Andrea Boykin

During the first year of the Ph.D. program, various experiences, including coursework and research opportunities, have helped me to refine my professional goals and change concentrations to fit my research interests. In my initial goal statement I discussed my professional goals and the connection to my intended concentration and specialization of Learning Technologies Design Research and Assistive Technology.   However; due to my experience as a research assistant on campus and the coursework taken during my first semester, I was able to clarify my original goals and realize the mismatch between my concentration and specialization, which led to a change in my concentration to Special Education with a specialization in Assistive Technology.  

Before deciding on the Ph.D. program that fit my interests, I had recently completed my Master’s Degree in Special Education.  Although I had an interest in strategies and features of technology that support students with disabilities, at the time, I did not want to enroll into an additional Special Education Program.  Therefore, in the goal statement written prior to my admission into the PhD Program, I discussed my interest in researching the usability of technology for students with disabilities as well as the implementation of assistive technology for students with high incidence disabilities.  In shifting the focus from strategies to usability, I attempted to transfer my interest in assistive technology for students with disabilities from the realm of special education to the area of learning technologies.  After enrolling into a LTDR course, I realized that my true interest was in researching strategies and features of technologies that support the learning of students.  In addition, my original goal included a very broad interest range of student population, from students with high to low incidence disabilities, which was narrowed to students with high incidence disabilities during my first year of study.

 During my first semester in the LTDR program, I enrolled in Instructional Design as a required course within the concentration.   After reviewing the syllabus and attending a few class sessions, I immediately realized that the LTDR program, although it fit with my original goals, was not the right fit for my true interests of strategy implementation and features for students with disabilities when accessing technology.  The course was focused more on the design of programs with an emphasis on technology and course development for adults.  I found myself more interested in features that support student learning and less interested in the aspects that were covered in the class which I incorporated into my original goal statement.  Although the course did not fit my actual interest, I was able to learn many of the factors that go into the development of programs and apply my interests of features and strategies for students with disabilities into the class project of developing a software prototype.   In developing the prototype and instructional design document, I was successfully able to weave my interests into the project although my interests were not the project’s focus.  By implementing knowledge about how students with disabilities learn and software features that support student learning, the software prototype incorporated the needed features to encourage learning and became accessible to a broad population of students.

Other courses I enrolled in during the first and second semester, including Ways of Knowing, classes for the Assistive Technology specialization, Problems and Methods of Educational Research, and Applied Research Methods in Special Education, helped to shape and support my professional goals.   In Ways of Knowing, I understood the importance of being familiar with various forms of research and understanding my personal way of how I come to know, which will be important as I conduct research.   The assistive technology courses helped me to become aware of various forms of assistive technology, which aided me to think about how and what aspects these technologies can be researched within the high incidence disability population.    In Problems and Methods of Educational Research, I learned how research methodology is dependent upon research questions, and the many different aspects that must be considered in order to conduct quality research.  This was further supported by Applied Research Methods of Special Education, where I learned the quality indicators that must be included for high quality educational research and the specifics of research that must be considered when working with the special education population.   In this course, I also became familiar with the problems within the special education field including the increasing number of students with high incidence disabilities who access the general education curriculum that may not have the needed support, and became familiar with how technology and strategies can support students.

After the realization of the mismatch between my actual professional goals and interests and the LTDR program, I switched my concentration to Special Education with a specialization in assistive technology.   Once in the Special Education program, I was able to apply to the ASCEND fellowship and support the research of professors who are interested in strategies and technologies for students with high incidence disabilities, which matched my professional interests.   As a research assistant, the professors I work closely with have supported my interests by allowing me to work on various research projects that correspond to strategies that support students with high incidence disabilities and technology.   This semester as a research assistant, I have been able to apply self-regulatory strategies to develop prototypes for computer based graphic organizers for the Project We Got IT writing grant, conduct systematic literature reviews and coding for the Technology Seed Grant, transcribe and conduct initial coding for AIM-VA research, write manuscripts for research to be submitted for publication, and develop and refine a literature review and methods section for my own planned research.   In working on each assignment, I was able to understand the importance of quality research for students with high incidence disabilities and increase my knowledge in the field.  Each of my experiences as a researcher have supported my overall professional goals related to the research of strategies and technologies for students with high incidence disabilities.

After the experiences within the first year of the program, I now have a solid understanding that I am interested in the high incidence population, including students with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances, and researching technology paired with strategies to support their access to the general education curriculum.   Through constructing methods sections and reviewing literature for a variety of projects within courses and through my graduate research assistant position, I have gained a firm understanding of the literature and how strategies and technology can support the increasing number of students with high incidence disabilities who access general education curriculum.  I now plan to conduct research pairing the two areas that have potential to support the student’s access to general education curriculum, technologies and strategies, to find what works for students so that they can gain greater independence and success within the curriculum.   After finishing the program, I plan to continue research within the field, as well as teach at the university level to help college students create quality research and learn how to successfully implement researched strategies to support the needs of students with high incidence disabilities.

Although I initially began the Ph.D. program with the intention of concentrating in learning technologies with a focus on usability and development of programs for individuals with disabilities, through the coursework taken as well as my experiences as a research assistant, I was able to modify my goals to my true research interest and switch programs to support my new goals.  My current concentration of Special Education and specialization of Assistive Technology will help me to have the coursework and research experiences to continually gain the knowledge needed to conduct quality research within the high incidence population, and help to research strategies and technologies that can help this population access the general education curriculum with greater independence and success.

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