IMPDET

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In IMPDET, students have access to supervisors via email, Skype, phone, or at research seminars. Research seminars are also provided online. It is of course not the supervisory professors from diverse academic fields and cultural contexts that make up this community. Rather, it is the students working in close contact with other students from different backgrounds that create it.

The program is administered by the University of Joensuu, Finland under the scientific direction of Prof. Päivi Atjonen and Prof. Erkki Sutinen. A number of leading scholars in the field of educational technology serve on the board of the IMPDET program. An extensive network of experts from diverse fields supervise IMPDET students and give online courses.

Although there is currently no study fee for PhD studies, a plan for financial support for related expenses has to be approved. The applicant needs to prove that he/she is capable of funding at least one trip to Finland during the studies.

IMPDET’s modus operandi is guided by research on what works in the doctoral preparation of scientifically-based researchers. Besides scientific skills and knowledge building, IMPDET offers also components that guide the candidates to perform demanding expert tasks, such as project management, concept design and technical implemenenation. There are also guidance available for career planning. The pedagogical objectives adopted by IMPDET are aligned with the general outlines, which are listed below, in Elsenhart & DeHaan’s Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically-based Education Researchers:

Core Courses

Courses in subjects traditional for education programs, as well as in relevant interdisciplinary areas… should be required for all entering doctoral students; these courses must be scholarly, rigorous, and intense enough to bear the burden of familiarizing students with the orienting concepts in each field, the culture of scientific inquiry, and the special demands of research in education.

Research experience

Doctoral students should have at least two kinds of training experience with a research project under a faculty member. First, with close monitoring and support, students should be given the opportunity to engage in all phases of an investigation, from identifying a research problem to research design, to data collection and analysis, to communication of results. Second, students should have the experience of pursuing a significant line of research on their own (under the supervision of one or more faculty members), and completing a report about it in the form of a technical report, a dissertation, a reviewed grant application, or a series of articles. This research experience should be of sufficient depth and duration to bring the student to a reasonable level of expertise in at least one disciplinary domain and should require exposure to related research perspectives and methodologies in at least one other discipline.

Interdisciplinary collaboration

In addition to interdisciplinary courses and seminars, opportunities should be provided for doctoral students to build networks with students and researchers in other departments where studies relevant to education are being conducted.

By adopting these guidelines it is hoped that each IMPDET student will come to posses the requisite research and development skills needed to make a significant contribution to the field of educational technology, and ultimately to social betterment.

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