“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

-Franklin D. Rooservolt

Self Assessment

Unlike most of my colleagues who came to our program with extensive teaching or research experiences in LDT, my background in arts is not optimal for understanding some of those foundational theories existing in education. Therefore, I gave myself some targets to achieve from the beginning of my Ph.D. journey: understand and establish a solid foundation of theoretical background, use my experience and new knowledge to find my research interest, gain as much academic experience as I can, and lastly, determine myself to this career path. As the 1st year of my Ph.D. study comes to an end, I think my self-assessment will follow these four goals.

  • Although I have some knowledge in learning theories and methodologies from my previous graduate studies, they do not cater to instructional designs. In order to mitigate this gap, I took a deep dive into those foundational theories and books that gave me abundant knowledge to fill this gap. Knowing how different scholars and researchers have been working toward finding the ultimate solution and framework for online learning encourages me to quickly organize what I want to research and explore in the future. At the same time, I really appreciate all of my coursework and provided readings thus far for allowing me to expand my understanding and topics, and they also enlighten me to merge my research interest with newly obtained knowledge altogether.

    After a whole year of study, I cannot say I have fully mitigated the gap but gradually catching up in the process, and I know I might need other theories related to educational psychology or teacher education to reinforce my ideas. Hopefully, I can continue explore those topics further in my future studies.

  • Coming from an online teaching background as well as qualitative research training from previous jobs, I understand that those qualities can help me gain a head start for deciding my research interest and methods used for future studies. While learning new information related to online learning, I keep reflecting on my teaching experience during the COVID-19 pandemic (when I started teaching) to identify key factors to improve the overall quality and satisfaction of online learning. As more information and ideas came in, my experience and new knowledge combined organically to form my conceptual framework.

    Speaking of the conceptual framework, it is a bit heartbreak that I cannot research every factor that I want to improve, and sacrifices have to make. However, I understand the conundrum between the practicality and theoretical ideal in academic research, therefore I can try to rethink how to fulfill my desire to learn by other ways.

  • From my past learning experiences, I had no chance at all to attend any kind of formal or informal academic conferences or panels to broaden my perspectives and understanding, so I told myself that I wanted to make myself visible and well-informed. Starting from the Fall 2023 semester, I have attended AECT 2023 and multiple guest lectures organized by UGA and/or our department and tried to reach out to alumni or other like-minded researchers and scholars to share my thoughts and topics. They help me to expand my network of subject matter experts in our field.

  • One of the hardest things in doctoral studies, in my opinion, is persistence. I always regard my grandfather as my role model as he endured wartime, civil turmoil, family hardship, and multiple obstacles in academics to become one of the early pioneers of cancer studies and chemotherapy in China. When I talked to him about why he persisted throughout those years, he simply replied that this was his responsibility and passion to bring the betterment to our society as a scholar, a researcher, and a doctor.

    Once starting my doctoral study, I need to put myself into the same suit as my grandfather and turn my passion into my momentum to learn, research, and teach.

Program Assessment

Before joining our department, I had asked and heard from lots of Ph.D. students from other departments and/or different schools talking about their lives, surprises, and struggles in their careers. Being someone just freshly graduated from a graduate program on the West Coast, I had so much speculation and fear about what my time at UGA LDT would look like as I stepped in the front door of River’s Crossing on my first day of class. After one whole year of learning, researching, and living within our community, I have been more appreciative and surprised to see the uniqueness and supportive culture within it.

  • Starting from the first semester, I attended EDIT 8100E, EDIT 8190, and EDIT 8990 to understand the foundational theories, differences in learning technologies, and ways to be a more skillful learner, researcher, and thinker in our field. For those classes, I had a chance to work and get along with my 1st-year cohort as well as 2nd and 3rd-year students to understand life as a Ph.D. student, build connections and friendships within our community, and get to know our fabulous faculty members in the process. This is very rare to me because I never had such an experience from my previous studies, and due to the smaller size and uniqueness of our department, I enjoyed this community-building and preparation setting to allow us to quickly accommodate ourselves to the new academic life. In the next semester, I had a chance to continue exploring different topics and skills that could be helpful for my future research, therefore I took the leap and challenged myself to learn Q methodology under Dr. Rieber (EDIT 8390E) and found my new favorite research method for my research interest. I also continued to refine my qualitative research skills in QUAL 8400 to establish my theoretical foundations and practical approaches for a more academic setting. In terms of dealing with issues in writing and researching, EDIT 8900 had become a crucial part of helping us to think more critically to make the paper well-organized and be ready to publish, and Dr. Kopcha also encouraged us to do so with our own topics, helping us to decide if our research is workable and impactful to our field. I have enjoyed myself in those classes, and I am very thankful that those classes are giving us both theoretical and practical knowledge simultaneously.

  • Outside the classroom, I can see how our department builds and retains our community in multiple ways. I am thankful that my advisor Dr. Janette Hill has been a very supportive person of my research, studies, and well-being in this small Southern town. Whenever I get confused or conflicted about my next step in research, she is always there to answer my questions, give suggestions or opportunities to change, and bring lots of encouragement to continue my path. We never felt a lack of topics to discuss during our meetings, and our conversations have given me new thoughts and perspectives to improve my studies and research. Also, her mentorship turns into cares and surprises to cheer me up and energize my day, and I always look forward to meeting her. On the other hand, the openness and inclusiveness of our department also allow me to get along with my cohort, and we have built camaraderie through social gatherings or events held by our WEIT student government. We are future scholars as we research more, but we are still friends and supportive allies by heart.

  • Not everything is perfect in our department, but I believe this is something that can easily changed and improved for our future students and faculties. We did have lots of social gatherings in the first semester, but I can certainly feel the decrease in those gatherings in the second half of our semester. I understand we all have things to deal with in our lives, and we normally get busier in the first half of the new year. However, I really want to have opportunities to talk with 3rd or 4th-year students or faculty members about their experiences of advancing in academic careers, and it can be as simple as a small, informal panel discussion. Also, I would like to get more information about some milestones we need to achieve as an information session instead of pages in a handbook, so we could have a better idea of what we will expect in the future years and plan our ways to achieve them.