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  2. EDU T522

Impact by Design
EDU T522

Course Information

Description

In Impact by Design, students will learn and apply generalizable tools and habits to live learning design challenges with real clients. For learning designs and innovations to be effective, they should be based on and inspired by rigorous evidence about how and why people learn and behave. This process of translating evidence from the learning sciences into practices that can drive learning impact in real world contexts is the focus of Impact by Design. Students will: do accelerated, AI-supported literature reviews to gain an understanding of the existing relevant research; identify and reach out to relevant domain experts to inform problem-definition and potential solutions; interview members of the impact ecosystem (or their proxies) to understand contextual needs and constraints; ideate and articulate testable, evidence-supported theories of action that can generate observable change; and develop minimal prototypes to evaluate their theories of action and guide iterative revisions. Students will consolidate and present their designs to clients at the end of the semester. This hands-on course prepares students to engage effectively in impact-centered, research-informed learning design across settings and domains.

Class Notes

LDIT ONLY. This course is only open to LDIT students and satisfies the Program Core Experience (PCE) requirement. T550 (Professor Karen Brennan) and T543 (Professor Tina Grotzer) also satisfy this requirement. Students may take any one of these three courses to satisfy the PCE requirement, and are welcome to take additional courses from these three as electives.

School Graduate School of Education
Credits 4
Cross Reg

Not Available for Cross Registration

Department Education
Course Component Regular Course
Instruction Mode In Person
Subject Education
Grading Basis HGSE Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Requirements Required for and limited to students in the Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology program.
Learning Goals <p>• gain an understanding of the dynamic relationship among evidence, theory, and innovation in the design and development of effective educational programs or services;&nbsp;• use a Challenge Map to clarify needs and obstacles related to a learning design challenge;• appropriately leverage Generative AI tools to accelerate the discovery and evaluation of relevant research to inform learning design;• communicate with experts in the field to support the interpretation and application of research;• map the members, values, and variables of an Impact Ecosystem;• interview members of an Impact Ecosystem to vet and clarify assumptions;• apply How might we... prompting for evidence-inspired ideation;• articulate an evidence-based theory of action and design principles to guide the development of scalable innovation;&nbsp;• define the constructs that underlie impact; • create evidence-generating tasks (micro minimal viable products) that cause and demonstrate construct change; • test and revise theories and micro-products;&nbsp;• acquire insights from the projects of classmates;• articulate evidence-based rationales for why an innovation should work, how stakeholders can observe it is working, and will know it did work;•&nbsp;become comfortable with the iterative nature of learning and creating through failure.</p>
Career Focus T522 provides a foundation for anyone interested in designing for impact in education at scale. The knowledge, tools, and habits students develop through hands-on projects in the course apply to product and program development and implementation targeting schools, homes, workplaces, and other formal and informal settings. The capabilities related to integrating evidence throughout the innovation process will make students attractive and distinctive candidates in existing learning organizations and they will bolster students' own impact-focused entrepreneurial endeavors.