Learning Design and Learning Sciences

Designing the Future of Learning: Being, Becoming, and Belonging

The Learning Design & Learning Sciences programs help working professionals become creative and adaptable learning scientists and designers who can transform learning in diverse contexts, beginning with the organizations and communities where they already work. Our programs uniquely define learning as a process of "becoming" and the construction of knowledge, meaning, self, and the world. Our cutting-edge curriculum is based on learning sciences theories, methodologies, and technologies that will help enable you to design complex and transformative learning experiences for rapidly evolving contexts.

Learning design in the learning sciences is the practice of creating engaging and effective learning experiences grounded in deep understanding of learners and learning theories. After successful completion of the coursework, you'll master an iterative and collaborative design process informed by diverse theoretical frameworks, including constructionism, social constructivism, situated cognition, and complex systems theory. Our programs emphasize human-centered design, learner agency, and the holistic nature of learning, encompassing cognitive, identity, motivational, social, and emotional aspects.

The LDLS program serves working professionals, emerging and experienced organizational leaders, creative designers, and aspiring researchers who want to understand and transform learning in authentic contexts. Graduates may advance within roles concerned with organizational learning and change, management and organizational analysis, design, research, talent development, consulting, higher education, informal learning, and innovation. The program is especially well suited to people who want to connect theory, collaborative design, and systematic inquiry with meaningful work in corporations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other communities. Other potential careers include learning experience designers, learning or training managers, instructional coordinators, educational consultants, corporate trainers or talent developers, curriculum developers, museum or informal learning specialists, or EdTech entrepreneurs. We welcome students from diverse backgrounds and experiences whose perspectives can enrich a collaborative learning environment.

If you already design, lead, facilitate, or support learning in your organization, whether or not the word “learning” appears in your job title, our programs can help you develop deep expertise in learning design and the learning sciences within the work you already do. Every course invites you to apply what you are learning in your own context, so your projects become real contributions to your team and your organization. You will come to understand learning more deeply and bring new creativity and insight to the work in front of you. As your expertise grows, you may find yourself taking on new responsibilities and leading new kinds of work right where you are.