Dr. Rita C. Richey is Professor and Program Coordinator in Instructional Technology for the College of Education at Wayne State University. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, her M.A. in Psychology of Reading from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University.

Dr. Richey's Website

Could you describe how you got into the field of instructional technology?

I did my Master's Degree at the University of Michigan in Psychology of Reading in the 60's working with Donald E.P. Smith. History buffs may remember some of his early work with programmed instruction - specifically discrimination programming. I learned a lot about reading, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition, but in addition I learned about some pretty hot new things - behavioral objectives, task analysis, programming. No one called it instructional design then, but that's what it was. I became entranced with this work on developing instructional materials and programs and began searching for a doctoral program. Somewhat by accident, I found one in my own backyard at Wayne State. My goal was to apply instructional systems design techniques to teacher education programs and, in fact, did that for 10 years after completing my graduate studies. In 1981, after receiving tenure in Teacher Education, I was asked to join the Instructional Technology faculty at Wayne State. I suppose the only thing unusual about this is that I was fortunate enough to have an academic career with limited mobility. It's somewhat less of a problem for young women starting out today, but it's still an issue.

How would you describe your research agenda?

 There has been a theme (perhaps somewhat hidden) to my work. I have always been interested in instructional design theory - what it is, how it is constructed and the nature of its impact. This general interest has flowed through much of my work from 1) the early syntheses of the theoretical bases of design and construction of a taxonomy of design variables, to 2) the application of that variable framework to a series of replicated studies and theory construction, to 3) analyses of the various ways of relating research and theory to practice, such as the use of developmental research techniques. Currently, I'm starting to explore the history of IT thought. I see this as another way of exploring the theory of our field. 

Dr. Rita C. Richey is Professor and Program Coordinator in Instructional Technology for the College of Education at Wayne State University. She received her B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, her M.A. in Psychology of Reading from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from Wayne State University.

She can be reached at: Wayne State University Email: rrichey@wayne.edu Home Page: http://www.coe.wayne.edu:16080/InstructionalTechnology/fac-richey.htm