ED 795 is a graduate seminar/practicum that serves as one of several culminating experience for students earning a Master's degree in Educational Technology. Students work with clients, read and reflect on instructional design theory, and practice with cases/scenarios typical of challenges in our field.
ED 795 focuses on five distinct areas:
- Establishing and maintaining a sound professional consulting relationship with a client and other instructional designers.
- Analyzing the client's situation and then developing appropriate solutions (interventions, products, programs, materials, etc.).
- Reflecting on a series of cases with a focus or emphasis on instructional design theory in action; ways to grow/nurture consultative relationships, and techniques for measuring value, impact, and/or effectiveness.
- Examining the art and science of design and development, particularly in light of new technologies.
- Self-assessing personal competence and readiness to take one's place as a performance professional in the field.
Both the "A" and "B" semesters are largely organized around one intense "practice" (instructional and/or informational design, development -- or [on rare occasions] evaluation). Students work directly with clients (in pairs or 3-person teams), devoting about 100 hours outside class-time tacking a narrow yet significant performance opportunity. Not surprisingly, client challenges vary; as important, few are crystal clear.
Practically speaking, you'll with work your clients to define a right-sized chunk of work. Some efforts will be primarily performance analysis and needs assessment; others will more heavily emphasize development (of a script or web prototype, for example). A few might include evaluation of some type. A big part of the challenge is figuring out what to do/how to proceed to ensure the effort serves client needs and interests while at the same time flexing and enhancing your ID muscles. I stand ready to work with you on this.
But ONE intense practice is really not enough ... so you'll also be exposed to fieldwork through cases, readings, blogs. and discussions. We will read about and chat with visiting practitioners. You'll also have access to array of resources--including your texts and the articles or book chapters that supplement them, session slides, and other information available through SDSU's Love Library and its many databases.
The ED 795 sequence is where you take all the ideas gleaned from EDTEC classes already taken ... and try them out in the real world.