Instructional Design Program

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Program Highlights
  • Learn from professionals in the field.
  • Begin building your professional portfolio.
  • Gain foundational knowledge in only 8 weeks.

At the intersection of education and technology lies instructional design, one of today’s fastest growing career areas. As learning through social media and mobile technologies become more mainstream and demand for online training and education grows, the need for instructional designers will continue to heat up the job market. This 8-week non-credit program will provide you with an introduction to the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a career in instructional design.

Topics covered will include:

  • Careers in instructional design, adult education, and cognitive learning theory.
  • Instructional design frameworks, including ADDIE and AGILE/SAM.
  • Curriculum design.
  • Learning management systems, authoring tools, and common technologies used to enhance learning.
  • How to work with subject matter experts (SMEs) and conduct a needs analysis.
  • Designing for accessibility.
  • Using assessments and diagnostics.
  • Critical business skills specific to instructional designers, such as working in teams and project management.

A final capstone project will incorporate all learning objectives in a real-life design project. Guest speakers and plenty of time to conceptualize, develop, and create round out this program.

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Class Details


Schedule: This program is generally offered during the fall and spring semesters:

  • Two weeknights per week from 6 to 9 pm

Tuition: $1599 for the full program*

  • Tuition is due at the beginning of the program.
  • Financial aid is not available for this noncredit program. Students are encouraged to inquire with their employers to determine if tuition assistance is available.

* Tuition listed above is subject to change without advanced notice.

This program is not eligible for the University of Utah employee tuition benefit.

Requirements

This program is entry-level, with no prerequisites. Complete the 8-week program with a grade of “Satisfactory” to successfully complete the program and earn the program badge.

This program will prepare you to do the following:

  • Use the fundamental principles of brain science and evidence-based practice to create effective learning experiences.
  • Create learning designs that maximize retention and behavioral transfer.
  • Judge when and how to use game design principles to enhance training effectiveness.
  • Adapt design strategies for different types of content.
  • Blend multiple modalities into an effective overall training solution.
  • Follow sound project management principles in order to maximize design/development efficiency.

Total Hours of Instruction: 54

Benefits

Gain a solid foundation for a lucrative career.
While designed as an entry-level introductory program, this program lays a solid foundation to allow you to begin transitioning to a career in instructional design. By the end of the program, students will have enough hands-on practice to understand the instructional design process from inception of an idea to completion of a project.

Learn from experts in the field.
The lead instructor provides deep insight into the nature of instructional design work, pulling from their own experiences in the field. Guest speakers round out the instruction, providing depth and breadth of content.

Begin building your professional portfolio.
Practicing each element of instructional design in context will give you deeper insight into the ID process. Likewise, it will help you demonstrate your competence with a sample of what you can do. To accomplish this, you will design training around a set of objectives—just as you would in a professional setting. You will go through the analysis, design, and development phases in service of your project objectives, and you will develop concrete outputs in each phase. These will form the beginning of a professional portfolio that will aid in landing work.

Receive a digital badge.
Students will be awarded a University of Utah digital badge upon satisfactory completion of all required courses. Find out more about Digital Badges at the University of Utah »

Who Should Attend

This program is ideal for anyone interested in pursuing a career in instructional design, or in using instructional design principles in their current position. No experience in instructional design is necessary, though well-prepared students will have a good comfort level working with cloud-based software and working on computers.

Professional Education at the University of Utah

Phone: 801-585-1780
E-mail: proed@utah.edu
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