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Students

The Learning, Design, and Technology program at Penn State attracts students from throughout the United States and the world. We have a large cadre of international students, leading to cultural diversity and international perspectives. Our U.S. students come from all over the United States, and many of them reside in nearby surrounding communities in central Pennsylvania. Most of our doctoral students are enrolled in full-time study, but we also have a cohort of part-time doctoral students who hold full-time jobs. We try to cater to our course offerings at times and in formats that support the part-time commuter student as well as the full-time residential student.

If you are interested in applying to one of the Learning, Design, and Technology programs, all the details you need to know are on our How to Apply page.

Student life at Penn State is abundant, as one might expect in a university with over 40,000 students. There are copious amounts of sporting events, as well as a vast variety of clubs and intellectual activities. For more information on student life at Penn State, see some of the following websites:

About State College:

If you still need some convincing read what some Learning, Design and Technology Alumni have to say in regards to the program.

Below you'll find a list of forms and documents relevant to current students in the Learning, Design, and Technology Program. You'll also find information relevant to your CITI and SARI training.

Master's Program Resources

Doctoral Program Resources (post Fall 2019)

  • Doctoral Program Handbook (this handbook contains all of the information regarding the doctoral degree program and process. All forms and resources included below are part of the handbook; however, the links lead to pdf versions of the forms that might be useful in your planning.)
  • Handbook Appendices - 2019

 

Doctoral Program Resources (pre Fall 2019)

  • Doctoral Program Handbook (this handbook contains all of the information regarding the doctoral degree program and process. All forms and resources included below are part of the handbook; however, the links lead to pdf versions of the forms that might be useful in your planning.)
  • Ph.D. Program of Study
  • Intent to Sit for Qualifying Exam Form - Fall (submit this form to the program administrative assistant, if you plan to work on your qualifying exam in fall semester)
  • Intent to Sit for Qualifying Exam Form - Spring (submit this form to the program administrative assistant, if you plan to work on your qualifying exam in spring semester)
  • Doctoral Qualifying Exam Evaluation (form used by your committee to evaluate and communicate the outcomes of the qualifying exam and oral defense)
  • Doctoral Research Skills (a list of research design, analysis, and interpretation skills common to the preparation of doctoral students in education)
  • Sample Residency Activities (list of activities for doctoral students to consider as part of their residency requirement)

 

Scholarship and Research Integrity Requirement( SARI)

As research has become more complex, more collaborative, and more costly, issues of research ethics have become similarly complex, extensive, and important. The education of graduate students at Penn State must prepare students to face these issues in their professional lives. The SARI (Scholarship and Research Integrity) program at Penn State is designed to offer graduate students comprehensive, multilevel training in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), in a way that is tailored to address the issues faced by students in individual programs.


All graduate students at Penn State are required to complete SARI requirements during their graduate study.

The SARI program at Penn State is designed to offer graduate students comprehensive, multilevel training in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), through a two-part program: an online course to be completed in the first year of graduate study, followed by five hours of discussion-based RCR education prior to degree completion.

Part 1: CITI online RCR training program:

Steps

  1. Students must first register with CITI and create a unique user name and password. Be sure to select "Pennsylvania State University" (NOT Hershey) as your institution.
  2. After you have registered on the site, you will be taken to a page that shows courses in two categories:
  • Human Subjects Research (IRB/SARI) (Choose Social Science Research from the three options)
  • SARI Program Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) (Choose Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research Course from the options).
  1. You will choose one of the courses depending upon the type of research you will be conducting.
  2. This self-paced training, which can be done intermittently over the course of the first two semesters of enrollment, will take about 6-8 hours. You may log in and out as often as you like to complete the course.
  3. When you have completed the course (with 80% or higher scores on the quizzes), you will receive a completion report. You then must deliver a copy of that report to the Learning, Design, and Technology staff assistant, for record keeping.

Part 2: Five hours of discussion-based RCR education:

All doctoral students in the LDT program are required to enroll in 3 credits (in at least one semester) of research apprenticeship seminar (LDT 594). In the research apprenticeship seminar, each doctoral student works with his or her adviser and a cohort of other graduate students on ongoing research projects, including all aspects of the process such as literature review, research design, data collection and analysis, and data reporting and publication. These topics are addressed by each adviser during the course of the research apprenticeship series and relates directly to the topics identified by SARI.

Masters degree students are required to enroll in 3 credits (in at least one semester), LDT 574, LDT 575, or LDT 576

During the research apprenticeship series, we discuss all of the following items:

  • Acquisition, management, sharing, and ownership of data
  • Publication practices and responsible authorship
  • Conflict of interest and commitment
  • Research misconduct
  • Peer review
  • Mentor/trainee responsibilities
  • Collaborative science
  • Human subjects protections