Study Format
- Online
Program Length
- 30 Credit Hours
- 24 Months
Application Deadlines
Domestic Students
Spring 2025 Application Due | Classes Start Jan. 6, 2025
International Students
Spring 2025 Completed File Due | Classes Start Jan. 6, 2025
Harness technology to design effective training and development
The Master of Science degree in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) is designed to meet the needs of instructional designers, e-learning developers, and trainers in corporate, higher education, non-profit, and government organizations. Through applied research and hands-on design, the IDT program contributes to the improvement of instructional methodologies and the design and implementation of learning innovations and environments.
The Master of Science (MS) in Instructional Design and Technology is for individuals seeking
- to design instruction and instructional technologies in real world contexts
- to enable and support learning through creativity and innovation by designing learning environments and technologies
Career and salary: trends and outlook
The field of instructional design and technology has changed dramatically over the last several years and will continue to grow and change with the rapid introduction and adoption of emerging technologies and new approaches to teaching and learning. Technology through social, distance and mobile learning media continues to change the landscape of traditional education and training.
For the professional instructional designer—especially for those with a master's degree—career options exist in academic, government and profit and non-profit sectors and include positions such as:
- Instructional Designer
- Learning System Designer/Developer
- Corporate Trainer
- Performance Improvement Coordinator
- Learning and Development Director
- Director of Instructional Design Technologies
- Curriculum Designer
Recruiter.com and Indeed.com report a very positive outlook for instructional designer and technologist careers:
- Job growth has been positive over the past decade, with total employment jumping 20 percent from 106,590 to 128,780 jobs.
- California leads the nation in the number of jobs (17,900), followed by Texas (10,890), New York (9,970), Florida (6,990) and Ohio (5,670).
- In 2015, the average salary was $63,000.
- Median salaries range from $50,090 (private sector) to $84,000 (federal government).
- Based on experience and tenure within an organization, salaries range from $28,900-$87,820 (private sector), $36,100-$84,400 (state government), $37,970-$95,520 (local government) and $63,130-$121,580 (federal government).
What is instructional design and technology?
The field of instructional design and technology seeks to understand how people learn and how to best design, integrate and evaluate instructional systems and materials to facilitate that learning. Through applied research, students can create and enhance learning experiences and systems for academic, corporate, non-profit, or government settings.
This Master of Science program is for people who want to change the world through research, creativity, and innovation. From enhancing medical training technologies to designing educational apps, instructional designers are essential for organizations that wish to leverage technology for learning in a dynamic world.
Read the list of courses and course descriptions.
Learning objectives and competencies
- Apply learning theory in the development of instructional strategies to meet defined learning outcomes.
- Identify, apply and evaluate instructional design methods and principles in learning systems architectures.
- Effectively manage and lead instructional design project development in a changing environment.
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the role of instructional design and technology as it relates to human performance.
- Utilize learning analytics to support data-driven decision making critical to change and improvement.
- Contribute to the improvement of instructional methodologies and development of learning innovations through research.
Instructional design for the K-12 classroom
Concordia-Chicago’s Instructional Design and Technology program focuses on the design of learning experiences for adults. Individuals seeking to enroll in a graduate-level program that emphasizes the design of learning experiences for children in grades K-12 may explore these Concordia-Chicago programs:
Program Information
Foundations of Instructional Design and Technology
An overview of the field of Instructional Design and Technology emphasizing the guiding principles and ethical foundations of the field.
Instructional Strategies for Learning Technologies
Students will be provided an overview of learning theories and instructional strategies used in the field of instructional design and technology.
Social Computing
Students will learn the design and development principles of social computing, emphasizing the critical review of how the social and cognitive aspects of learning can be effectively facilitated through computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning.
Needs Assessment and Task Analysis
Students will learn how to assess the learner’s context, instructional needs and applications of learning as they relate to instructional strategies, scope, goals, and sequencing instructional design decisions.
Project Management for Instructional Design
Students will explore project management as a framework for the instructional design development process, focusing on needs assessments, selection of a specific design model, implementation steps, and evaluation methods.
Systemic and Technological Innovation
Students will learn the theoretical frameworks related to organizational change processes and the analytical tools needed to analyze, manage, lead change, and support innovation within the field of instructional design and technology.
Human-Computer Interaction and Multimedia Design
Students will learn the design and development principles of digital applications to increase learning, productivity and support performance. The students will also explore multimedia learning theory as a framework for instructional design to facilitate the human-computer interaction.
Learning Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making
Students will be provided an overview of learning analytics and their role in supporting data driven decision-making to enhance learning outcomes.
Evaluation Methodology Applications in Instructional Design and Technology
This course provides an overview of evaluation methodologies and examines implementation models. It will provide an opportunity for students to apply the evaluation methodology in instructional design activities specifically in developing and implementing valid instructional design evaluation procedures and reporting evaluation results.
Capstone Experience
Capstone in Instructional Design and Technology
Plan, develop, implement, and evaluate an instructional design for the purpose of enhancing learning. To be taken as the last course (capstone) in the master's in instructional design degree program.
Credit for Prior Learning
Students entering the Associate of Arts program can earn up to a maximum of 16 semester hours of credit from sources as workshops, seminars, corporate training programs, military service, or other experiences. Documentation that the student presents must demonstrate mastery of college-level learning acquired from these sources. It is evaluated and may result in credit hours being awarded.
Career Possibilities
- Industrial-organizational psychologists
- Management analysts
- Chief executives
- Project director
- General managers
- Information technology specialist or consultant
- Risk management specialists
- Managers:
- Human Resources
- Compensations and Benefits
- Training and Development
- Managers:
- Retail Store
- Operations
- Project
- General
- Medical and Health Services
- Social and Community Services
- Information Technology
- Advertising and Promotions
- Administrative Service
Admission Counselor
Connect with your admission counselor.
