My academic life is somewhat schizophrenic. I split my time between work associated with a Psychology department and a program in Instructional Design and Technology. The Psychology department is large and long established. The IDT program is small and new.
A party at my house is not a unique event and never before a blog topic. I was chair of the Psychology department for many years and parties at our house with 50+ grad students, faculty members, and friends were common. Psych parties were and continue to be great fun.
The IDT program at UND took 10+ years before the administration felt it appropriate to commit to a program. The early years have been a struggle with faculty recruitment and student enrollments critical issues. For several years, the program seemed to continually teeter on the brink of disaster.
I was thinking this morning. It is a significant accomplishment to actually have enough of a group to have a real party (this was actually our second event). Not just the type of party in which a couple of people stop by for a beer, but a real event in which people come and go for hours. Perhaps this could be the standard by which I can feel the program has achieved critical mass. All of those traditional academic metrics aside, when do you reach the level at which a program deserves to be recognized? We do have research articles, books, grants, graduates with jobs, and those kinds of things. We also have enough of a cohesive group to have a real party.
I do admire those individuals – administrators, faculty, student – willing to take a risk on a new program. Because of the type of institution UND is (Med school, large internationally oriented aviation program, long time experience with distance education), there is really a great deal of opportunity here for an academic program focused on the instructional benefits of technology. However, potential takes time and effort to develop.
Don and Ann Lemon (below) – Don (now retired) was an early advocate for the IDT program and first program Chair.
Artistic expression everywhere.
Faculty-types automatically go into presentation mode.
So, I have high hopes there will be many IDT parties yet to come. Party on!
