Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology

Departmental History -
Timeline

In 2005, the Educational Psychology (EP) and Instructional Technology (IT) departments were successfully merged into the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology.

Date	Event
1960s	The instructional technology program that is now part of the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology had its beginnings in the Department of Audiovisual education. (IT)
	That first department and its successor were housed in Baldwin Hall until the program was moved to Aderhold Hall when that building opened. Dr. Garland Oliver was head of the original department. The focus of the program was on preparing individuals to work in schools in this expanding field. Effective selection and utilization of materials such as motion pictures, filmstrips, audiotapes and still photos were important objectives of the program. (IT)
	Baldwin Hall
	The Department of Educational Psychology expanded considerably. (EP)
	Joint PhD program was initiated with the Psychology Department. Eventually, with the support of the Psychology Department, the Educational Psychology Department created its own PhD program with the four concentrations. The Department also offered the EdD degree. (EP)
1970	The department’s (IT) name was changed to Educational Media. Increased availability of more sophisticated equipment, along with passage of Federal legislation for materials and equipment acquisition by schools, resulted in rapid growth of interest in this emerging field from both potential students and employers. (IT)
	The Educational Psychology needed to be restructured to reflect the diverse interests of its faculty. (IT)
1972	Dr. Juanita Skelton was named Department Head and continued in that role after the department’s name was changed in 1976 to Educational Media and Librarianship. At that time the department had about 6 faculty. Production of graphic materials, photos, audiotapes and motion pictures was incorporated into the curriculum. The ability to manage instructional resource programs in schools and commercial production houses was also added to the curriculum. The department offered undergraduate courses to support the various teacher preparation programs in the college and offered a Masters degree for those specializing in the field. (IT)
	The department also operated an instructional resources center that served all the departments located in Aderhold Hall. The resources center was the forerunner of the Center for Educational Technology that was removed from the department and placed under the Dean’s Office about 1985. (IT)
	Aderhold Hall
1970s	The department merged with the Department of Library Education to create the new Department of Educational Media and Librarianship under Dr. Skelton. The library component was integrated into Masters and Specialist degrees preparing school personnel who were called Media Specialists and certified for these positions by the State of Georgia. School Media Specialist preparation continues to this day to be an important part of the department’s offerings. (IT)
	The Academic Computing Center, previously named the Educational Research Lab and, prior to that, the Educational Rediffusion Lab, was started. It was created to meet the growing need for computer and statistical expertise. The ACC made that equipment and professional help available to students and faculty. It became the training ground for many interns who learned computer skills, but more important, learned about statistical consulting as the interns helped faculty and graduate students. (EP)
	The EdD was only rarely used with most programs using the PhD degree. The Department also offered the EdS, MEd, MAT and MA degrees. (EP)
	Dr. Torrance, with the concurrence of the faculty, instituted a new governance structure within the department. Three steering committees were created. The steering committees consisted of interested faculty who usually taught in that area and had common interests. (EP)
	E. Paul Torrance
	For example, faculty interested in gifted education and school psychology often worked together on these committees because of their common interests. In addition, a Departmental Coordinating Committee was created to work closely with Torrance in formulating departmental policy to be voted on by faculty, assisting in implementing departmental policies, determining meeting agenda and advising on administrative procedures. (EP)
	Eventually four distinct program areas emerged: general educational psychology, gifted education, school psychology, and research, evaluation, measurement, and statistics (REMS). (EP)
	Both the school psychology and REMS programs were initially funded through federal grants. The school psychology and gifted education programs were started by Torrance and shared a number of faculty. The General Educational Psychology program eventually became the Applied Cognition and Development Program. (EP)
	E. Paul Torrance with kids
1979	Dr. William Hug assumes the role of Department Head in 1979 and serving until 1982. (IT)
	The curriculum increased its emphasis on the emerging concept of instructional design, especially as it related to computer-based educational applications. Instructional design is based on principles from the fields of educational psychology, research, evaluation and management along with materials selection and utilization principles from educational media. New faculty were hired to match the changes in the curriculum and its production objectives were de-emphasized. Because their training programs were becoming more complex, sophisticated and important to success, businesses also were interested in hiring individuals with instructional design experience. This development resulted in some curricular changes and widened the employment opportunities for the department’s graduates. By this time, new faculty were being hired to keep up with the universities’ increasing emphasis on graduate education and research productivity. (IT)
1980s	The department began to offer an undergraduate degree in Educational Psychology. (EP)
1982	Dr. Kent Gustafson became Department Head. The department changed its name to Instructional Technology at this time to reflect its increased emphasis on application of instructional design principles in both education and training. (IT)
	As available technology became more powerful, the ability to more easily design and produce interactive instructional software that integrated audio and video resulted in further curricular modifications. Software that users could use to design their own interactive environments also began to influence the curriculum. (IT)
	The department continued to offer a track for school media specialists to meet the need of schools for these personnel. Undergraduate courses continued to be offered as an important component of many teacher education degrees. It also cooperated in developing an interdisciplinary degree in computer-based education in response to a university request. This degree was intended to meet what was perceived as a growing demand by schools and industry for individuals with such expertise. The department managed the computer-based education degree with courses being offered by faculty from several departments including Mathematics Education, Science Education, Occupational Studies and Social Science Education. However, interest in the program did not meet expectations and eventually it was discontinued with some of the courses being integrated into the Department of Instructional Technology. (IT)
1983	The School Psychology Clinic was created, and was initially housed in the Child Guidance Center in the Counseling Department. (EP)
1984	A third center, Test Scoring and Reporting Services (TSARS) was established to provide test scoring, test development, survey research, and training services to the Georgia Department of Education, individual school systems, university programs, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations. (EP)
	Bill Ripley served as the founding director of TSARS. (EP)
	The Torrance Center for Gifted and Creative Studies was founded and eventually became a part of the National Center for Gifted Education. (EP)
	Undergraduate degree in Educational Psychology is discontinued upon the retirement of the undergraduate program coordinator. (EP)
1985	Center for Educational Technology moved from the department and placed under the Dean’s Office. (IT)
1990s	The size of the faculty increased to 12 to meet the demand for both graduate and undergraduate courses as the use of various educational technologies expanded. (IT)
	Faculty were now being recruited from major universities. The department began to attract significant numbers of international students into both the Masters and Doctoral degrees and its faculty increasingly developed international reputations. (IT)
1990	During this period of rapid growth and change Dr. Murray Tillman was Department Head from 1990 to 1992. (IT)
1992	Dr. James Okey served as Department Head from 1992 to 1994. (IT)
	Dave Payne becomes TSARS director. (EP)
1994	Dr. Gustafson reassumed that role of department head until 2000. It was during this period that the department became part of the School of Professional Studies and remained in that unit until the school was dissolved. (IT)
	Dr. Rob Branch was the last chair of the department serving in that capacity until the department was merged with Educational Psychology. (IT)
	Rob Branch
	An important related development was the creation of the Learning and Performance Support Laboratory and the establishment of an Eminent Professorship to serve as its director. (IT)
	LPSL web site
	Dr. Michael Hannafin was hired to fill this position and became a member of the department. The laboratory obtained significant external financial support that resulted in the ability to attract high quality graduate students. The size and complexity of research projects also grew, providing additional opportunities for both faculty and students to participate in more sophisticated projects in a wider variety of settings. (IT)
	Michael Hannafin
2001	Steve Cramer becomes TSARS director. (EP)
	Steve Cramer
2003	Dr. Al Cohen becomes TSARS director. (EP)
	Al Cohen
2005	The Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology departments were successfully merged into the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology.
	This merger was based on the common interest of the two departments in the areas of learning theory, measurement and evaluation. The Chair of the new department was Dr. Randy Kamphaus from Educational Psychology and the Assistant Chair was Dr. Janette Hill from Instructional Technology.
	Randy Kamphaus and Janette Hill
	TSARS is renamed the Georgia Center for Assessment (GCA) to reflect the wider activities the center was pursuing, test development and evaluation in addition to scoring.
	Administrative Services Annex - Current home of GCA
2008	Today, only a few undergraduate courses are offered by the department. One course, ESPY 2130, is currently required of all teacher certification candidates at the University and contributes substantially to the EFT of the department. The department has had a statewide leadership role in the design of this course, which is now required of all teacher certification candidates in the University System of Georgia. As with all other departments and colleges, the focus moved from being primarily instructional to research and grant-writing. This occurred as the department focused on emphasizing the PhD degree. This trend accelerated as departments were increasingly forced to pay their own way either through high enrollment or grants.