LDT Online MEd

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Determining Summer Session Course Drop Dates

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During the fall and spring terms, students can know the date when the regular drop period ends by looking at the University’s academic calendar. The LDT Online Program’s fall and spring courses generally adhere to the university’s standard schedule for full-term courses.

In the summer, the LDT program offers a number of compressed courses that do run the full length of the summer term. Confirming the date that marks the end of the regular drop period for that specific course requires some quick research in LionPATH by the student.

The University Registrar’s office has produced a visual tutorial to show students how to look up the details of their specific schedule for a specific course. [Read more…]

Dropping a Course as a World Campus LDT Student

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Image of an origami ball transforming into a number of colorful origami cranes.

Sometimes the need arises to drop a course that you currently enrolled in. While this process seems simple, especially in the era of instantaneous digital communication, there are a number of considerations about course drops that impact the consequences that a student might experience as a result of decision.

Course drop process for World Campus graduate students

The World Campus Dropping a Course reference page details the drop process. The reference page includes a video tutorial showing how to drop a course using LionPATH.

LDT students do not need instructor permission to drop a course. LDT students do not need academic advisor approval to drop a course. LDT students do not need to fill out any forms from the Graduate School to drop a course. If you drop a course with LionPATH you should not be asked for additional permissions, approvals, or forms.

Drop vs. Withdrawal

There’s an important distinction in terminology between drop and withdrawal. Discontinuing enrollment in a single course (or multiple single courses) is called a “drop” at Penn State. When a student withdraws, s/he is discontinuing enrollment in all courses, and effectively ending their student relationship with the university for the term. If a student is registered to take only one course in a term then drops that one course without entering another available course, that action is considered a withdrawal. The instructions for reducing your credit hours to zero and withdrawing from the term are found on this page.

Resume Study Request

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Summer 2018 Registration Update

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Registration for Summer 2018 courses opened on 5 February 2018. After one month of our current students being eligible to register, our course offerings are filled to about 60% of our capacity. This is great news for our program! Now that we know our current students’ needs and intentions for taking summer courses, we will be able to enroll a substantial class of new students to begin in May 2018. We are growing all of the time! Please know that our first admissions for Summer 2018 will happen mid-March, and our courses will fill shortly afterward. Any current certificate or degree student who has not yet taken summer courses is advised to register today for their desired Summer 2018 courses. This is the final reminder for current students. [Read more…]

Fall 2018 Registration Information

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We’re approaching the time of year when the end of the Summer 2018 course registration period overlaps with the beginning of the Fall 2018 course registration period. Current students should have already registered for their Summer 2018 courses, and should be planning and preparing to register for their Fall 2018 courses. New students arrive with quick work to do, as you must register for Summer 2018 courses as soon as possible, and then continue your planning for the fall term. If the registration periods are overlapping, new students should process their summer and their fall course registrations in the same sitting. [Read more…]

PAECT Student Chapter Forming at Penn State

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Logo of the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and TechnologyStudents in the LDT doctoral program have recently formed a student chapter of the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology (PAECT). The parent organization seeks to support the use of educational technologies to enrich learning and teaching across Pennsylvania. The student chapter was formed to bridge the gap between theory and practice around the utilization of technology in K-12 settings. The student chapter is welcomes all LDT students, regardless of where they reside, to learn more about the chapter’s planned activities and future goals. If you have interests in K-12 learning and innovative educational technology integration, please connect with us! Anyone interested in learning more about the chapter is asked to please send an email to Sagun Giri (email) or Nate Turcotte (email).

LDT Online Programs’ Grad Assistant Receives State Award

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An astonishing amount of detail-oriented work goes into the production of the Learning, Design, and Technology Program’s online degree and certificates programs. For the past three years, Nate Turcotte has been a major contributor to the program’s success. Nate is a PhD candidate in the LDT program. His contributions to innovative online course development and educational methods were one part of the recognition that he received as the 2018 recipient of the Paul W. Welliver Outstanding Student Award from the Pennsylvania Association for Educational Communications and Technology. [Read more…]

Summer-Only Courses — Get ’em while they’re HOT!

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A look at the lush green trees along Shortlidge Road at Penn State's University Park campus.The LDT program offers three courses only during the summer term. If any of our summer-only courses interest you, be sure to register for them while you can, as they will likely not be offered until next summer. Our LDT Courses page offers student-friendly descriptions of all of our courses, including those listed below. The Summer 2018 term will feature three of our summer-only courses: [Read more…]

Summer 2018 LDT Course Registration

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Summer scene with fresh green grass, small budding flowers, and a fallen log in a meadow

We’ve launched the Spring 2018 courses, which means nothing other than we must turn our eyes toward Summer. We have a tentative schedule of LDT courses to be offered in Summer 2018, which will be finalized prior to the registration open date. Registration for summer terms at Penn State follows a slightly different set of rules, and everyone will be able to register for courses on 5 February 2018. Summer registration is a wide-open free-for-all where “everyone” including certificate students, degree students, students from other Penn State campuses, and random people from the general public who want to take a nondegree course are all able register on the same day. This is Penn State’s policy about summer courses, and we’re unable to restrict our courses to only our students, so instead we must be prepared and disseminate the registration information early and often.

Please plan on registering yourself for your Summer 2018 courses on [Read more…]

Registration Timetable for Su18 and Fa18

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Rainbow-colored hot air balloon about to take off.

Welcome to the Spring 2018 term! Now that you’re in class and ready to go, we need you to add some dates to your personal calendar. The University Registrar has published the schedule outlining when our degree and certificate students are eligible to register for Summer 2018 and Fall 2018 courses. The program relies on students registering for their courses as soon as they are eligible to register, so these are the dates that you want to register for your Summer and Fall courses: [Read more…]

Students with Specific Study Constraints

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Photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at sunrise

The typical student of an LDT degree or certificate program takes one course per term, works a full-time job, and has personal commitments to home, family, or community. The 10-15 hours per week per course just about consumes all of the wiggle room available in typical students’ lives.

Those who are working less than full-time, or those who have the ability to commit more hours per week to their studies across the course of a term, might choose to take more than one course per term.

There are also students who must take more than one course per term, such as: [Read more…]