UOPX researchers Dr. Stella Smith and Dr. Roxanne Williams presented at the 2022 Summer Conference of the Association for Teacher Education in Nashville, Tennessee from July 30 - August 2, 2022.  The theme for the ATE 2022 Summer Conference is Our Professional Journeys: Navigating Roles, Research, Relationships, and Responsibilities.  

Dr. Smith and Dr. Williams presented a roundtable session as part of the Research Strand of the conference.  Their presentation focused on their 2022 Center for Educational and  Instructional Technology Research (CEITR)  research team project titled Student Persistence and Expectations in an Online Doctoral Program. The goal of this research is to pursue knowledge about online doctoral student expectations and persistence through research with the purpose to connect the knowledge to existing actionable context.   

Conference participants engaging in conversations about online doctoral programs  became aware of online doctoral students’ needs, past and proposed research inquiry about online instruction, advocates for aligning doctoral students’ expectations with experiences, and  advocates for increased doctoral student degree completion.  The roundtable session was well-received with comments from participants supporting the significance of the research as well as the appropriateness of our research design. Dr. Smith and WIlliams will present additional findings from this research study at theUOPX  Knowledge Without Boundaries Conference in October. 

Stella Smith PhD serves as the Associate Research Chair, Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR) and  Associate Faculty, College of Doctoral Studies. Roxanne M. Williams EdD is a  UoPX staff faculty: Panel Validator (doctoral committee member) and ACCESS course instructor and a  retired third grade teacher & induction and mentoring coordinator