Learning Design and Technology
Office: 1380 Lawrence Street Center, 701
Telephone: 303-315-6300
E-mail: academicservices@ucdenver.edu
Website: https://education.ucdenver.edu/
Overview
The Learning Design and Technology (LDT) MA program helps people use various digital and social media tools and technologies for learning, teaching, and professional leadership. Applying sound principles of learning, instructional and media design, and professional development, you will use a variety of learning strategies and technologies - such as digital and online media, digital storytelling, social media and networking, games, and smart and mobile tools - to support learning and development goals in school and workplace settings. Throughout the program, you will engage in assessment and evaluation activities to improve services, be accountable for outcomes, and develop professional identities as thought leaders in your professional communities of practice. The LDT MA program is fully online and may be completed in two years.
Technology Expectations
The LDT MA program relies heavily on computers and related technologies for course delivery and learning activities. Students are expected to use their campus email accounts and check them frequently. Students need convenient, consistent, and reliable access to Internet-connected computers. In addition to textbooks, software purchases may be required or recommended for specific courses.
The LDT 30 semester hour MA program offers different Plan of Study options to match various professional roles. Students work with Faculty Mentors to select an option in alignment with professional goals:
- P-12 Educators
- Youth Library Professionals (in K-12 settings and public libraries)
- College Instructors
- Instructional Designers (in workplace and P-20 settings)
Faculty
Professor:
Joni Dunlap, PhD, University of Colorado Denver | Learning Design & Technology
Associate Professor:
Remi Kalir, PhD, University of Wisconsin Madison | Learning Design & Technology
Clinical Associate Professor:
Laura Summers, PhD, University of Northern Colorado | Learning Design & Technology
Senior Instructors:
Brad Hinson, Assistant Dean | Digital Learning & Technology
Instructional Design and Technology (INTE and SCHL)
The maker studio is a collaborative practicum within the context of makerculture, projectbased learning, and learning experience design. The course focuses on the practical translation of learning design theory to learning design reality, presenting learners with challenges to be resolved with creative solutions. Cross-listed with INTE 4000. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Humanizing Learning Design considers and respects learner diversity, including differences in ability and personal background. Students critique and create course materials that are mindful of the whole person, align with accessibility standards and follow universal design guidelines. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
Instructional design is the process used to analyze, design, develop, and evaluate learning solutions. You will identify a gap in learning or performance and design a learning solution in the form of courses units, modules, and other instructional resources. Cross-listed with INTE 4100. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course will look at the theoretical foundations and critical issues of advocacy, elements of advocacy planning, and strategies for action. You will deepen your understanding of advocacy tools, processes and models in an effort to help you imagine how to utilize advocacy in your own practice. A primary focus will be on the connection of community organizations and schools. Cross-listed with INTE 7150. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course helps educators transition to teaching online. Create online learning activities, assessments, and resources. Learn how to establish a strong online teaching presence. Explore blended learning environments, use of set curriculum, open educational resources (OER), family support, communication strategies, digital citizenship, and accessibility concerns. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course provides a foundation for effective online teaching strategies. Learning essentials include: affording more reflective, engaging, inventive, and successful online learning experiences; fostering improved presence; employing skilled management techniques; and unpacking tools, habits, and processes for effective learning. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Critical Digital Literacies surveys intersections among literacy studies, digital media, and critical education. The course blends theory with practice, and design with leadership, to immerse students among the communities, developments, and debates pertinent to critical digital literacies. Cross-listed with INTE 4300. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course examines the use of games for learning and education across formal and informal environments. Students will survey contemporary learning theory, media, trends, and challenges related to designing and playing games in informal, community-based, online, and school settings. Cross-listed with INTE 4320. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course reviews the uses of digital storytelling for learning. Develop and publish a short digital story that tells something important about you and your interests. Explore ways that creating or using digital stories can aid learning and personal growth. Cross-listed with INTE 4340. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Critical Digital Pedagogy is an overview of the intersections between digital technology and critical pedagogy. The course focuses on theory, practice, design and leadership in digital learning, open education, and collaboration with the larger community of educators concerned with critical digital pedagogy. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Open Education is an overview of the open education and open pedagogy movement, both the ideology and practices associated with working in the commons. As knowledge creators and learning designers, students will gain a greater understanding of the rights and responsibilities of open access, open design, open educational resources, and the issues. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course will enable administrators to understand, investigate, assess, and plan to increase the quality and depth of social and emotional learning (SEL) in their schools and districts. Participants will explore the theoretical frameworks and scientific findings in the growing field of SEL. Cross-listed with EDUC 5401. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
CARE (Cultivating Awareness & Resilience in Education) for administrators is a program that helps administrators handle stress and build their personal leadership capacities. The goal of CARE is to offer administrators tools and resources for reducing stress, preventing burnout, enlivening their leadership to help staff and students thrive. Cross-listed with EDUC 5402. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Spring.
This course focuses on Systemic SEL in which students will examine strategies for actively engaging students in learning and practicing social emotional competencies across classrooms and school environments, and in partnership with families and communities. Cross-listed with EDUC 5403. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Summer.
Students use a variety of tools and strategies to develop self-paced eLearning courseware, such as tutorials. The course covers critical aspects of the instructional development process that support the creation of effective self-paced online learning experiences, materials and resources. Cross-listed with INTE 4660. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
The focus of this course is on how educators leverage networked social tools, technologies, and environments to address educational needs, opportunities, and problems of practice; and establish and nurture their own professional learning through participation in digital cultures. Cross-listed with INTE 4665. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
Webinars and other live online events are an increasingly popular approach to the delivery of learning and professional development opportunities. Informed by theory and research, students plan for and facilitate live learning events delivered via synchronous online technologies. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Students develop and integrate media resources into eLearning environments, applying principles of media selection and multimedia learning. Students explore a variety of tools for producing audio, video, and multimedia content and examine ways to enhance eLearning courses through multimedia presentation and engagement resources. Cross-listed with INTE 4680. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course is a project-based exploration of design theories, principles, and best practices for communicating information to diverse learning audiences. Students apply unique design approaches and formats to the creation of materials for teaching, learning, and being of service to underrepresented communities. Cross-listed with INTE 4711. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Topics vary depending on specific areas within learning technologies. Repeatable. Max hours: 12 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 12.
Typically Offered: Fall.
Restriction: Restricted to graduate level students. Repeatable. Max Hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
Restriction: Graduate level students.
Analysis, evaluation, and production of research in instructional technology. Methods for observing instruction, assessing learning, and collecting participants reports to improve instruction. Development of recommendations for action based on research findings. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Digital Pedagogy Lab is an international professional development gathering for educators committed to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, critical digital pedagogy and imagining a new future for education. The Lab is a space for teachers, students, librarians, administrators, and technologists interested in inquiry, praxis, and social justice. Max hours: 6 Credits.
Grading Basis: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.
This course examines definitions, history, core concepts, and current trends and issues related to the practice of instructional technology. Topics include instructional systems design, theories of learning and instruction, change management, performance improvement, emerging technologies, equity and access, and mobile learning. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
Placement in a business, school or field setting where professional skills are applied to assess needs, design, develop and evaluate an instructional system, and provide leadership for change. Repeatable. Max Hours: 12 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade with IP
Repeatable. Max Credits: 12.
The Experiential Thesis course is provides the opportunity and support necessary for students to produce their final thesis project. The course gives students the freedom to design a thesis project which demonstrates their study in LDT. Repeatable. Max hours: 6 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.
Additional Information: Report as Full Time.
This course examines principles and strategies for leadership in a school, library, district, or organization aiming to improve its use of educational technology. Course learning essentials include how to: deal with competing voices; promote organizational change; assess and analyze technology use; pursue continuous improvement; employ strategic planning practices; implement effective programs; ensure sound professional development; wrestle with pressing leadership challenges; and secure funding (grant writing). Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Examines research surrounding the design and delivery of professional development (PD) programs in K20 and workplace settings. Projects and activities address: adult learning; PD models; design and; performance support and evaluation; career development and digital presence; and online tools. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
In this course students examine research surrounding the design and delivery of professional learning (PL) programs in K20 and workplace settings. Projects and activities address: adult learning; PL models; design and; performance support and evaluation; career development and digital presence; and online tools. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
In this course students develop and evaluate large-scale learning initiatives in K20 and workplace settings. Topics include: frameworks for evaluating job performance based on professional learning standards; planning, delivering, and evaluating professional learning initiatives; research models; and performance improvement tools and resources. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
This course will look at the theoretical foundations and critical issues of advocacy, elements of advocacy planning, and strategies for action. You will deepen your understanding of advocacy tools, processes and models in an effort to help you imagine how to utilize advocacy in your own practice. A primary focus will be on the connection of community organizations and schools. Cross-listed with INTE 5150. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
Working under the direction of field and academic supervisors in field settings, contribute to projects intended to help educators and other workers improve their job performance. Apply your knowledge to complex problems of practice, thus preparing for ongoing leadership opportunities. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
In an increasingly shifting world and work force, both our student and adults will need to demonstrate learning skills to thrive in K-12 and post-secondary world. Teacher-librarians are guides for students and staff in ALL learning skills. Collaboration, innovative thinking, critical thinking and are areas of library leadership covered. Cross-listed with SCHL 4030. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Provides basic principles and practices of utilizing standard methods for organizing, accessing and storing information. Includes cataloging and classification in text-based and electronic systems. Max hours: 2 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
An introduction to the School Library profession, including its history, standards, organizations, and current trends. Course focuses on foundational principles and roles of school librarianship, as well as methods for developing a culturally responsive resource collection, both print and electronic. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Case studies in the organization and administration of school library and instructional leadership of programs and projects. Topics include project management, personnel administration, budget development, management strategies, copyright and intellectual freedom. Cross-listed with SCHL 4160. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Approaches the school library as a resource to promote literacy and development in children and young adults. Topics include genres of literature, methods for advising students towards appropriate reading and media resources, and the promotion of multiple literacies - information, new media, and transliteracy. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Specific content and titles vary depending upon the particular school library skills addressed in the course. Repeatable. Max Hours: 9 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.
Field experiences in selected K-12 school libraries that meet a high professional standard. The course serves as a capstone experience for endorsement and master's degree plans and helps induct students into the School Library profession by bridging theory and practice. Max hours: 3 Credits.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade with IP