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Online I-O graduate education: Where are we and where should we go?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

Kurt Kraiger Open the ORCID record for Kurt Kraiger [Opens in a new window] ,
Sandra Fisher ,
Rebecca Grossman ,
Maura J. Mills  and
Traci Sitzmann
Kurt Kraiger*
Affiliation:
The University of Memphis
Sandra Fisher
Affiliation:
Münster University of Applied Sciences
Rebecca Grossman
Affiliation:
Hofstra University
Maura J. Mills
Affiliation:
University of Alabama
Traci Sitzmann
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Denver
*
*Corresponding author. Email: kkraiger@memphis.ed
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Abstract

As online graduate programs in psychology continue to proliferate, it is important to understand the research addressing the effectiveness of online graduate education so as to advise stakeholders in these programs: applicants, students, faculty, and institutions. In this article, we examine the effectiveness of online education in psychology at two levels of analysis. First, we examine empirical evidence at the course level: Do online, hybrid, and face-to-face instruction lead to different effects at the level of course outcomes? Second, we examine empirical evidence at the program level: Do online and face-to-face graduate programs provide different academic experiences for their respective students, and how does program type influence the employability of graduates? We supplement these discussions with results from a survey of faculty who converted graduate courses to online delivery methods during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020. Finally, we provide practical considerations for administrators, educators, students, and applicant stakeholders of online programs. We also offer suggestions for optimizing learning and development in online environments. Our intent is to stimulate discussion on building effective learning environments and continuing to educate optimally effective industrial-organizational psychologists, regardless of delivery modality.

Keywords

online educationvirtual educationpsychologygraduate training in psychologyprofessional trainingemployability
Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 151 - 171
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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Footnotes

a

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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