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What’s in a Name? The Meaning of “Learning, Design, and Technology”

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Abstract

The educational/instructional technology field has used several names throughout its history in an effort to communicate the focus of teaching and scholarship in the field. This qualitative study explored the thought process of four faculty members whose programs adopted the name “Learning, Design, and Technology.” Findings indicate the meaning, order, and grouping of words was the subject of careful thought, with an overarching goal of communicating the values and identity of their programs and the wider field.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oklahoma State University, 210 Willard Hall, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA

    Penny Thompson

Authors
  1. Penny Thompson
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Correspondence to Penny Thompson.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflicts of interests/Competing interests

The author has no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Appendix

Appendix

Interview Questions

  1. 1.

    Please describe the organizational structure of your institution and how your LDT program or department fits?

  2. 2.

    Can you tell me a little bit about the process for how you made the change from your previous name to LDT

  3. 3.

    Do you think the name change had an influence on the development of your program or any program changes that occurred after the name change? Are you a different program now than you would have been if you’d kept the old name?

  4. 4.

    Do you think the name change has changed in any way the type of students you recruit to your program?

  5. 5.

    Have you noticed any difference in the type of positions your students are hired into after graduation?

  6. 6.

    Have you noticed any difference since the name change in the faculty your recruit when you are hiring?

  7. 7.

    Is there anything else you think is important about the use of the LDT name in our field that we haven’t talked about yet?

In addition to these standard prompts, each participant was asked a question to follow up on something specific they included in their response to the online questionnaire.

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Thompson, P. What’s in a Name? The Meaning of “Learning, Design, and Technology”. TechTrends 67, 277–284 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-022-00814-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-022-00814-w

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