Below you will find a few key points for your successful navigation of the LDT program. Current students completing a postbaccalaureate certificate offered by the LDT Program may find the responses below helpful.
Dropping a Course as a World Campus LDT Student
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
Special Assistantship Opportunity for LDT Students
Information Literacy Design Assistantship, Internship, or Fellowship
Thun Library, Penn State Berks
Term: Fall 2016 to Spring 2017 (duration: one academic year)
Description of Work: The candidate will be tasked with working alongside Reference Librarians at the Thun Library at Penn State Berks in a new project that will help to map all college course syllabi and learning objectives to the new Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy framework. [Read more…]
Summer 2016 Registration Update + LDT 550 Section 002
Hello students! Summer 2016 course registration has proceeded slow and steady, which is both good and bad. What’s good is that most of our current students have used the available time to register for courses that they need. But what’s bad is that there is a large number of current LDT 
degree and certificate students who are missing their chance to enroll for the courses that they want before the wave of newly admitted students snap-up a much of the good stuff. Our program is best able to support our students’ needs when each student registers as soon as s/he is eligible to register, and as far as Summer 2016 courses are concerned, our current students have been able to register since February 3, 2016. Please remember that payment is not due at time of registration—register first, pay when the bill becomes due later. [Read more…]
World Campus Canvas Course Orientation for Students
The ANGEL course management system is retiring after a long service to Penn State University (and many other universities across the world). The new course management system is named Canvas. Canvas is in operation now for some Penn State World Campus courses, including some LDT courses. Come Fall 2016, virtually all World Campus courses will be delivered via Canvas.
If you’ve not yet taken a course delivered by Canvas, you would benefit from browsing through the World Campus Canvas Course Orientation for students. It will help you prepare for the new structure and layout of courses delivered via Canvas. The new course management system is not overly complicated (in fact, it is much more intuitive than ANGEL), but new things take some time to learn, so give yourself a head start.
LDT course descriptions page
The LDT faculty developed a helpful set of course descriptions for our program’s online courses. The LDT Course Descriptions 
page includes course descriptions that are more detailed and insightful about the course’s content and purpose than the university’s official course descriptions. The page also has a sortable table to visually represent the degree and postbaccalaureate certificates that each online course can apply toward. Check it out—it is a handy planning tool for students!
Reblog: Meet the Penn State World Campus Librarian
Torrie Raish
LDT doctoral student Torrie Raish now works as the Penn State World Campus Librarian. She was introduced to the World Campus student community in a recent Corner of College & Allen post on the World Campus student blog. She will use her learning design background to support the development of information literacy in all World Campus students. Congratulations Torrie!
What’s the difference between 500- and 800-level courses?
Current and prospective students who browse the course catalog often notice the numbering system associated with our courses. The LDT Online programs utilize courses that are numbered in the 400s, 500s, and 800s. Students sometimes assume that 400-level courses are the easiest, and 800-level courses are the most challenging. That assumption is not totally accurate, and we’d like to offer a little explanation so that our students don’t miss out on great courses.
400-level courses at Penn State University serve two overlapping purposes: They can be advanced undergraduate courses, or introductory graduate courses. These courses usually focus on foundational knowledge and skills within a field or discipline. The LDT Program does not design 400-level courses to be “easier” than other courses, rather we designate certain topics as the strong and sturdy base upon which future courses can build. There is a limit on the number of 400-level courses that can count toward a master’s degree from Penn State. Students enrolled in the 30-credit Master of Education in Learning, Design, and Technology can take up to 4 courses (12 credits) at the 400 level.
500- and 800-level courses are often confused. The table below dissects The Graduate School’s definitions for each level of graduate course. [Read more…]
Announcing our renewed Ed Tech Integration course! (EDTEC 440)
The LDT Program is pleased to announce a completely renewed course offering. The EDTEC 440 – Educational Technology Integration course has received a complete makeover, and will be delivered during the Summer 2016 semester. The Summer 2016 course will be 10 weeks long, delivered May 11 to July 20, 2016. The course is scheduled to be offered during the summers during the next few years.
The 440 course will facilitate students’ exploration of principles and best practices for the integration of technologies, particularly learning technologies, into a variety of learning environments in K-12, university, workplace, community, and military settings. Coursework includes contemporary readings about the academic and practical considerations of technology integration for learning, weekly assignments to apply and analyze technology integration topics, and course projects where students will prepare technology integration blueprints for technologies and settings of their choosing.
Because 440 is a complete revision, it will be available for registration by April 1. In the meantime, LDT students interested in taking the course are asked to fill-out the LDT Course Wait List. Those who submit their interest to the wait list will be contacted as soon as 440 is available for registration.