Course Catalog

Prerequisites: None

Why are videogames fun?  Why do so many students think that school isn't fun?  The answers are not as obvious as you might think.  Good games draw you in, teach you how to succeed, and keep you engaged with a "just right" level of challenge.  Most importantly, players learn while playing a well-designed game.  Why isn't school like that?  This class takes a close look at videogames, a close look at education, and considers ways that each can be improved to maximize learning and performance.  Core topics include motivation, engagement, learning theories, and learning environment design.
 

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.

EDUC 603 will examine different issues and methods involved in the evaluation of learning environments (including, but not limited to learning technology aspects of those environments). Specifically, the course will focus on assessment from a design-based research (DBR) approach, which involves methodological approaches in which instructional design and research are cyclical and interdependent to solve practical problems and to develop sharable theory that connect design features to valued outcomes. Students will review the components of learning environments and discuss the issues and goals for assessing those environments. Students will also discuss DBR, the motivations for this approach, and different case studies to see examples of how DBR is used for assessment. 
 

Using the State of Michigan as a focus example, this course explores general guidelines, issues, and other foundations for curriculum  development and evaluation at elementary, middle, and secondary school levels.  Included are the strands, objectives and evidence for their attainment, instructional strategies, and formative evaluation procedures for each subject.  Curriculum articulation and instructional improvement receive special attention.

Students enrolling in Internship in Learning Technologies will be paired with area educational institutions where they will focus on solutions to real, ongoing issues and challenges in the uses of technology to support learning. A University instructor and an on-site internship director/mentor will supervise interns. A reflective analytical paper must be completed.

Discusses developmental theories and psychological research and their application to educational problems at the classroom and school levels. Theories and research are presented from cognitive-developmental, cognitive science, social constructivist, and motivational perspectives.

In our current age of accountability, developing an appreciation and understanding of the complexities of the design, evaluation and interpretation of educational assessment is paramount. In this graduate seminar we will draw on contemporary research papers, a range of existing tests, and multi-media resources to examine, understand, discuss and evaluate current theory, practice, and instruments associated with assessment systems used to evaluate learning.

The course has three goals: 1) to acquaint students with essential concepts in educational measurement such as reliability, validity, error, and bias; 2) to provoke inquiry into a number of important issues in the field including (a) assessment and accountability, (b) classroom-based assessment, especially formative assessment, (c) assessing students with special needs, (d) standards for educational assessment, (e) technology-based approaches to assessment, and (f) assessing teachers and teaching; and 3) to examine contemporary educational assessment practices in the Unites States with reference to the practices in other countries.

This course is designed as a fundamental graduate seminar on the principles, analysis, interpretation and appropriate use of educational measurement approaches and test design and it is not intended for individuals interested in a statistics-based methods course.

For questions, please contact Ed Silver at [email protected].

This course will provide an introduction to social network concepts and tools and how they apply to education and social policy, as well as how they apply to organizations. Topics include networks and power and influence, leadership, the use of research evidence, organizational climate and trust, organizational change, and policy advocacy/social movements.

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Teachers use informal and formal assessments on an ongoing basis to make decisions about their students, evaluate the success of their instruction, and to monitor classroom climate. The typical teacher spends about a third of his/her professional time engaged in assessment-related activities. Because classroom-based assessment is so critical to the instructional process, learning about assessment is essential to learning about teaching.

In this course, you will develop and evaluate formative and summative assessments of simple and complex student knowledge, beliefs, and/or attitudes associated with classroom activities associated with a subject-matter domain and a particular target audience. You will learn how to design assessments that are carefully aligned with educational objectives. This course will also include hands on activities to guide the creation, revision and use of quality assessment rubrics and coding schemes that work with the assessments of your design.

Learning Experience Design is a six credit hour course offered in two parts over the entire academic year. The course requires students complete a residency within the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) where they will work under the guidance of the Learning Experience Design team. In addition to their placement in CAI, students will expand their knowledge of learning theory, digital pedagogy, assessment of learning, and curriculum design. Students will also develop practical skills in a variety of software tools used to develop materials for online learning.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a learning design framework to address the needs of all learners. Students will engage with three UDL principles to account for learner variability: multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression. Digital accessibility will also be explored.

Extended reality (XR) technologies—which encompass virtual, augmented, and mixed reality tools—are gaining increased attention within and beyond our campus. As can happen with new technologies, bold claims are being made about how advances in XR technologies have the potential to transform education, changing the way learners interact with instructional content, educators, and other learners. What is needed is a closer examination of XR and learning to better understand the ways in which these technologies might (or might not) support learning, how current literature about learning theory, psychology, and human-computer interaction inform the affordances and constraints of XR in learning contexts, and how thoughtful designers might go about creating XR experiences that are effective for different kinds of learning goals and environments. Through a close examination of relevant literature and contemporary XR technology, students will be able to critically examine the potential for “breakthrough” technologies to support learning. Students will engage in a range of experiential learning opportunities to explore the potential for XR to support learning. Special attention will be given to topics of representation, social learning, identity, and empathy.

Examines in depth factors related to the development and implementation of instructional programs in writing at the elementary and secondary levels; explores specific instructional techniques.

Orients entering doctoral students to the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. Acquaints graduate students with the study of higher education as an interdisciplinary field of study that bridges practice, theory, and empirical research. Enhances students’ abilities in the areas of critical reading, critical thinking and analysis, writing, and inquiry.

In the United States, we continue to suffer from institutional racism and a White1 supremacist culture. The aim of this course is to more deeply understand the social construction of whiteness, to explore the White supremacist structures and cultures embedded in American society, and to support students in deepening their own understanding of whiteness. Further, this course strives towards anti-racism and posits that this exploration of whiteness can be an important tool in abolishing racism and decentering whiteness as normative and dominant in American culture, education, and society.

This course explores how children explore our increasingly digital. Topics will center on artificial intelligence (AI) and its relationship with children’s cognitive and social development from early childhood to adolescence. Students will engage with both popular and academic multimedia sources, discussions, and activities to explore a series of topics throughout the semester including how children understand and interact with AI, whether children trust AI, and whether using generative AI tools influences child curiosity and creativity.