AECT Early Career Symposium

Research & Theory Division Professional Development Program

Submission deadline is May 15, 2022

What is the Early Career Symposium?

AECT’s Research and Theory Division will be hosting the 2022 Early Career Symposium, generously sponsored by AECT. The symposium will be held at the annual AECT International Convention on Tuesday, October 25 (12:30 PM-6 PM, Pacific Time) and Wednesday, October 26 (9:30 AM-12:30 PM, Pacific Time), 2022 in Las Vegas. The symposium will engage participants in career building, mentoring, and networking.

Selected attendees will be assigned with one mentor and network with other attendees. Participants can attend all sessions of the symposium for free.

The symposium will waive/reimburse each participants’ convention registration fee.

The intended outcomes of the Early Career Symposium include:

• mentoring of early career faculty and advanced doctoral students into the social/professional network as partners in idea-making,

• supporting early career faculty and advanced doctoral students in developing viable technology-oriented research agendas,

• providing specific feedback and guidance to early-career faculty and doctoral students about their research agendas (e.g. how to build a research agenda, pursue funding, and maintain successful collaborations),

• expanding and strengthening the cyberlearning community by creating a community of researchers committed to designing the next generation of learning technologies and increasing understanding of how people learn in technology-rich learning environments.

The Symposium includes a pre-symposium webinar focused on funding and proposal writing followed by two half-days as part of the AECT Annual Meeting. On the first day, the mentors will work with their primary team of participants (3 or 4 participants per mentor) for much of the day. They will have the opportunity to interact with other mentors. Participants in the symposium will be asked to identify a project to work on in consultation with their mentors over the following year. Participants will put together a proposal for the 2023 AECT Convention about their experiences at the 2022 Early Career Symposium and subsequent mentoring activities.

Our model for the Early Career Symposium relies on multiple groups of people working together to create a supportive community. Participants will be assigned to one of the mentors. Each mentor is a mid-career faculty member who has a strong record of scholarship and grant activity.

Early Career Faculty Participants

Five to ten early career faculty applicants will be selected through a competitive application process. The symposium is focused on faculty members who have received their terminal degree in the last five years. Preference will be given to those faculty members who are not at research-intensive schools as they typically have fewer opportunities for mentoring at their home institutions than faculty in research-intensive positions. Two early career faculty will be assigned to each mentor.

Advanced Doctoral Students

Five to ten advanced doctoral student applicants will be selected through a competitive application process. Students should be in the final stages of completing their degree. Preference will be given to students who are nearing completion and whose research agendas align with technology in teaching and learning. Each doctoral student will be assigned to a mentor.

Expectations

Participants will be expected to:

• Attend the pre-symposium webinar

• Attend AECT 2022 Early Career Symposium and Annual Meeting

• Attend the RTD membership/award meeting

• Submit a proposal for the 2023 AECT Convention about their experiences at the 2022 Early Career Symposium and subsequent mentoring activities.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be AECT Members in good standing

• Applicants cannot have participated in a previous years' symposium

• Applicants must be current faculty (within first five years of career) or graduate students (within one year of finishing doctoral degree)

• Applicants will be selected based upon their strength of argument for participation. Additionally, the Symposium board seeks to accept a diverse group of scholars representing the entirety of the membership of AECT.

Application

Faculty applicants should submit:

• Cover letter providing a career and research statement (e.g. career goals, research agenda) as well as discussing why they would like to attend the Early Career Symposium, how they are qualified and how it would benefit their careers and the AECT community as a whole (letter should be limited to one single-spaced page).

• Updated Curriculum Vita

Student applicants should submit:

• Cover Letter discussing career goals, including description of dissertation and progress toward completion as well as research agenda. The cover letter should also discuss how they are qualified for the Early Career Symposium and how it would benefit their careers and AECT community as a whole (letter should be limited to one single-spaced page)

• Updated Curriculum Vita

• Statement of support from dissertation advisor (limit to one paragraph)

Deadline

All applications are due May 15, 2022. The cover letter and vita must be emailed as an attachment to Yu-Ju Lin (lin1077@purdue.edu) with the subject line: ECS 2022 Application. After submission each applicant will receive an email confirmation materials have been received.

Contact

Dr. Yu-Ju Lin (lin1077@purdue.edu)