Yu-Ju (Sharon) Lin
Georgia State University

I am Yu-Ju (Sharon) Lin and currently working as an instructional designer in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Georgia State University (GSU). I completed my doctoral study and graduated in August, 2015. Throughout my time as a doctoral student in the University of Georgia, I worked as teaching assistant and co-instructor in several courses in the Program of Learning, Design, and Technology as well as other programs (e.g., Statistics, Educational Psychology). In addition, I also provided mentorship to junior students in my program for academic research studies and professional development in instructional design. My role in CETL also serves as a project manager and liaison between my clients and team members to collaborate on various project. This position would allow me to apply leadership skills to lead a team and effectively deal with problems in a project. These experiences were beneficial and enabled me to develop my communication and leadership skills.

Over the past five years, I have had multiple opportunities to be active within AECT and have taken on leadership roles. In 2011, I became a member of AECT and attended my first conference in Jacksonville, FL. As a doctoral student as well as the first-time participant in AECT, I chose to serve as a volunteer to fully explore the entire convention. I assisted to set up technology, run the bookstore, and check in attendees at registration. The voluntary experience enabled me to build the connection with scholars in the field of learning, design, and technology. Therefore, I decided to sign up to volunteer from 2011 to 2014, and that began my professional journey into the AECT community. In addition to the conference volunteer, I also worked as the concurrent session facilitator in the conventions from 2012. The experience serving as a facilitator helped me effectively convene a concurrent session and maintain a high quality of presentations. I was given a great opportunity to build a network with other presenters while introducing and convening concurrent sessions. From 2013, I presented multiple research studies in concurrent and poster session in multiple divisions, including in the Division of Research and Theory. Starting from 2012, I worked as the proposal reviewer for various divisions. As a proposal reviewer, I can understand the current trend in the field and reflect how my research studies can bring the impact to the field.

In the spring of 2014, I had an opportunity to work with Dr. Branch, and Dr. Dousay to plan the 2014 AECT Convention. As a facilitator coordinator, I created the guidelines and templates used to help facilitators understand how to convene a concurrent session and ensure a successful session that left both presenters and audiences satisfied. I also dealt with some unanticipated situations before and during the convention if facilitators cannot facilitate their sessions. During the convention, I also serve as the volunteer supervisor to provide some training sessions with facilitators. This was a precious experience that I can see how convention planners collaborated with division planners to plan the entire convention, including proposal reviewing, special events set-up (e.g., division luncheons, tours), and program finalization. I continued to work as the program coordinator and volunteer supervisor for the 2015 and 2016 conference.

From these professional and leadership experience, I believe I will be a qualified candidate for the secretary position in the Division of Research and Theory (RTD). If I am elected as the secretary in the RTD, I plan to continue the activities I am already involved in and build the connection with leadership team to learn the management and operation of a professional organization.