The purpose of this research was to identify the competencies of an educational technologist via a job announcement analysis. Four hundred job announcements were collected from a variety of online job databases over a 5-month period. Following a systematic process of collection, documentation, and analysis, we derived over 150 knowledge, skill, and ability statements from the job announcements themselves based on a conceptual framework. We coded the frequency to which the competencies occurred in each announcement and summarized the results meaningfully in our article. Results suggest educational technologists must be competent in multiple areas, but especially in instructional design, project management, technical skills, and soft skills. Results provide compelling evidence that educational technology professionals must work with a wide variety of stakeholders in their work. The findings of our research are relevant to professionals, professional associations, and academic programs interested in competencies. A discussion for the results is provided.

No abstract

Educational technology programs from across the United States are offering graduate courses in games, simulations, and virtual environments (GSVE) to their students. However, these courses, until now, have not been systematically studied. This research uses a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to answer the research question: “How do instructors describe their experience teaching GSVE courses?” Five professors of educational technology that have taught GSVE courses were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol based on the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework. These data were analyzed both analytically and thematically. The results of the study showed a wide variety of topics, tools, and pedagogies are used within GSVE courses. The results had five themes emerge: Focus on Application and Theory, Experiential Learning and Constructivism, Instructor's Prior Experience with Games, Heterogeneous Student Populations, and Range of Technology Tools. These themes as well as these courses are highlighted within this paper. A discussion is provided.

No abstract

Educational technology programs from across the United States are offering graduate courses in games, simulations, and virtual environments (GSVE) to their students. However, these courses, until now, have not been systematically studied. This research uses a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to answer the research question: “How do instructors describe their experience teaching GSVE courses?” Five professors of educational technology that have taught GSVE courses were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol based on the TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework. These data were analyzed both analytically and thematically. The results of the study showed a wide variety of topics, tools, and pedagogies are used within GSVE courses. The results had five themes emerge: Focus on Application and Theory, Experiential Learning and Constructivism, Instructor's Prior Experience with Games, Heterogeneous Student Populations, and Range of Technology Tools. These themes as well as these courses are highlighted within this paper. A discussion is provided.