Doctoral Program Requirements

• 3 hours of Prerequisite credit, 
• 15-31 hours of Tool (skill) credit, 
• 2 hour of Seminar credit, 
• a minimum of 12 hours of Internship credit, 
• 13 hours of Core credit, 
• 6 hours of Project credit, 
• 18 hours of Dissertation credit, and 
• 18 hours of Specialization credit as approved by the student's advisory committee 

for a total of at least 87 hours of credit. Students may specialize in Instructional Design,  Research and Evaluation or Second Language Acquisition. 

The Instructional Psychology & Technology doctoral program is designed for full-time study. All Ph.D. students will be required to complete at least 18 credit hours each year to remain enrolled in the program. Ph.D. students should also make themselves aware of the department enrollment and progress policy and admission requirements.

• EDLF 617 Professional & Scholarly Writing in Education (3)  OR 
• English 316 Technical Writing (3) 

1. Language Acquisition specialization: an equivalent of at least 15 hours of statistics and computer science, and at least intermediate proficiency (demonstrated by test or by coursework completed through the 202 level) in two second foreign languages. (This means that students must have two languages in addition to English in order to complete this specialization.)
2. All other specializations: an equivalent of at least 15 hours in statistics and computer science.

The following courses or their equivalent are recommended to meet the statistics skill requirement:

The following courses or their equivalent are recommended to meet the computer science skill requirement:

Foreign language, skill and/or prerequisite courses may be taken before or after admission to the Ph.D. program.

Substitutions may be made for any of the courses listed above upon written justification and approval of the advisory committee. 

Students must pass a written comprehensive examination in order to be advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. Traditionally, this examination has been a paper and pencil essay exam administered over several days. Such exams may be appropriate for measuring the knowledge a student has gained in the program, but they are very poor in measuring the problem solving skills of development, research, evaluation and measurement that are central to the Instructional Psychology and Technology program. In order to obtain a more valid measure of knowledge and problem solving skills, the comprehensive exam requirement for the Ph.D. in Instructional Psychology and Technology is met by successfully completing two Comprehensive Exam Projects.

These projects are essentially take-home exams that each requires approximately one semester to complete and each is similar in scope to a Master’s Project or Thesis.  These projects are to be conducted in consultation with and under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. A previously completed equivalent Master’s Project or Thesis may count towards one of the Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Projects on approval of a student's advisory committee.

Each of these projects should be related to one of the following areas of emphasis:  development, evaluation, measurement, or research. Both projects may not be from the same area.  Thus, a development project and an evaluation project would meet this requirement, but two evaluation projects would not. Students should select project areas, in consultation with members of their advisory committee, which meet their personal interests and career goals. The project areas selected should be indicated on the students’ Program of Study form. 

The following table shows the prerequisites and course numbers associated with each project. Click a course number link to access a detailed description of the corresponding project, its requirements, and procedures for completion and submission.

At the completion of each project, the student must prepare and submit a written report of the project to the faculty sponsor following the guidelines listed in the project description documents. After the completed report is evaluated and given a suggested grade by the faculty sponsor, it is submitted to two additional IP&T faculty members for their independent evaluation. The results of these two evaluations are submitted to the Graduate School and averaged with the sponsor's suggested grade to determine the final grade. Receiving passing marks on these evaluations indicates that the comprehensive exam requirement has been met.

Students specializing in Instructional Design may select courses from any of the options listed below under specialization courses. However, it is recommended that they emphasize IP&T courses in Development and Production.

Students specializing in Research and Evaluation may select courses from any of the options listed below under specialization courses. However, it is recommended that they emphasize IP&T courses in Research, Evaluation and Measurement.

The Second Language Acquisition specialization is a program offered jointly with one of the language departments in the College of Humanities. Students specializing in Second Language Acquisition must meet the following requirements:

1. Take 18 hours of graduate Linguistics and Language courses. Ling 540, Language Acquisition and Ling 660, Language Testing are required for six of these hours. The remaining 12 hours may be selected from those listed under Second Language Acquisition below.
2. Conduct one of the Comprehensive Exam Projects in the area of Second Language Acquisition.
3. Select an advisory committee with at least one member of the committee from the Instructional Psychology and Technology Department and one from the department where the language of specialization is housed.

A. Instructional Psychology and Technology Courses 

1.  Development and Production Courses 

• IP&T 655 Instructional Print Design 
• IP&T 664 Advanced Instructional Design 
• IP&T 665 Instructional Visual/Video 
• IP&T 682 Project & Instruct. Resource Management 
• IP&T 760R Advanced CAI Programming 

2.  Research Courses

• IP&T 656 Qualitative Inquiry in Education
• IP&T 750 Research Synthesis and Conceptualization 
• IP&T 756 Advanced Qualitative Inquiry in Education  

3.  Evaluation and Measurement 

• IP&T 752 Measurement Theory 
• IP&T 761 Advanced Evaluation in Education

4.  Others 

• IP&T 657R, 667R, 677R, or 687R Projects 
• IP&T 599R Internships 
• IP&T 693R Directed Individual Study 

1.  Psychology

• Psych 520 Advanced Developmental Psychology
• Psych 531 Organizational Psychology
• Psych 535 Behavior Modification Techniques
• Psych 550 Theory & Research in Social Psychology
• Psych 560 Learning Theory
• Psych 565 Motivational Psychology
• Psych 575 Cognitive Processes
• Psych 584 Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psych 655 Attitude Measurement & Change
• Psych 677R Seminar in Cognitive Processes

2.  Second Language Acquisition

• Ling 521 Phonology
• Ling 535 Semantics 
• Ling 545 Psycholinguistics
• Ling 550 Sociolinguistics 
• Ling 625 Speaking Theory and Pedagogy
• Ling 630 Topics in Syntax
• Ling 631 Grammar Theory and Pedagogy
• Ling 641 Interlanguage Analysis
• Ling 672 Reading Theory and Pedagogy
• Ling 677 Curriculum Development
• Ling 678 Advanced Materials Development  (i.e., Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish)
• 670R: Tutorial Internship in Language (i.e., Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish) 
• 680R: Special Studies in Language (i.e., Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish) 
• 690R: Seminar in Linguistics 

3.  Statistics

• Stat 334 Methods of Survey Sampling 
• Stat 435 Non-parametric Stat Methods
• Stat 510 Introduction to Statistics for Graduate Students
• Stat 511 Statistical Methods for Research 1 
• Stat 512 Statistical Methods for Research 2 
• Stat 536 Modern Regression Analysis 
• Stat 611 Multivariate Statistical Methods 
• Psych 501 Data Analysis in Psychological Research 1
• Psych 502 Data Analysis in Psychological Research 2

A minimum of 18 hours of dissertation credit, IP&T 799R, is required for graduation. A student may not enroll for dissertation credit until all Comprehensive Exam Projects are completed.

Once a student has decided on a dissertation topic and identified a chair and advisory committee, the student must prepare a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus must be approved by the student's advisory committee, the department chair and the Dean before the study may be conducted.

After the written dissertation has been approved by the student's advisory committee in a preliminary oral exam, the student should make arrangements through the department secretary (a minimum of two weeks in advance) for the final Oral Examination.

A document describing the dissertation requirements in more detail may be obtained online or from the department secretary.

The Instructional Psychology & Technology Ph.D. program is designed for full-time study. Part-time study limits students ability to take advantage of all available classes, participate in department seminars, interact with other students in group projects and informal study sessions, meet with faculty for one-on-one mentoring, participate in a wide variety of internship experiences, spend time in the library, etc. Part-time study also extends the period of time required to complete the degree, delays full-time employment, places increased stress on students and their family, increases the likelyhood that knowledge and skills will be forgotten or become obsolete and reduces the opportunity for other students to enter the program. 

Recognizing the disadvantages of part-time graduate study the Office of Graduate Study has established the following minimum residency and minimum progress requirements.

• Doctoral students must register for at least two consecutive 6-hour semesters on the BYU campus.
• All doctoral degrees must be completed within eight years.
• All graduate students must register for at least 6 semester hours each school year and receive acceptable grades (no D, E, W, UW, NS or I grades) or they will be automatically dropped from the program.
• Students should submit a Program of Study Form [PDF | Word] by the third week of their second semester or term. A program of study list must be submitted before students will be allowed to register for the third semester or term. 
• Departments may establish any additional progress requirements and are to review each student’s progress twice each year.

The Instructional Psychology & Technology Department has adopted the following additional recommendations and expectations.

• Doctoral students should complete the program in three to five years.
• Doctoral students should complete a minimum of 18 credit hours each year.
• If extenuating circumstances limit students’ ability to complete 18 hours per year, they will need to submit an Individual Completion Plan to their committee chair. This plan will need to be approved by the committee chair and department chair.
• Students should not register for more than 12 credit hours in a semester or 6 credit hours in a term.
• Students may not register for internship, project or dissertation credit without approval from their committee chair or sponsor. 
• Students should not register for dissertation credit until they complete their projects.
• Students should not register for more than 4 hours of dissertation credit without an approved prospectus.

Students' continuing progress in the program will be reviewed by the faculty twice each year. Students who receive marginal or unsatisfactory progress ratings in two consecutive reviews will be dropped from the program.