Mar 29, 2024  
2017-2018 SGPP Catalog and Handbook 
    
2017-2018 SGPP Catalog and Handbook [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Learning Design and Technology, M.Ed.


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In the Master of Education in Learning Design and Technology program educators learn to optimize the intersection among content, pedagogy, and technology, individually and collectively redefining what constitutes teaching in the 21st century. Instruction becomes student-centered and customized. Students become co-creators of knowledge, joining with teachers in joint inquiry. A disposition for learning is cultivated; learners are encouraged to awaken and enliven their innate sense of imagination, curiosity, self-awareness, passion, courage, adaptability, and perseverance.

The program prepares educators to connect students to digitally-mediated modes of learning, thinking, and knowing. Technology is used to redefine instruction and create new learning tasks, moving beyond technology as a direct substitution tool. Instructional technology becomes a mind tool to enable learning that could not happen in any other way.

Pairs of courses focus on transformative learning areas related to research, the teacher’s new role, instruction through technology, collaboration, and change.

Program Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, graduates are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Ignite learning by incorporating new knowledge

  • Value inquiry and information needs in order to engage in lifelong learning.
  • Apply a repertoire of creative and flexible information seeking strategies to navigate the unfamiliar, take action, or solve a problem.
  • Re-ignite passion for teaching and learning through scholarship.
  • Engage in research to create something new, acquire insight, transform values, or expand knowledge base.
  • Validate understanding and interpretation of information through discourse with others, including experts and practitioners.
  • Employ multimedia, hypermedia, and electronic literature resources to gather and distribute knowledge and information

2. Center the learner by creating individual capacity

  • Develop dispositions: the mindset and ethical habits needed to advance learning in both teacher and student.
  • Relate the science of learning to student development.
  • Evaluate how technology transforms learning.
  • Cultivate reflective practices.
  • Redefine the teacher’s role: Who am I as a teacher?
  • Develop culturally relevant educational awareness.
  • Model and promote self-directed learning.

3. Design instruction for individualizing learning

  • Develop a design mindset and process for improvement.
  • Structure environments to ignite creativity.
  • Craft instructional design with an awareness of how learning occurs.
  • Integrate pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and technological knowledge to deepen learning.
  • Create conditions to optimize engagement and motivation for all learners.
  • Develop authentic learning by intentionally aligning standards, assessment practices, and instructional strategies.

4. Exchange and communicate to create shared solutions

  • Develop the language and practices to break down the isolationism of teaching.
  • Create learning solutions in consultation with colleagues and the community.
  • Apply global lenses to understanding learning.
  • Create a professional support network.
  • Capture ideas, data, and relationships visually.
  • Employ clear writing and speaking skills appropriate to the audience, including multimedia formats and web publishing.

5. Initiate school change

  • Analyze system changes required for innovative program adoptions.
  • Work with policy leaders as change agents.
  • Advocate for updated educational  approaches to improve student learning.
  • Evaluate relevant trends and approaches from non-education arenas (the arts, science, business, etc.).
  • Promote educational equity.

Program Structure and Delivery

Neither transfer credits nor electives are accepted into the program.

Courses are delivered fully online.

Degree Requirements


Total required credits

Required courses: 36 cr.

Faculty


The faculty members for this program have earned doctorate or master’s degrees. Faculty are selected for their combination of educational and professional experience and expertise.

Admission Requirements


Applicants may apply for admission to master’s degree programs at any time during the year. Applicants must have completed an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution and maintained an overall grade point average of 2.75 on a 4.00 scale. Applicants must demonstrate the language proficiency necessary for successful graduate coursework. Applicants must complete an interview with a program administrator as part of the admission process.

Application Process


Applicants must submit the following:

  1. Completed application form with the nonrefundable application fee (fee not required for alumni or students seeking readmission or veterans and active military personnel), and
  2. An official transcript issued to Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota from the institution posting the applicant’s completed bachelor degree and other relevant transcripts documenting program prerequisites and potential transfer credits. (An official transcript is one that is sent to the university by the credit-granting institution. Transcripts from countries other than the U.S. must be evaluated by a university accepted evaluation source, such as World Education Services, Educational Credential Evaluators, Educational Perspectives, or One Earth International Credential Evaluators and be deemed equivalent to accredited U.S. university standards).
  3. A reflective essay which includes the following:
    1. brief description of the applicant’s background, training, and experience; and
    2. statement indicating the career goals of the applicant and his or her reasons for seeking admission to the program; and
    3. description of the areas the applicant considers to be his or her strengths and areas in which the applicant wishes to develop greater strengths and abilities; and
    4. personal information the applicant wishes to share.
  4. Letter(s) of recommendation that verify professional and/or volunteer experience and academic ability; and
  5. A current résumé listing educational background and work experience.
  6. Applicants with international transcripts may require an English language proficiency exam (TOEFL, IELTS, PTE or MELAB accepted.)

Please Note: Application materials should be sent to the attention of the Office of Admission on the Twin Cities campus.
 

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
Office of Admission
2500 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN  55404

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