Welcome! Towson University’s Instructional Technology Graduate Programs are excited to share the wonderful news with our community! Check out this Spring semester's highlights, stories, and accomplishments from students, alumni, and faculty! 

As the Instructional Technology Doctoral Program grows and the University prioritizes doctoral student research, opportunities for student funding abound. For the 23/24 academic year, we will again have opportunities for doctoral students to apply for research assistantships, fellowships, small summer research grants, and scholarships. Application details are noted below. If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask your advisor or the doctoral program director. 

Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Fellowship

The Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Fellowship aims to recognize, encourage, and reward Instructional Technology doctoral students who have shown superior academic merit and personal achievement. These candidates will likely grow and contribute to the field of Instructional Technology while additionally supporting the doctoral program as an alumnus. This $35,000 per year Fellowship will be awarded annually. 

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Students who are eligible for this Fellowship must: 

• Fellowships are offered only to graduate students admitted to or enrolled in graduate degree programs at Towson University.
• Fellows and scholars are expected to devote themselves full-time to graduate study and to register full-time as defined by the unit system.
• Dedicate significant time toward their research and scholarship over the next academic year.
• Embrace the intention of a fellowship through considering research, writing, and coursework as a replacement for a full-time job; consider a leave of absence; resignation from current employment; and/or see the fellowship as an opportunity to change careers.

APPLICATIONS AND DEADLINE

A complete application should include the following items:

• A graduation timeline
• A detailed list of research goals or milestones
• A research summary including the research topic, purpose, and methods (5 pages or less)
• Detailed information regarding professional plans to reflect the intention of the fellowship.

In preparing this application, students are encouraged to communicate with their dissertation advisor. Priority will be given to applicants who receive nominations from their dissertation advisor.

The fellowship will be administered with these requirements for the 23/24 and 24/25 academic years, policies, eligibility and application requirements may change thereafter.

Applications and supporting materials must be emailed to the Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Director istcdoc@towson.edu by (4/21/23).

SELECTION PROCESS

A committee of doctoral faculty will review applications. Awards will be announced in May.

Summer Writing Scholarship

The Summer Writing Scholarship aims to aid qualified Instructional Technology doctoral students who have shown high academic and personal achievement. These candidates will have the opportunity to receive a stipend to pursue focused work on their dissertation during the summer. Students must agree to work towards a scheduled finishing date of their dissertation. Applicants are able to receive $2000.00 for summer and will be awarded annually. Applicants may not receive more than two awards.

APPLICATIONS AND DEADLINE

Eligible applicants must have successfully defended their comprehensive exams by the application deadline. A complete application should include the following items:

• A list of dissertation related goals that must be met during the summer
• A research summary including the research topic, purpose, and methods (5 pages or less)

In preparing this application, students are encouraged to communicate with their dissertation advisor. Priority will be given to applicants who receive nominations from their dissertation advisor.

Applications and supporting materials must be emailed to the Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Director istcdoc@towson.edu by (4/21/23).

The scholarship will be administered with these requirements for the 23/24 and 24/25 academic years, availability, policies, eligibility and application requirements may change thereafter.

SELECTION PROCESS

A committee of doctoral faculty will review applications. Awards will be announced in May.

Summer Research Grant

The Instructional Technology Research Grant aims to aid qualified Instructional Technology doctoral students in pursuing/completing a research project with a faculty member. These candidates will have the opportunity to receive a stipend to work alongside a faculty member at the start of the summer session with the potential to continue through the academic school year. Research projects can be done as a formal study, a pilot study or a training and design experiment. Students must agree to work towards a scheduled finishing date discussed with the collaborating faculty advisor. Applicants are able to receive $2000.00 for summer and will be awarded annually. Applicants may not receive more than two awards.

APPLICATIONS AND DEADLINE

A complete application should include the following items:

• A graduation timeline
• A detailed list of research goals or milestones
• A potential research summary including the research topic, purpose, and methods (5 pages or less)

Suggested research topics include:

•  Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality in Education
• Girls in STEM (Girls who code project)
• Computer Science / Computational Thinking Educator Training
• User Experience (UX) Design
• Emerging topic of your interest

In preparing this application, students are encouraged to communicate with their advisor. Priority will be given to applicants who receive nominations from their advisor.

Applications and supporting materials must be emailed to the Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Director istcdoc@towson.edu by (4/21/23).

The grant will be administered with these requirements for the 23/24 and 24/25 academic years, availability, policies, eligibility and application requirements may change thereafter.

SELECTION PROCESS

A committee of doctoral faculty will review applications. Awards will be announced in May.

Research Assistant Positions

The purpose of the Instructional Technology Graduate Research Assistantship is to aid students and faculty affiliated with the Towson University Instructional Technology Doctoral program. The responsibilities of the Graduate Research Assistant are primarily research related. Graduate Research Assistants provide professional-level support related to research and creative activities under direct supervision by a faculty member.

Graduate students who hold assistantships benefit educationally and professionally. They gain further expertise in their field; enhance their research skills and develop pedagogical skills; acquire experience in leadership, interpersonal effectiveness, academic professionalism; and develop collegial collaborations with advisors that may result in joint publications and other professional activities. Skills learned in assistantships prepare students not only for the academy, but also for corporate, government, and nonprofit organizations.

Full time research assistants receive a bi-weekly stipend and assistants are eligible to receive 12 units of a tuition waiver each term but must be registered for at least 6 units per fall/spring term.



Students interested in being included in the research assistantship pool should submit a letter of interest noting their research experience and interest, graduation timeline, and professional goals. Letters of interest must be emailed to the Instructional Technology Doctoral Program Director istcdoc@towson.edu by (4/21/23).

Congratulations to professor Bonnie Brown for her promotion to lecturer II!

Congratulations to Dr. Jeff Kenton for his promotion to Full Professor!

Congratulations to Dr. Vicky Cai for her promotion to tenured Associate Professor!

Congratulations to Celine Yakoumatos, Graduate Assistant for the Instructional Design and Development (ISDV) Program, who attained an internship for Instructional Design at the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. She will use the experience to launch a freelance instructional design career after graduating this spring. She is also featured on our program website.

Congratulations to Aubrey Zugibe, an Instructional Technology master’s student who is expecting a baby girl in April!

Congratulations to Laila Fahmy for receiving $1000 for the Spring MAEUC Scholarship.

Congratulations to Keishara Harding, an Instructional Technology Master’s student who attained an instructional design internship at the Fire Safety Research Institute in Columbia in the spring of 2023. She is anticipating her graduation in the summer of 2023. 

Alumni Excellence

Congratulations to Dr. Doug Elmendorf, Doctoral Program Alumni, for presenting The Journey from Emergence Remote Learning to a Robust Full-Time Virtual Option in One of America's Largest School Districts: Lessons Learned, at the Program Committee of SITE 2023- Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education annual conference.  

Congratulations to Neil Fung, Master's Program Alumni, for starting a new Journeyman Instructional Systems Designer position at Hatalom Corporation. 

Instructional Technology, Ed.D. Alumna, Dr. Jessica Stansbury, as part of her position as the director of teaching and learning excellence in the BOA Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, and Technology (CELTT) at the University of Baltimore, was interviewed in March for the university website on ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. Recently, she responded to a second round of questions about how the University can best leverage tools such as ChatGPT. Read more here.

Summer 2023

(May 30- July 20)

• ISTC 541: Foundations in Learning Technology and Design
• ISTC 667: Instructional Design and Development
• ISTC 702: Educational Leadership and Technology
• ISTC 767: Advanced Instructional Design and Development 

Fall 2023

First Seven Weeks

• ISTC 667: Instructional Design and Development 
• ISTC 655: Developing Digital Multimedia Materials for Learning Design
• EDUC 605: Informing Educational Practice to Effect Change
• ISTC 603: Foundations of Distance Education

Second Seven Weeks

• ISTC 663: Applied Psychology of Learning
• ISTC 541: Foundations in Learning Technology and Design
• ISTC 685/EDUC761: Research in Instructional Technology/ Inquiry for Practice
• ISTC 787: Instructional Technology Capstone
• EDUC 670: Special topics in education: Experiential Learning *

Full Term (August 28-December18)

• ISTC 700: Assessment in Instructional Technology*
• ISTC 709: Legal and Ethical Issues in Instructional Technology*
• EDUC 791: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods*

* = includes synchronous meetings

Note: All courses are offered asynchronously online. Some courses include synchronous meetings. Doctoral courses, ISTC700, ISTC 709, and EDUC 791, are offered in-person and synchronously online.

Additional notes from Dr. Shargel

In the fall of 2023, Dr. Shargel’s elective, Educ 670: Special topics in education, will engage students in participating in a new online simulation where they will have the chance to face difficult history alongside middle school students from private schools. This will be offered in the second seven weeks and counts as an elective in all graduate programs in the College of Education. Don't hesitate to get in touch with Dr. Shargel if you have questions: rshargel@towson.edu

• Cai, Q. V., & Hong, H. (2022). Improving K-12 teachers’ conceptual competencies in consuming empirical research. Teacher Development, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2022.2160803

• Cai, Q., Hong, H., McNary, S., & Song, L. (Accepted). Developing a robotics program to support students’ computational thinking and preservice teachers’ self-efficacy. Paper accepted to 2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. 

• Duan, S. Pre-service Teachers’ Best Possible Teacher Selves – Just Before the Covid-19. The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Hawaii (IICAH2023).

• Duan, S., Cai, Q., Song, L., & Mcnary, S. Explore Underrepresented Students’ STEM Identity Change in a Robotics Program. AECT 2023.

• Duan, S., Exter, M., Tagare, D., Sabin, M., Janakiraman, S. (Under Review). Essential Competencies for Computing Managers: Skills and Dispositions. Education and Information Technologies (Special Issue). 

• Duan, S., Cai, Q., & Song, L. Peer Mentoring for Professional and Personal Well-being: Application of PERMA Model. Mentoring for Wellbeing in Higher Education (book title). Information Age Publication (IAP).

• Evans, K. & Shargel, R. (2023, May). Students of color confront the legacy of slavery in an online simulation. Paper to be presented at 2023 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Champaign, Urbana, IL

• Harati, H., Yen, C. J, Tu, C. H., & Miller, A. (2022). Social Network Interaction in Online Discussion over Time and Online Social Presence. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL). 

• Harati, H., Tu, C.-H., Meek, J. M., Shelton, C. C., & Sujo-Montes, L. E. (2023, April). Using data-informed learning design as teaching pedagogy to enhance social network interaction development in online discussion. Paper presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL. 

• Li, Q., McCormick, V., Adekoga. A., & Moallem, M. (April 2023). Promoting equity in CS/CT education: A study of girls and underserviced population during the COVID 19 pandemic. Paper presented at the 2023 annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference, Chicago.

• Moallem, M, Billman R, Loksa, D, Vandiver, M, Li, Q, Kara, M, Christenson, L, Cai, Q, Engbert, C, & Ali-Gombe, A (Apr. 2023). Preparing Pre-K-8 preservice teachers to learn and teach computational thinking: A collaborative, user-centered design model. Paper presented at the 2023 annual American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference, Chicago.

• Robinson, D and Kodama, C. (2023, April). Successes and Challenges of Using Emerging Technologies to Simulate Authentic Learning Activities. Paper presented at Maryland Distance Learning Association Conference.

• Song, L., Sadera, W., & Caples, R. (2023). Faculty experiences of teaching HyFlex classes: A collaborative self-study. Paper accepted for Hawaii International Conference in Education, Honolulu, HI.

• Shargel, R. (2023, May). Preteens Confront Difficult History in Online Simulations. Paper to be presented at the 2023 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Champaign, Urbana, IL

• Werner, J. M., Miller, A., Harati, H., Yen, C. J., Tu, C.-H., & Gabaldon, C. (2023, April). Social network Interaction and students' cognitive presence in online discussion. Paper presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL

• Yen, C.-J., Tu, C.-H., Harati, H., & Terrill, W. (2023, April). Student closeness in online social Interaction and online discussion threads. Paper presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA), Chicago, IL. 

• Yen, C. J., Tu, C. H., Ozkeskin, E. E., Harati, H., & Sujo-Montes, L. (2022). Social network interaction and self-regulated learning skills: Community development in online discussions. American Journal of Distance Education, 36(2), 103-120.

• Yen, C. J., Tu, C. H., Tankari, M., ÖZKESKİN, E. E., Harati, H., & Miller, A. (2022). A predictive study of students’ social presence and their interconnectivities in the social network interaction of online discussion board. Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching. https://journals.sfu.ca/jalt/index.php/jalt/article/view/463/427

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