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Degree Offered: MA

Learning Design & Technology website

The LDT program is intended for persons who aim to develop new and better ways to use information technology for learning. It is a one year program of graduate study at Stanford University leading to the degree of Master of Arts in Education. It consists of four consecutive academic quarters of study beginning in autumn, and totaling 45 units. It includes a project-oriented year-long internship seminar, required and elective courses in education, computer science, and other departments, plus an internship, a major project and a portfolio.

The LDT Master's degree program was established in 1997 in response to a need for more educationally valuable interactive learning materials and environments. Our vision has been to prepare entry-level designers who would bring powerful contemporary ideas about learning to the design of technology-based products, settings, and social arrangements for learning. LDT graduates are prepared to work in teams with content specialists, artists, programmers, and managers to design effective technology-based products and environments for various learning settings, including schools, museums and other community education agencies, educational developers, and agencies that design continuing professional education.

LDT offers an innovative curriculum that integrates practice and theory by combining courses and seminars with projects and an internship. Students study behavioral, cognitive, and situated perspectives on learning. In LDT courses, they apply these ideas in projects where they design technologically informed solutions to learning problems in authentic situations and plan and carry out design research and user studies. Each LDT student spends ten hours per week for nine months as an intern in an appropriate field setting where design problems are being addressed under realistic conditions.

The LDT seminar, internship seminar, other required courses, and the informal activities associated with the program help to create a learning community in which individuals pursue personal career agendas and directions, taking substantial initiative and responsibility for their own learning while also participating in teams where they take joint responsibility for ambitious projects. LDT students are encouraged to adapt courses and course assignments to their own individual and group needs and to take advantage of the wealth of other non-credit learning opportunities available on the Stanford campus and in the Bay Area. LDT students compile portfolios throughout the year that document their accomplishments and learning.

LDT collaborates closely with other agencies in the Bay Area engaged in the design of learning products and environments including schools experimenting with innovative ways of using technology for learning; museums and other non-profit community organizations designing interactive environments for learning; for-profit corporations designing software and other products for learning in schools or workplaces; and training units within corporations developing training programs for employees or customers.

For the program requirements, please see the Master's Degree Handbook.

Karin Forssell is the coordinator of the LDT Master’s program.

Admission information

The LDT program admits between 15 and 20 students each year. We strive for diversity of student interests and background within the overall aims of the program. For instance, some successful applicants have graduate degrees in computer science while others are mostly self-taught, but all show fluency and power in using technology and a demonstrated ability to learn new technologies rapidly. We encourage students from all over the world to apply.

All students must begin their studies in Autumn quarter. The normal sequence calls for two quarters of half time study (10 units) and two quarters of full time study (11 units) leading to completion of the degree in summer quarter.

Applications are reviewed on the basis of a number of criteria: fit of the applicant's interests to the program as indicated by the Statement of Purpose included in the application, academic record, academic aptitude as indicated by GRE scores, prior experience and accomplishments, and recommendations. All these are considered, but no numerical cutoffs or weightings are used.

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