large number of good submissions and, at the same time, it had a limited number of allotted presentation hours (plus we had very rigorous reviewers). Now that the review process is completed and all accepted authors have been notified, all planners put together division highlights for the conference printed program. Below are the sneak preview or “highlights” for the AECT RTD and Featured Research Sessions. The full AECT16 schedule will be available in a few months.

Featured Research Sessions: https://cloudup.com/cZomjap6oqL

Research and Theory Highlights: https://cloudup.com/cs6T_t6JAID

For more info about the conference, visit the AECT 2016 website: http://www.aect.org/events/convhotel/

 

 

IT faculty job search: What every international student needs to know [Panel Presentation at #AECT15]

I was not able to physically attend the #AECT15 but I was happy to make this video for the panel presentation “IT faculty job search: What every international student needs to know.” Hope international students in the instructional design field find it helpful.

#AECT14: Learning, Design, and Technology

This year the AECT conference was held in the wonderful state of Florida, just 3 hours northeast of the Tampa Bay area, in Jacksonville. It was a conference that I was looking forward to attend because several of the students in the UT ID&T program [Follow the program in Facebook and Twitter] were attending and presenting!

The first day of the conference for me was the Wednesday afternoon, two grad students from the UT ID&T program were presenting and I wanted to be there for their session. They wrote the initial version of their proposal as part of a midterm paper assignment in a course I taught in the Fall 2013 semester (my first semester as a faculty member). The topic of their papers were mainly related to motivation elements in the learning process. Their session was well attended and I felt extremely proud of their first conference presentation. Several attendees of the sessions had comments and questions about the topic of the presentation as well as feedback on their research topics. It was also nice to see the support from other UT ID&T classmates and faculty that attended the session. This was definitely a highlight of the conference for me.

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Another important part of the conference was to meet with my colleagues and friends from the AECT Research and Theory Division to discuss important topics related to future conference proposals, the professional development webinars, and future elections. I was not able to attend the RTD board meeting but I was there for the membership meeting, which included all the board members. It was nice to catch up with all of them, I know some of my fellow board members for many years now. One of the decisions that was made during the meeting is that the division will continue to elect a PD webinar facilitator for future webinars. I am glad that the RTD Professional Development Webinars started by Dr. Min Kyu Kim and myself as a suggestions Dr. Michael Grant will continue to be a part of the RTD division mission. While at the conference the PD webinars were recognized by the AECT leadership as well as the RTD board members.

I will continue to participate in the RTD board for one more year as Secretary. One of my primary roles will be the RTD newsletter and I am excited to make it happen. I want them to be fun, creative, and interactive. I am considering running another RTD position in the future but I am still thinking about it.

During the conference I presented in two sessions. One of the sessions related to a new research effort on the use of social media initiatives and strategies for professional development. In my particular case, I discussed the social media initiatives started for the ID&T program at the University of Tampa. The presentation discussed the current strategies implemented for the professional development of the instructional design graduate students. I also discussed the second phase of this research effort which includes data collection using qualitative and quantitative data. The other presentation that I had during the AECT conference was an informal panel presentation in which a group of international faculty (including myself) discussed with international graduate students the lessons learned during the first year in a tenured track faculty position and the tenure process in different universities. I am halfway through my second tenure-track year so it was nice to share my experience of the first year with the audience. In a way it helped me reflect on my experience. It was also nice to hear the experiences of other colleagues.

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One of my favorite social gatherings during the AECT conference was the UT ID&T dinner. We were a small group of seven but it was such a nice and relaxing time. We talked about the AECT experience, the people we had met, the topics of discussion in different sessions, and we talked about our own program. As I mentioned in my tweet about the dinner: “Good food and good conversations!”

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I look forward to AECT next year (as I always do)! I hope the UT ID&T program continues to have a graduate student presence and that the students in the program continue to present at the conference. I also hope that next year I have more time to chat with so many colleagues and friends. It was very nice to see them and it really reminded me of how lucky I am to be part of such an amazing professional family. See you all at #AECT15 in Indianapolis!

The #AECT Tenure and Promotion Guide

I was browsing the AECT website this morning to access a chapter from the Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology and came across this publication titled: “The AECT Tenure and Promotion Guide.”

The_AECT_Tenure_and_Promotion_Guide

The purpose and scope of the document are described as:

“AECT is dedicated to serving its members, and one of the services provided is this basic tenure and promotion guide. Its purpose is to provide a point of departure and a general set of guidelines for those being considered for tenure or promotion. This guide is intended to help orient faculty seeking tenure or promotion and to direct them to other resources pertinent to their specific situations. In all cases, a faculty member seeking tenure and promotion should become familiar with local procedures and expectations and seek the advice of local mentors. A general guide such as this cannot possible address all of the relevant issues and concerns that exist at any particular institution.

Contributors to this document included Mike Spector, Chuck Hodges, Andy Gibbons, Jan Elen, Elizabeth Boling. Others involved in the effort are working on an expanded version to be published separately. It is available at no cost to members of AECT. The copyright belongs to AECT (2014). Use of the document for non-monetary academic use is granted so long as this acknowledgement citing the source is included in what is shared: The AECT Tenure and Promotion (T&P) Guide, first published online by AECT in 2014 – see www.aect.org.”

If you are going through tenure and promotion in your institution this should be a good source of guidance and resources. Good luck!

ERH

AECT 2013: Research, Networking & Professional Development

This year, like all previous years, I was looking forward to the AECT conference. I look forward to meeting with my Emporia State University IDT family and the Old Dominion University IDT group. I also get to interact with friends and colleagues that I have made over the years at AECT. It is always the anticipation of knowing that you will get to see each other face-to-face rather than having a conference call or a virtual conversation via videochat. This year as usual it was great to see everyone! The plane ride to Anaheim, California was long but worth it.

I attended meetings for the Research & Theory Division. We have new leadership that will be taking over and we all want the transition to be a smooth one. Also, there are new ideas and members that are interested in joining the conversation. Elections will start in February so we are hoping to recruit members for several positions. I just finished my term as secretary of the division but will continue to work as Professional Development Facilitator focused on the webinar series. I was able to catch up with my co-facilitator during the conference and we are in the initial planning stages of our second webinar (which we hope to have in December).

My participation at AECT 2013 also consisted of two presentations. The first one was the Design & Development Showcase, which was a very busy time! It was a lot of fun and I was able to meet people that were very interested on the topic of the simulation that I helped design for my dissertation research. It was a great way to showcase the work that had happened for the last two years of my life. The second presentation was a concurrent session focused on the validation study that I conducted while pilot testing the animations that were used for the final simulation.

This year I also attended several keynote sessions and I have to say I really enjoyed the keynote presentations. They were current, lively and very informative! AECT was broadcasting the sessions live and will also have a link of the recordings in the few weeks (for those that missed it!). Overall, my experience was just fantastic. I love connecting with new colleagues and re-connecting with old ones. I also took sometime to provide advise to current doctoral students and just let them know that “it will be okay at the end… just keep at it and never, never give up.”

I am already looking forward to AECT 2014 because it will be in Jacksonville! Welcome to Florida AECT! But for now it is time to email new connections and to look/read at all the resources/information that I gained at the conference.