Courses

Integrated Intro to the Field (Core Course) (Multiple Professors) (Spring 2018)

The course introduced students to Graduate Studies in the Field of Learning Design, Technology and Innovation, Learning Analytics, and Higher Education Leadership. Students learned about the interconnectedness of critical concepts, gained an understanding of how learning design, technology innovation, learning analytics, and higher education leadership impacts one another in the field. Students built a strong knowledge-base that facilitated their navigation of learning challenges and solutions.

Design Studio I, II, III (Core Course) (Prof. Stanford)

In the Design Studio students generated and administered an implementation research project in the field of their concentration. Students worked in a studio environment, where they received frequent feedback from peers and mentors to develop a culminating thesis or project. Their projects reflect the most meaningful coherence of their learning design work in the program.

View my Practitioner’s Framework

University as a Design Problem (Core Course) (Prof. Bass)

This course approached the future of the university by exploring the competing aims and missions of higher education and possible transformations. The course explored how future university designs are shaped both by the history of expansion, integration and innovation that have characterized US higher education and the emerging conditions of the new digital ecosystem. We explored the interplay among pedagogical, curricular, structural and leadership strategies. We framed these with the greater purposes of the university in society and its responsiveness to the imperatives for access, equity, and social mobility. Students in the course were centrally involved in designing, framing, and executing the dialogues.

Studies in Education Technology (Elective) (Prof. Alexander)

This course invited students to examine the evolution of educational technology in higher education through various lenses, some broad such as sociocultural and legal, while others were more focused on information systems and management, instructional development, and innovation. Conducted as a survey of the history of educational technology, students were invited to engage in focused research around various technologies to serve as an inflection point for the cultural assumptions undergirding the intersection of teaching and learning with technology. The course oscillated amongst several elements: broad reading, focused research, and applied creative video production. The course will be a hybrid format, we met face-to-face for at least part of the semester, and remotely for a part.

View my AR/VR EdTech history application final project here.

Self Regulated Learning: Education for Freedom (Self-Designed Elective) (Prof. Bass)

I had the incredible opportunity to design this 1-credit seminar elective with one of my professors: This course is designed to explore educational paradigms that encourage students to become citizens that are active in a community, cooperating, exchanging, and sympathizing with others, and using their own judgment.
The themes include: education and its democratic purpose, philosophies of education, self-regulated learning, & education for self-governance.

Methods of Learning and Design (Core Course) (Prof. DeBelius, Prof. Volvides)

This survey course drew on multiple disciplines to consider what learning is and how it happens. How do students process new information? What can you do to facilitate deep learning for students from varied backgrounds? Can there be universal design for learning? What is agility in learning and design methods? Learning key principles for how people learn and retain material prepared us to design valuable learning experiences in higher education and beyond.

Learning Analytics (Core Course) (Professors Mooney & Volvides)

 In this interdisciplinary course, we explored learning analytics concepts and acquired the foundations of a learning analytics toolkit necessary for the future of higher education. We did this through discussions and assignments, coupled with a semester-long project that introduced us to some of the most important conversations underpinning contemporary Learning Analytics as an emergent field.

Technology Innovation by Design (Core Course) (Prof. Alexander)

In this course, we explored the role of technology and innovation in higher education. Taking into account historical and current educational challenges in higher education, we explored the ways that institutions of higher education and student populations have changed over time, impacting the ways we use technology in education today. In addition to creating dynamic definitions of a variety of concepts, we will explore the challenges, opportunities, and effects technology and innovation—as well as theories of disruption and integration—have had on higher education. By the end of the semester, it is my hope that you will be adept at understanding the questions, contexts, and opportunities that technology affords higher education, and the role that innovation plays in the formation of students, the creation of new knowledge, and higher education’s contribution to civic and common good. As part of the studio approach to the course, you will design and propose ways that technology innovation can spur systemic change across the curriculum and beyond it, and investigate and integrate theories and models in balance with a practical understanding of past, current, and future educational technologies. Readings will include works by Christensen, Crow, Davidson, Bowen, and others.

View my research on the limits of adaptive learning here.

Emerging Technology and Education (Elective) (Prof. Alexander)

In this class we explored emerging technologies and their uses for learning. “Emerging” is defined as still in nascent levels of adoption by higher education, and will include: 360 video capture, gaming, 3d printing, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. We approached these technologies through a combination of hands-on work, following current analysis, and reading critical technology studies. Finally, we examined current and emergent pedagogies associated with these digital tools and platforms.

View my 3D Printing lesson final project here.

Empirical Research Methods: Civic Education in the Digital Age (Elective) (Prof. Owens)

This course provided students with the opportunity to learn the core elements of the empirical research process while gaining hands-on experience working on an ongoing civic education research project. An introduction to statistical data analysis was provided—no prior background in statistics is required. The practicum gave students the opportunity to take part in a real-world study in the field of civic education, although the research practices conveyed in this course have wide-ranging applicability.

View my research and analysis final project.