Educational Technology
M. Rahmanpourt; M.J. Liaghatdar; F. Sharifian; M. Rezaee
Abstract
Background and Objective:Every educational institution and every learner must adapt to the environment for growth and development and have the necessary skills to meet the changing needs of the society. This has special conditions in higher education and among students and graduates, and they are always ...
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Background and Objective:Every educational institution and every learner must adapt to the environment for growth and development and have the necessary skills to meet the changing needs of the society. This has special conditions in higher education and among students and graduates, and they are always expected to adapt to the environmental conditions inside and outside the education system. Using information and communication technologies that are available to them in various forms can be a logical and desirable solution. Purposeful use of these technologies in the field of education is now known as educational technology, which has been expanded on a large scale to increase teaching and learning activities. The student of educational technology is both a producer of information, a consumer, and a link between producer and consumer; and this is where the sense of responsibility comes into play. It is not easy to prepare a curriculum for such students in such a dynamic environment; as it must both meet the needs of students and take into account the changing needs of society and the labor market. At the same time, the mission and nature of the field must be preserved and developed. What is important is that simply issuing the curriculum and implementing it in universities will not be enough. Evaluating and reviewing this program in order to present and suggest a desirable and appropriate curriculum is important and vital. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the curriculum of educational technology from the perspective of graduate students. Methods: Quantitative research was conducted using a survey method. The population, who were senior students of educational technology at senior level in the public universities of Arak, Bu-Ali, Kharazmi and Allameh Tabatabaei in Iran were sampled. Due to limited number of the population, all of them were selected by consensus. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by 5 experts and with a Cronbach's alpha of .89. The data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS. At the descriptive statistics level, the frequency, mean and standard deviation indicators were used and at inferential statistics level t test and Kolmogorov–Smirnov test were utilized. Findings: The results showed that graduate students are not satisfied with master curriculum of educational technology. In other words, final year students who had experienced the curriculum believed that the curriculum was not in line with their needs and expectations. Conclusion: Although the averages were lower than average in all components of the MA curriculum of the major Educational Technology, but there is no reason for the inefficiency of this field and its inappropriate implementation in the country's universities. Part of this dissatisfaction may be due to university management rather than the curriculum. Because universities and departments cannot expect much from professors and students if they cannot provide the necessary facilities and conditions for the implementation of the curriculum. Of course, continuous review and trending of curricula in order to apply this field due to its nature and mission at the national and international levels is an inevitable necessity.
