I have spent more than 8 years in the field of education, in recent years I have mainly focused on instructional design in online settings that I acquired theoretical knowledge and practiced skills to solve educational related problems. The Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation program at Syracuse University has shaped me to a competent and enthusiastic educator and instructional designer.
As a second-year Ph.D. student in IDD&E at Syracuse University, my academic and professional goal is to drive the effectiveness and inclusiveness of learning pathways in various settings for academic institutions. To realize this goal, I have honed skills in instructional design and educational project management to seek technology-infused solutions for improving student learning experience, especially with the supports of various instructional resources and techniques. I have taken courses such as the Nature and Design of Inquiry, Motivation in Learning and Instruction, and Design of Online Courses, which all further enhanced my understanding of the important interrelationships between the adaptive educational technologies, instructional strategies, and student learning experience.
With the extensive expertise on instructional design models and theories and experiences of applying them, I devoted a fair amount of time exploring and investigating virtual learning both for the purpose of conducting my own research and teaching practices. My most recent research was a longitudinal study that explored levels and patterns of social presence in asynchronous online discussions (AODs), and the findings ultimately provided insights on possible techniques to evoke student participation and engagement in AODs. Through this, I have developed an insightful understanding of conducting research professionally. The entire process has also made me well-equipped to assess and analyze data with various analytical tools.
I truly believe that being able to identify and experiment with technology-infused practices and strategies is one of the crucial abilities for future educators and instructional designers to strengthen the connection with learners in any interactive platform, such as organizing the instructional resources and designing more interactive activities to allow more effective and meaningful learning experience.
Equally important, I am confident that the growth of virtual learning will remain robust. During the pandemic, people started to embrace the merits brought by virtual learning, and this trend will not be reversed. We, as instructional designers, standing at the forefront of virtual learning, are responsible for developing and implementing instruction that can facilitate learning in various contexts with different modalities. Therefore, my research orientation is about utilization of educational technology and motivational instruction to promote student engagement, and further support student learning.
As an educational practitioner, collaboration is always central to my teaching philosophy of creating inclusive and effective learning environments. Being an instructor of Integrating Technology into Instruction I & II, I prepare lesson plans considering the interconnections among students’ own knowledge, culture, and learning abilities. Meanwhile, I am keen to design technology-infused activities to deepen their understanding of emerging technology integrations and to encourage them to incorporate adaptive tools when delivering interactive classes as teachers themselves.
Beside these, as an instructional designer, I often have to interact with faculties, students, and clients to gather sufficient information and analyze their needs and feedback respectively. This has equipped me with strong communication and collaboration skills. I have worked seamlessly with colleagues from different backgrounds, and I value the bonds within the workplace. So, I anticipate I would be able to accomplish my goals with these key strengths in my future career. I would like to see myself working at a platform where I can leverage my expertise to help the field make progress and improvements. Pursuing a faculty position at a university and leading a small scale research team are appealing to me. I would also like to be able to apply my knowledge to fulfill more social needs in education. Being a practitioner at institutions that would allow me to explore the latest social and cultural trends and to really expose me to industry is also exciting and rewarding for me. I look forward to opportunities that could broaden my career options.