Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology

The LDIT Program is designed to help you gain the knowledge and practice the skills essential to designing and implementing learning experiences. A minimum of 42 credits are required to graduate with an Ed.M. degree from HGSE.

The main elements of this academic year curriculum are:

• The Foundation courses — How People Learn, Evidence, Equity and Opportunity, and Leading Change — in which students gain core skills central to the profession of education.
  • This program commences with How People Learn, an immersive online course that runs June–July and requires a time commitment of 12–15 hours per week.
  • You’ll take a minimum of two additional Foundations courses in person:  
    • Equity and Opportunity: Offered as Identity in Context in August or as an approved elective during the academic year
    • Evidence: Offered in August and January Terms
    • Leading Change: Offered during the Fall semester

To fulfill the program requirement, you must take a minimum of 12 credits specific to LDIT, including the following:  

• The LDIT Program Core Experience (4 credits in the fall semester), you will explore how to design learning across a wide variety of settings, from classrooms to conferences and online networks, in architecture, media, and emerging technologies. You will engage with outstanding design practitioners who are using design theory and strategies to make learning more appealing and more successful in a wide variety of settings. Across these different domains, faculty will highlight competencies that are critical tools for learning designers.
• LDIT-related course work (8 credits), you may choose from more than 30 courses taught by LDIT faculty members. Topics include deeper learning, innovation by design, learning through arts, entrepreneurship in education, learning analytics, universal design, creativity and curiosity, and many more.
• The remaining credits are taken via elective coursework, which includes the opportunity to specialize in a Concentration and to cross-register for complementary courses in other Harvard schools and at MIT.

Explore our course catalog.
Note, all information and courses are subject to change.

Students will work closely with faculty associated with their area of study, but students can also work with and take courses with faculty throughout HGSE and Harvard. View our faculty directory for a full list of HGSE faculty.

The LDIT Program prepares you for a variety of career pathways, including: 

• Instructional designer 
• Learning technologist 
• Learning media producer
• Curriculum designer 
• Product manager
• Digital-learning designer 
• User-experience designer 
• Museum educator 
• Project manager
• Learning-assessment developer 
• Professional and workplace learning manager 

Though LDIT, you will join a remarkable cohort of passionate educators and creative thinkers who represent diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experience levels. Guest speakers, alumni networking, student-organized initiatives, and social events all contribute to the creation of a cohesive and supportive peer group. The LDIT community also is part of the larger HGSE family — preparing you and your cohort members for the opportunity to change the world through your impact on excellence and equity in education.