Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training in Technology-Enhanced Learning in Europe

Abstract

Technology enhanced learning (TEL) research connects Learning Sciences, EducationalPsychology, and Computer Science, in order to investigate interventions based ondigital technologies in education and training settings. In this paper, we argue thatdoctoral training activity for TEL needs to be situated at the intersection of disciplines inorder to facilitate innovation. For this, we first review the state of disciplinarity in TEL,reviewing existing meta-studies of the field. Then, we survey 35 doctoral educationprograms in Europe in which doctoral students working on TEL topics are enrolled.Findings indicate that most doctoral schools are associated with a single disciplineand offer methodological rather than content-specific modules. TEL-specific contentis provided only in exceptional cases, creating a potentially isolating gap betweenmaster-level education and scientific conferences. On this background, we argue thatcross-institutional doctoral training is important to progress TEL as a field. In thisarticle, we study and share the approach of an international doctoral summer schoolorganized by the European society EA-TEL over the past 15 years. The summer schoolprovides foundational methodological knowledge from multiple disciplines, contentspecifictopical knowledge in TEL, access to cutting edge scientific discourse, anddiscussion of horizontal issues to doctoral students. We further provide an analysis ofshifting program topics over time. Our analysis of both, institutional as well as crossinstitutionaldoctoral training in TEL, constitutes this paper’s core contribution in that ithighlights that further integration of perspectives and knowledge is to be done in TEL;together with codification and explication of knowledge in the intersection of disciplines.