Instructional Design Master's or Graduate Certificate Programs

Hi Allison,

I completed a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design and an MS in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The program is delivered entirely online. The ID certificate leads directly into their MS Ed program, but you'll end up with two valuable credentials. I currently work as an instructional designer on the strength of the portfolios and experience gained from both programs.

I've been part of the interview team for several instructional design candidates. The first thing to note is that candidates MUST have an excellent portfolio. You should make sure to include Storyline projects, which will almost certainly impress your interviewers. It will demonstrate that you are a cutting-edge candidate.

My program was superb and gave considerable attention to building several beautiful instructional design and education portfolios. These are closely tied to action research, stats, interactive learning projects, and project planning for ID.

I am confident that the coursework and self-promotional items in both programs led directly to my current position. UW Stout is very serious, with pragmatic intent, about finding ways to improve your job hunting/advancement prospects.

Check out both of the programs. Enroll. Succeed. It really works.

Commit to actually doing it.

UW Stout Instructional Design Certificate

UW Stout Master of Science in Education

I completed the M.S. program at Indiana University. Our class also had many PhD students who are now professors at a variety of universities. It was a positive experience. Most of the projects were completed in groups, which is realistic, as it's rare to design something without the involvement of stakeholders, SMEs, and reviewers. 

Instructional Systems Technology: Academics: School of Education: Indiana University Bloomington

Like Maria, I went to Boise State. Their program is titled Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning.  It is in the College of Engineering not Education. They feel that solving organizational problems using multi-disciplinary and evidence-based investigation and solutions are less expensive than creating full-blown training programs when they not be necessary. You do get plenty of learning psychology and instructional design theory. I have an BFA in Graphic Design and I felt this class was extremely rigorous (graduated with a 3.6 with no prior educational training except for a couple of interactive CDs). While the MSc is not specifically ID-based, it provides an exceptionally strong analytical base. You can take additional ID classes to strengthen your skills. Everything you learn totally contributes to ID practice.  Highly rigorous and recommended.

Hi Alison,

I don't mind sharing a link with you personally. Let me know how I can do that.

I graduated with an undergrad double major in 2000 and then stubbornly sat on my laurels (while working in Higher Education) until 2014. I (finally) took the advice of my wife who reminded me that when working among luminaries, they often respond more favorably to those with some skin in the game, and with credentials. I chose DeVry University as there were considerably fewer choices then. Admittedly, it was a dry program with boring LMS interaction (Ellucian/PowerCampus) so every course looked exactly the same. However, we had some stellar instructors and they drove a hard line for communication and discussions in each course.

I can be candid and honest with my review about DeVry as they no longer offer an MSET (Master of Science in Educational Technology). In my opinion, they had the scope and consistent-format concept right, but the execution and LMS suffered for interest sake. The good part was that there was little confusion about expectations, as every course was exactly the same layout with the same weekly format of due dates for discussions, etc.

As I have also been asked many times by friends and colleagues about an EdTech degree, I challenge them to do as much research on the program as possible. Also, the recruiters are not a good example of how communicative your professors will be. This is a nice concept for navigating through the enrollment process and matriculating, but don't get those wires crossed. If I can see a lot of information about the program on the school's website, and if I can communicate with the professors, access a course syllabus, then I can start to determine what the course pattern is going to be.

I find myself at the crossroads again as I'm considering an EdD in Education/Learning although the "technology" portion doesn't appeal to me as much. I've spent over twenty years banging the drum of how technology can assist in active teaching and learning. While I believe that to be true, I believe more emphasis needs to be placed on understanding simple online interaction techniques and leson-planning, as you can never be assured that mastering one LMS or any learning platform is going to be what you have access to in your next position. I often have to re-train professors who know Blackboard so well that they can't figure out Canvas...for example.

If a program challenges you to understand and challenge the difficulties that various schools and school systems/districts are facing, then you can realistically expect that you will gain good exposure to some of the challenges that you may face in the real world of Academic/Instructional Technology. If a program states that they can train you to train professors in a wide variety of modalities and Best Practices, then you are off to a good start.

I love this forum! This is a great way to find out more about the various master's and certificate programs. Thanks for asking this question. There are many programs available and each provides a different emphasis. There is a great list on the elearningcoach.com website about many of the programs available. Thanks for asking this question! 

IDOL... THIS IS AN AMAZING LEARNING COMMUNITY. YOU HAVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND MENTORS FOR YOURLIFE TIME!

Hi, all!

I am from Cairo Egypt. I have been working as an instructional designer for at least two years. At the beginning, there was no clear course or certificate to work in this field, according to the requirements of the labor market, despite my bachelor’s degree in educational technology. But what I recommend to those who want to enter this field is to learn (Storyline - Motion Graphics - 2D Animation). This set of skills and programs helped me a lot in producing integrated educational courses, and my most specialized field was teaching science, technology and history to kindergarten children

I ASKED: How about PhDs and Edd's and their ilk?

I think I was a little vague when I said:

I was looking at the learning analytics EEd , as opposed to a “policy and leadership” which most advanced (Phd etc) degrees are.

I didn't mean JUST learning analytics (eg. UPenn's). I DID mean !(not)-Leadership and or Policy stuff. Although "Organizational Development" probably counts.

Hi everyone!

I am based in Sydney, Australia (moved here an year ago). I have a decade of experience in instructional design in India. I was wondering if there are any certifications/courses I could do in Australia to give me a sense of the workplace skills or to get a learning design perspective of Australia?