Program Overview
Discover how learning happens across diverse settings and how to bolster and enhance it. You'll create and study environments that have impact across scale, time, and context.
From developing curriculum for an after-school art program to community initiatives that create safe spaces for homeless youth, this immersive 10-month program focuses on understanding how people learn, how contexts and tools influence learning, and how to design learning environments and activities to support learning. Graduates choose careers that include classroom teacher, instructional design leader, curriculum designer both for schools and for out-of-school-settings like museums and libraries, leader of non-traditional learning experiences, and education specialist. Some pursue doctoral degrees in Learning and Design.
All M.Ed. candidates complete an individual capstone project that provides an opportunity for students to synthesize and demonstrate their understanding of the professional knowledge areas of Learning and Design.
M.D./M.Ed. Dual Degree Program
If you are a medical student interested in further training, expertise, and immersion in educational theory and practice while in medical school, you can complete a joint master's degree in education (M.Ed.) and an M.D. degree. The dual degree program takes about five years to complete. You must apply to the M.D. and M.Ed. programs separately and must be accepted by both programs to pursue the dual degree.
Careers
Of job-seeing graduates, 100 % were employed or attending graduate school within four months of graduation. Recent career placements include:
- 2nd Grade Teacher, High Tech Elementary, San Diego, California
- 3rd Grade Teacher, Tollgate Elementary, Aurora, Colorado
- Editor, Educational Resources, Barnes & Noble, New York, New York
- Education Project Specialists, Disney, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- Senior Researcher and Strategic Initiatives, The Citizens Foundation, Karachi, Pakistan
Program Facts
Program Director: Andrew Hostetler
Admissions Coordinator: Erica Bodden
Admission Term: Summer
Credit Hours: 30, 15 of which are elective credit hours
Application Dates
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Application Deadline 1
January 3
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Application Deadline 2
February 3
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Rolling Admissions
After February 3*
*Applications received after the Feb 3 second deadline are reviewed on a rolling basis and accepted as space and funds allow.
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Program Curriculum
Coursework through the Learning and Design program concentrates on the combination of core and elective classes. It culminates with a final Capstone project. Throughout the program you'll focus on three interrelated core emphases: learning, design, and diversity
- The learning core focuses on theories of learning and their application and implications in formal and informal settings. These theoretical perspectives provide the foundations for the design work.
- The design core explores implications of the learning core through a user-centered design process, which emphasizes the importance of interacting with users from the very beginning of the process.
- The diversity core drives and informs both the learning and design cores.
Coursework
Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
The program's diversity core drives and informs both the learning and design cores. Organizations and activities are often tacitly designed to support only a narrow segment of the population reflecting the backgrounds of the designers. Such a limited perspective is not only inequitable and unethical, but it is also highly ineffective. The diversity core explores various approaches for supporting diversity through design.