I feel lucky to be part of the Learning, Design, and Technology program at the University of Georgia, which is one of the top LDT programs in the United States. I love the program because of the friendly atmosphere, supporting and caring faculty members, well-designed and flexible curriculum and emphasis on research and scholarship.

 

I still remember the days when I first came here last year. Everybody in the department was warm and nice and there were many warm-up activities for us to get to know each other and adapt ourselves to the new environment, especially for international students. Due to these reasons, it didn’t take me long to fit in and I didn’t experience much cultural shock or discomfort. I think this is crucially important, because the first impression would make a huge difference. Warm and caring environment definitely makes us feel welcomed and secure so that we can get started on our journey to scholarship from the very beginning.

 

 

 

 

Besides, all the faculty members in the program are very supportive. They are always ready to help students who have needs and answer their questions with patience. Among them, my greatest gratitude goes to my advisor, Dr. Choi. No matter how busy he is, his door is always open to me. Whenever I am confused or stuck, he is there to help and give me constructive feedback and suggestions. I really appreciate what he has done for me. To better help us figure out our research interests, he organizes various research meetings and study groups so that we can communicate more within our group and learn from each other. Thanks to him, I managed to find my research interest during the first semester. I don’t think I could have accomplished that on my own.

 

 

 

 

As far as I know, faculty members in our program spend much time designing the curriculum for doctoral students. Meanwhile they pay close attention to students’ feedback regarding different courses and make relevant changes to better satisfy our needs. This is really important and helpful. I am sure students in our program will benefit a lot from such practices.

 

 

 

 

The LDT program at UGA emphasizes the importance of research and scholarship from day 1 and all the faculty members encourage us to participate in various academic conferences and seminars. During the first semester, I went to the AECT conference and as a result, I got a deeper understanding of the field and the academic community. What’s more, I got the confidence and strength to keep going towards my goal.

 

 

 

 

In spite of all the above-mentioned advantages, there is still room for further improvement. First of all, I think we might need some courses during the first year on learning theories and learning sciences so that we might have an easier time when we have to build theoretical framework for our own studies. Second, I wish we could have more teaching opportunities, either independently or collaboratively, so that we might have better chances of getting faculty positions after we graduate. Third, it might be good if students in our program can have some internship opportunities in companies which are related to instructional design and training. Last but not the least, I wish we could have more financial support so that we could participate in more academic conferences to expand our scholarship and promote the reputation of our program.