Caraology 101: Introduction to being a PhD student in Learning Technologies

This article is the introduction in a series, My Learning Technologies PhD Experience, Autumn 2018. This series will share facts, emotions, and challenges of being a PhD student.

If you don't know me, I'm Cara. This is my 10th year in the Learning and Development business (for full bio and work history, check my LinkedIn profile). I am an Instructional Designer for The Ohio State University's College of Education and Human Ecology in Columbus, Ohio. I am fortunate to love what I do and I enjoy working with faculty to create learning experiences. A fringe benefit to my job is free tuition. When I moved to Columbus almost 6 years ago, I decided to work at Ohio State for this reason. I was able to finish a masters in a year and a half and recently decided to take the plunge to earn a PhD.

Everything was going well. Almost too well. I was able to go to London this summer for a conference and then to Amsterdam to present research with my advisor and our research group. I had a family emergency that I needed to fly back to the States before I had the opportunity to present at the conference. While dealing with this event, it's the first time the thought came to my mind.

"I don't want to do this anymore."

When something like that happens in your life, your priorities change. The things you worry about on a daily basis, the small common annoyances, they don't matter. All you can think about is your loved one. I'm grateful to the wonderful people I've worked for at Ohio State for letting me spend time with my family during this difficult time. Towards the end of the summer, I had more doubts on if I should continue my studies. A recent study from Inside Higher Ed found that almost 40% of graduate students scored in the moderate to severe depression range. While the data was self-reported, I assume that's them dealing with the pressure of being a student. Let alone just life in general.

To say this was a difficult decision was an understatement but what made it easier was that it is what my Mom encouraged me to do. The reason I'm providing this context is that I think often, earning a PhD is glamorized. I know there are thousands of stories like mine out there with similar circumstances.

A PhD doesn't make you smarter than someone. A PhD doesn't make you better than someone. A PhD does not guarantee you a high paying job. All a PhD does is let you become an expert in a tiny domain of the knowledge bucket. That's it. All the talk about it being this vehicle for self-growth, I'd argue one could spend the money on therapy and also thrive.

With all of that being said I am committed to finshing this journey. In true Cara fashion, I added more pressure on myself this semester by being a full-time student in addition to working full-time. It wasn't my smartest move but I did it because of the coursework I took. All three courses were required for my degree and I feared if I didn't take them all this semester, I would have to wait a while until they are offered again.

My program (Learning Technologies) is realtively small. My group (I think we are too small to be a cohort) consists of 3 students. I'm not sure the actual number of students in my program but I know that besides myself, my advisor has 2 other PhD students. Most of my classes are small with about 15 or less people in them. A majority of my coursework overlaps with the Masters of Learning Technology curriculum so those courses have more students because that program is bigger.

Here are the courses I took this semester:

• Proseminar in Educational Policy and Leadership(face to face, Wednesdays from 7:10pm-9:50pm). This course is required for all PhD and EdD students in the College of Education and Human Ecology. It is considered a common core class that lasts a year with the second part in Spring of 2019. This was the largest class I've had in my journey thus far with around 55 students. Each week we met professors and students from different sectors in the college to discuss their research and about their fields.
• Methods of Inquiry in Learning Technologies(face to face, Thursdays from 4:10PM-6:50PM). This course focused on different types of research methodologies beyond just quantitative and qualitative research. This course's culminating assignment was creating a research proposal with a literature review. I'll share more about this project in future articles in this series
• Theories in Learning Technology(online). This course explored several theories about learning technologies. Yes, learning styles came up. No, they still aren't a thing. This course's culminating assignment was writing a research to practice paper about a topic of my choosing. I initially wanted to explore learner engagement in a face to face and an online environment but I ended up exploring the Split-Attention Principle and designing instruction with this in mind.

From these courses, here are the 10 main topics I took away from the semester. Each of these topics will have a more in depth article written about them.

1. Cognitive complexity
2. Synthesis versus summary
3. Unconscious Bias
4. Cognitive views of learning
5. Social Cognitive Theory
6. Situated Learning Theory
7. Learning Analytics and Big Data
8. Analytics Based Research
9. Data Analysis: Content and Nework
10. Design-Based Research

After reading this if you have any other questions you'd like to ask about being a PhD student, please comment below. I'm happy to answer them.