Education

2000 Ewha Womans University, B.A.
2003 Ewha Womans University, M.A.
2016 Indiana University, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Introduction to Instructional Design
Inquiry and Measurement
Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology
Media for Instruction
Introduction to Distance Learning

Career Specialties

For the past 25 years, Minkyoung Kim has dedicated herself to advancing both scholarship and professional practice in the field of Instructional Design & Technology. She holds a doctoral degree in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the same field from Ewha Womans University in Korea. In addition to her academic background, she has extensive industry experience, having worked as a senior business consultant at IBM and as an instructional designer for other companies.

Her research interests focus on instructional design theories that emphasize a learner-centered approach and technology-enhanced learning environments. Specifically, she explores personalized learning, investigating ways to meet individual needs and provide personalized instructional support with timely feedback in learner-centered settings. Recently, she has delved into integrating emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, virtual simulations, and AI in education, to explore their potential for enhancing learning experiences and providing more effective personalized support.

Professional and Community Activities

Her dedication to advancing research led to securing multiple grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she served as Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI). Her recent research, funded by the NSF, explored the use of virtual simulation technology to help pre-service teachers develop essential questioning and discussion skills. Additionally, she received another NSF grant focused on integrating culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies through mixed reality simulations. She also served as Principal Investigator (PI) for a project at the University of West Florida, which explored virtual reality (VR) integration in higher education online learning environments. Expanding her research to further enhance personalized support, she proposed a conceptual framework exploring the use of Generative AI tools to support constructivist learning environments, which was published in TechTrends in 2024.

Her scholarly contributions have been internationally recognized, including several awards from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), a premier academic community in the field of Instructional Design and Technology. She received the AECT Award for Outstanding Practice by a Graduate Student in Instructional Design (2014), the AECT Emerging Scholar Award (2015), and the Outstanding Article Award (2020). Most recently, her NSF-funded virtual simulation project won first place in AECT’s Emerging Learning Technology category (2023). These efforts have also resulted in sole-authored and co-authored publications, edited books, book chapters and numerous conference and classroom presentations.

Actively engaged in academic communities, she has held leadership roles in two leading organizations. Since 2021, she has served as President of AECT’s Systemic Thinking and Change (STC) Division. She also co-chaired the Instructional Design SIG for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) in 2021-2022. For her service, she was awarded the AECT Distinguished Service Award and the System Change Leader Award in 2023.

Her recent publications are listed below.

Kim, M. & Adlof, L. (2024). Adapting to the future: ChatGPT as a means for supporting constructivist learning environments. TechTrends, 68, 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00899-x

Kim, M., Lew, S., Shin, J., Pecore, J. L. & Demetrikopoulos, M. K. (2024). Designing a comprehensive mixed-reality simulation experience for pre-service teachers to develop culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies. Research Highlights in Technology and Teacher Education Special Edition.

Azukas, M. E., & Kim, M. (Eds.). (2023). Reimagining systems thinking in a post-pandemic world. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/9781668472859

Adlof, L., Kim, M., & Crawley, W. (2023). Comprehensive performance analysis of student retention outcomes in a higher education institution. TechTrends, 67(1), 42-53. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/hes.v6n2p1

Honors and Awards

2023 Emerging Learning Technology Award 1st place, Division of Emerging Learning Technologies, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2023 System Change Leader Award, Systems Thinking and Change Division, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2023 Distinguished Service Award, Systems Thinking and Change Division, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2022 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award, College of Education and Professional Studies, University of West Florida
2020 Outstanding Article Award, Systems Thinking and Change Division, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2015 Charles M. Reigeluth Emerging Researcher Award, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2014 Nova Southeastern Award for Outstanding Practice by a Graduate Student in Instructional Design, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2014 Jerrold E. Kemp Fellowship, Indiana University
2013 Jerrold E. Kemp Fellowship, Indiana University
2011 Clarence Fogelstrom Fellowship, Indiana University
2009 Service Excellence Award, IBM
2008 Service Excellence Award, IBM
2007 IBM Bravo Award (The best of IBM), IBM

Research Grants

2023 Systemic Change Project Grants, University of West Florida (Funding: $ 52,274.00), Faculty virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) integration (04/2023 - 03/2025, Co-Principal Investigator)
2022 National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award Number: 2215675, Funding: $299,963.00) Culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies using mixed-reality virtual simulations (10/2022 - 09/2024, Co-Principal Investigator) 
2022 High-Impact Practices (HIP) Project Grants, University of West Florida (Funding: $2,448.00), Implementation of virtual reality (VR) activities in higher education classrooms (08/2022 - 05/2023, Principal Investigator)
2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award Number: 2020972, Funding: $292,888.00) Online deliberate practice to develop auestioning and discussion techniques of undergraduate STEM students who plan to become teachers (10/01/2020 - 09/30/2022, Co-Principal Investigator)