Need for Technical Literacy in Doctoral Education: A Preliminary Survey, The

Journal of Allied Health, Summer 2007 by Kleinert, Jane O'Regan, Stewart, Sharon Rowe

Some survey items may also need to be modified to increase clarity. For example, several respondents rated experience in the use of distance technology as much less important in doctoral-level training. Several narrative responses indicated that faculty did not believe that doctoral education should be conducted via distance learning. However, the distance technology section was intended to determine whether future faculty in higher education should be knowledgeable of distance technology to teach in higher education as a whole. As noted in the review of the literature, distance learning is becoming more common at the undergraduate and master's level and is likely to increase in importance over the next decade. Perhaps the wording in this survey was not clear enough to delineate this factor.

It may also have been useful to have asked respondents to rate both their level of familiarity with each technology as well as their judgment of its importance, because narrative responses indicated that participants tended to rate less familiar technology as less important.

FUTURE RESEARCH

Replication of this study with doctoral students themselves would be of use in obtaining data that could be used to promote effective doctoral-level curricula. In addition, targeting faculty participants based on their familiarity with specific forms of technical literacy might yield more useful data by eliminating potential response biases based on lack of familiarity.

Implications and Conclusions

Although the low response rate and the limitations of the survey instrument suggest that results of this preliminary study should be viewed with caution, information obtained in this survey can serve as a starting point for curriculum development efforts. For example, in the rehabilitation sciences doctoral program at the University of Kentucky, we have utilized an adaptation of this survey with our rehabilitation sciences doctoral students to determine their familiarity and comfort levels in the use of technology in higher education. Based on their responses, teaching apprenticeships have been designed for our doctoral students that allow for experience in using those technologies students believe they need to master. In addition, we have analyzed our existing curriculum and course content based on a checklist adaptation of the skills listed in this survey. We have developed a matrix that lists all of the technical literacy subskills included in this survey. This matrix is used to analyze both the core course content of the doctoral program and the specialization areas of CD, OT, PT, and athletic training to determine if our doctoral students are receiving sufficient training and experience in the use of technical literacy skills across our curriculum. This has allowed the infusion of technical literacy skills across both our core content areas and our specialized content areas.

By increasing the technical literacy of our current rehabilitation sciences doctoral students, we hope to foster a better-equipped faculty for the technical challenges and opportunities of the 21st-century classroom.