This semester I’m embarking on a new exciting journey with the MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. It’s a part-time, fully online program that I’m planning to study at for the next 3,5-4 years. This particular blog is for my first taught course in this program, Critical Issues in Digital Education, and will be dedicated to my reflections on the materials and seminar discussions of this course. But, before getting started, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my reasons for starting this program as well as for choosing the Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh for my next academic challenge.

Why another master’s degree?

I already have two master’s degrees (MA in Communication Management from Tallinn University and MA in Design from Bern Academy of the Arts) as well as more than 10 years of professional experience. So why another master’s degree now?

The way I see it, with our careers being less linear than those of our parents, there is no single “right” point in our lives where formal education should take place. We go through many professional transitions, and some of these might need to be supported by a university-level education which, in my opinion, is still an important and relevant pillar of societal development. I am currently going through one of such professional and personal transitions, and I felt a formal degree would help me navigate it best.

After working in corporate training/e-learning for the past 6 years, I am now recalibrating my career goals and considering whether this is the professional path I would like to continue on or if there are certain adjustments I should make. It is clear to me that I would like to continue working within the field of digital education as this is the field I enjoy being part of and that allows me to leverage many of my skills and interests. That said, one of the benefits of developing within this field is that I remain flexible on which industry and type of institution I can work for. This career can take me further in the corporate/tech world, but it can also take me to the non-profit or public sector. With more than 30 years of my career still ahead of me, I would like to explore how these different options align with my values, and which of them I might want to experiment with next.

Last but not least, while digital education has been a passion of mine for most of my professional life, a formal degree in this field remained out of my reach as there are not many universities in the world that offer it. There are still no formal degrees (to my knowledge) at the university level in either Estonia or Switzerland, so pursuing a degree in this field before meant a certain financial investment that I could not afford until now. Reaching a more stable point in my professional life in the last few years allowed me to consider degrees in other countries, namely in the United States or the United Kingdom, which have been more advanced in this research area.

Why the University of Edinburgh?

I first came across the MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh when reading the book Manifesto for Teaching Online written by members of the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh based on their research as well as nearly 20 years of teaching this program. Many things in the manifesto resonated with me, and this led me to further research the program and eventually apply for it in the fall of 2023.

Some of the reasons I decided to apply:

• The program’s close association with Centre for Research in Digital Education.
• Almost 20 years of experience teaching this program.
• Possibility of exiting with either a postgraduate certificate or diploma if I decide not to write a dissertation at the end of the program.
• Access to the University of Edinburgh digital library with a large selection of academic journals.

Finally, a few words about the university being based in Scotland. The country became personally significant to me after traveling there in 2023 and learning more about its history and culture. There are many parallels I could see with my background being born and raised in Ukraine. As one of the statements in the Manifesto for Teaching Online goes, “Place is differently, not less, important online”. Even if I’m not planning to move to Edinburgh for the time of my studies with the program being fully online, the place where the university is based was still one of the deciding factors when applying for the program.

Looking forward to the journey ahead!

Welcome! / Marta Sukhno by is licensed under a