LDT Online MEd

For Students of the Learning, Design, and Technology Programs

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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…]

Spring 2018 Registration Update

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As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday (in the USA) and the end of the Fall term, our Spring 2018 courses are quickly reaching capacity (see table below). If you’ve not yet registered for Spring 2018 courses, please do so as soon as possible.

If a course (or two) that you would like to take is full, please add yourself to the wait list for the course on LionPATH. We gauge demand for courses based on the official wait list on LionPATH. If you would like to take a course that is full, then the only way we know of your interest is via the wait list. We posted about the wait list previously.

New Student Guidance

[Read more…]

Spring 2018 Registration Information

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We’ve not yet entered winter, but now is the time to think about spring—the Spring 2018 term. The LDT program is best able to meet the needs of our students when everyone registers as soon as they are eligible. Penn State opens registration according to student status, with priority going to students who are closest to graduation.

LDT students are eligible to register in LionPATH, via the Class Schedule menu, on the dates noted in the table below, by priority category:

Student CategoryRegistration Open Date
M.Ed. in LDT students with 20+ credits10/13/2017 (Friday)
All students admitted to the M.Ed. in LDT program10/16/2017 (Monday)
All certificate students11/1/2017 (Wednesday)

The LDT courses available for Spring 2018 are summarized in the table below:

LDT Spring 2018 Courses

Reg. StatusCourse CodeCourse NameDelivery TimeframeLionPATH Class NumberNotes
FULLLDT 415ASystematic Instructional Development01/08 - 04/27/186958Filled 11/15
Filling Fast!LDT 467Emerging Web Technologies and Learning01/08 - 04/27/188094
FULLLDT 527Designing Constructivist Learning Environments01/08 - 04/27/188095Filled 11/1
FULLLDT 566Computers as Learning Tools01/08 - 04/27/1828500Filled 11/15
FULLEDTEC 561Measuring the Impact of Technology on Learning01/08 - 04/27/188249Filled 11/1
OpenLDT 581Theoretical Foundations of Learning, Design, and Technology01/08 - 04/27/1824968
Filling Fast!ADTED 531Course Design and Development in Distance Education01/08 - 04/27/1825296Must be enrolled (or enroll) in e-Learning Design Certificate

Please do not delay! Plan your courses now, and register on the day that you are eligible to first register. Delaying registration can create roadblocks to getting into the courses you prefer, so be prompt and be happy!

About Course Wait Lists

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I’m on the Wait List for a course! What do I do now?

Learn all about the Wait List on LionPATH on the Registrar’s help page.

When a course is filled to capacity, students are given the option to add themselves to the wait list for the course.

Man looking at watch

In the LDT Online Programs, we gauge student interest in courses according to the registration on LionPATH. If you need a course and it is currently full then you must add yourself to the Wait List on LionPATH for the course. To be clear: emails, phone calls, hallway conversations, blog comments, car magnets, movie theater whispers, etc. are not used to track and tally student need for courses. If you want to take a course, you should be on the Wait List for the course.

Students must add and remove themselves from a course Wait List via LionPATH. [Read more…]

Understanding the First Week of Class

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The start of each new term, Summer, Fall, and Spring, amplifies the differing needs of the individual members of the LDT Online Programs’ community. Let’s take a global view of all that is happening in the first week of any term so that the programmatic purpose of the methods and schedules of the first week seem a bit more human and coordinated.

Settling-In

First, we have new students beginning their online education with us at the start of every term.

The Sun peeking above Earth's horizon as seen from outer space.

Our new students are not only adjusting to the course, they are still settling-in with all of the administrative details of Penn State, World Campus, The Graduate School, and the LDT Program. Accessing an online course with us requires numerous steps to occur in sequence across multiple offices or administrations—Program, Department, Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Bursar, World Campus, and Canvas CMS, to name the major players. At each step of the way, some humans need to do some steps, [Read more…]

HelpDesk Now Offers 24-hour Support

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The World Campus HelpDesk now provides 24-hour support for World Campus students and faculty. The announcement read in part:

Demand for after-hours support, student feedback, and benchmarking with our top competitors indicates a need for 24×7 technical support for World Campus students. We are excited to announce that the World Campus HelpDesk (WCHD), in collaboration with the Enterprise IT Service Desk (EIT) will expand technical support hours of operation for World Campus (WC) students to 24×7 via the Shared Service Environment (SSE). This will begin Monday, August 7 as 12:01 am.

Students will continue to receive the high quality of service they are used to, now with round-the-clock support.

Please spread the word so that your students may benefit from this new service.

Midsummer Update 2017

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The timeframe of mid-July to mid-August is a crossroads for the LDT program. Some summer courses have ended, and other courses are nearing their end. Registration for the upcoming Fall term has been open since March, with some of our courses full and others filling. Most of our summer admissions are decided, and those students are making arrangements to begin their first courses.

Here are some program reminders that are perfect for this time of year:

Photo of orange sunset over lake

Fall 2017 Course Registration

At the bottom of this post is an updated summary of our Fall 2017 courses. [Read more…]

Possible Fall 2017 Offering of ADTED 531

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Based on student need the LLAED and LDT programs are partnering to determine student interest in a Fall 2017 offering of the ADTED 531 – Course Design and Development in Distance Education. ADTED 531 is a required course for the Postbaccalaureate Certificate in e-Learning Design, but it can be taken (with advisor permission) by any Master of Education in Learning, Design, and Technology student.

Anyone who would like to take ADTED 531 in Fall 2017 should send an email to Dr. Kirby as soon as possible. We need between five and eight more students total to enroll for the course to run.

Photo of summertime sunset with a silhouette of a person walking into shallow water.

Dr. Kirby away from 7/12 to 8/2

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Dr. Kirby will be traveling from July 12 to August 2, 2017. He will have limited access to voice and data communications during that time. Advisees and and other LDT students are asked to note the dates. Registration for Fall 2017 courses has been open since March 2017, and by mid-July the current and incoming students should be registered for their courses. If it is not done before July 10th or so, it can safely wait until early August in most cases.

Most of Dr. Kirby’s time away this summer will be serving in a volunteer program management role for an outdoor youth event with 21,000 participants and 8,000 adult volunteers and staff. The opportunity will undoubtedly provide rich and colorful examples of learning design and technology integration that will make their way into his courses.

[First Published: May 9, 2017. Updated: July 11, 2017]

Advance Purchase of Course Textbooks

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Students in the LDT Online Programs are expected to have all course textbooks and resources in-hand by the opening day of a course. Course textbook information is posted more 3 to 6 months in advance at the time that course registration opens. A link to the textbook information is included with every course listing in LionPATH. We also provide information about “Purchasing Textbooks” in section four of our New Student Information Page.

In the LionPATH Course Catalog, under the course title, is a hyperlink that reads: View the World Campus Course Catalog Page for Course materials, requirements, and a sample syllabus. Click on this link. Clicking on that will take you to the World Campus course page that includes textbook information. See the red box and green arrow in the image below. [Read more…]

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