BU Wheelock Launches Learning Design & Technology Program
BU Wheelock Launches Learning Design & Technology Program
New master’s program prepares educators to develop engaging and interactive learning experiences
BU Wheelock recently launched a new graduate program: a Master of Science (MS) in Learning Design & Technology. This online master’s program is designed for students who want to become leaders and innovators in instructional design, learning experience design, and educational technology by developing the skills to apply learning design and technology across K–12, higher education, and corporate settings.
Greg Benoit directs the Learning Design & Technology program and is a senior lecturer in math education at BU Wheelock. He also is assistant director of the Earl Center for Learning & Innovation. We talked to him about what students can expect from the new program.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q&A
With Greg Benoit
BU Wheelock: As technology evolves, what is the role of educators?
Greg Benoit: There’s no telling where technology or all this is going to stop. But the one thing that’s always going to continuously be needed is teachers to create and design learning experiences. These learning experiences don’t just happen because we want them to happen. They happen because we’re intentional and purposeful in the design of what we want to get across.
BU Wheelock: What does the Learning Design & Technology program offer educators in today’s world?
Greg Benoit: Historically, we’ve lived in a world where education was confined by the classroom walls. But in today’s world, children and adults are learning consistently from social media, video games, and interactive apps that weren’t originally designed for educational purposes. What makes this program timely is marrying those two pieces together. Our goal is to look at the innovative and creative technological spaces that exist today and think about what would make for the best learning for the audiences that we hope to serve.
BU Wheelock: What will students get out of this program?
Greg Benoit: Rather than some high-stakes test that happens at the end of their year or writing a theoretical thesis, what this program does is partner you with an industry collaborator that’s breaking down what’s going on in today’s world. You’ll gain those tangible experiences of problem solving, ideating, prototyping devices, that will be used to address some of the dilemmas that corporations are facing.
BU Wheelock: How will this program support educators who have already been using technology in their classrooms?
Greg Benoit: Those experiences are extremely valuable and could be leveraged in a different way. So rather than kind of take all those educational years and then kind of change careers completely, what an educator can do is leverage those experiences in the classroom and service it in technological ways that we’re hoping to kind of create. Those voices and experiences are needed and matter. If we can tie those experiences to a lot of the technology that comes out, there’s no telling what we can do.
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