Dr. Lorayne Robertson, teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in digital pedagogies, equity, leadership, and policy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada. She specializes in online course design, program design, and quality assurance. Other research interests include investigations of the student experience and instructor role in polysynchronous online environments with a particular focus on digital technologies and assistive technologies at the point of instruction in applied settings such as schools, colleges, and higher education.  Dr. Robertson is a former school principal, school district superintendent, and education officer for the Ministry of Education, Ontario.

Definitions of digital literacies abound in the literature, but much of the focus has been on the technological advances associated with online learning and the ubiquity of access to information. As a result, less attention has been directed toward aspects of the ethos associated with new literacies, such as the personalization of education, the design of open, collaborative learning spaces, and the need for scholarly research that is more flexible and integrated in its design. Today's doctoral students need to be strong communicators who can navigate in spaces characterized by cross-disciplinary, cross-generational and international discourses. These new literacy issues in doctoral programs are not minor, but are linked to the redefinition of the core work associated with doctoral education. This presentation examines some of the pillars of doctoral education, such as a focus on fields, and program elements such as comprehensive exams, and reconsiders these requirements through the lens of new literacies.