Ms in Learning Design and Technology
Master Instructional Design & Learning Design – 100% Online
Earn your Master’s in Learning Design and Technology (MS-LDT) while you gain in-demand L&D skills, hands-on e-learning tool expertise (Articulate 360), and a job-ready portfolio to launch or advance your career.
Design Learning Experiences That Work. Build a Career That Lasts.
Whether you’re looking to pivot into instructional design or promote into a senior L&D leadership role, top organizations need professionals who can create measurable, engaging, and inclusive learning ecosystems that drive organizational results. As a student in the University of San Diego’s online MS in Learning Design and Technology (MS-LDT), you’ll develop an understanding of the science of how people learn, while gaining proficiency in the leading technology tools currently used in instructional and learning design today.
👉 Position Yourself to Pivot or Promote: Prepare for roles such as Instructional Designer, Educational Technologist, LX Specialist, E-Learning Developer, or L&D Director, across corporate, tech, healthcare, and higher education sectors.
👉 Master Industry Tools & AI Workflows: Build hands-on fluency in e-learning tools like Articulate 360 (Storyline & Rise), LMS/CMS systems and other emerging tech while learning to leverage AI systems to accelerate your design process and boost productivity.
👉 Build a Career-Ready Portfolio: Graduate with a live, digital portfolio featuring real-world eLearning modules that you’ve built from the ground up, giving you the direct proof hiring managers look for. Every course adds another project to that portfolio, each backed by the data and strategy behind the decision, so you can walk an employer through exactly why it works.
👉 Gain Work-Life Balance & Remote Flexibility: Position yourself for versatile career paths offering competitive salaries, creative autonomy, and the potential for hybrid or 100% remote schedules.
Program Snapshot
Priority Application Deadline
November 2
Program Length
20 Months
Total Units
30
Format
100% Online
“The LDT program was instrumental in my career growth by filling critical knowledge gaps I hadn’t even identified. My instructors were active practitioners and industry leaders, ensuring the material was immediately relevant. The program didn’t just teach me to design content; it taught me how to become a trusted, strategic partner.”
– Andrew Poso, MS-LDT
Instructional Designer, Living Spaces Furniture
An Online Master’s Degree Built for Working Professionals
Built for versatility, the MS-LDT gives you the structure to build in-demand skills without pausing your career to do it. Our curriculum provides the professional edge you need, bridging the gap between where you are now and the technical competencies today’s leading organizations are hiring for.
- 100% Online & Flexible: Keep working while you earn your degree. The 7-week course format lets you focus on one class at a time while balancing your job and life outside it.
- A Portfolio, Built Into the Curriculum: Every course builds toward your Capstone project, culminating in a professional digital portfolio ready to show employers.
- Practitioner Faculty: Learn from instructors currently working in learning design and technology roles across corporate, healthcare, higher ed, and government, who know what it takes to succeed in the field today.
- Fast-Track Completion: Apply what you learn starting with your first course, and finish your degree in as little as 20 months.
Master the Skills That Define the Industry
The MS-LDT curriculum goes beyond tools and theory to cover skills a lot of ID programs skip entirely: legal and ethical standards for accessible design, applied research methods, and program evaluation, alongside the strategic leadership skills that move you from contributor to decision-maker.
10 Classes | 7 weeks each | 15-18 hours per week
MS-LDT Course Listing
LDT 500A – Foundations in Instructional and Learning Design
This course focuses on the field of instructional and learning design. Students will examine foundational theories of learning and cognition, the instructional design process, and human-centered design thinking strategies. By identifying real-world instructional challenges, students apply research-based approaches to solving knowledge and skills gap problems that occur in a variety of workplace, education, and organizational settings. In this foundational course, students actively engage in various instructional design process activities that build professional competency. The course learning experience includes an introduction to AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM for productivity and self-regulated learning.
LDT 500B – Foundations in Multimedia and eLearning Design
This course introduces research-based principles of effective multimedia design and the creation of original media that aligns with those principles. Students examine common learning technologies used in the development phase of the instructional design process, including eLearning authoring software (such as Articulate Storyline 360 and Rise 360) and generative AI tools. Students apply principles of visual and graphic design to storyboard and prototype interactive learning experiences. Generative AI is integrated as a productivity tool to support ideation, rapid prototyping, and the creation of interactive eLearning activities. Emphasis is placed on critically evaluating and refining AI-assisted outputs to ensure they align with learning goals and professional instructional design standards.
LDT 520 – Advanced Learning Theory and Evidence-Based Instructional Design
This course examines advanced topics in instructional design, including needs assessment, learner characteristics, alignment of learning objectives, instructional strategies, and formative and summative assessments. Students engage with generative AI tools as professional design partners to support instructional ideation, scenario development, and activity design, while learning to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs using evidence from learning science. Students will explore critical theories of learning and motivation and the ethical responsibility of instructional designers to analyze and dispel common myths and misapplication of these concepts, including those that may be introduced or amplified by AI systems. The course emphasizes the application of sound design principles to plan, design, evaluate, and refine inclusive learning experiences that are grounded in research and responsive to real-world contexts.
LDT 530 – Designing for All Learners: Legal and Ethical Digital Design Standards
This course explores the artistic and technical aspects of creating engaging and accessible digital media for diverse learners. Students examine research-based and ethical approaches to multimedia design to develop ADA-compliant learning artifacts. Students will apply appropriate federal and state laws guiding accessible design requirements, and explore professional guidelines such as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. Students leverage generative AI as an industry tool to streamline professional workflows and create accessibility resources used in the field, while critically assessing AI outputs for correctness and quality. Design decisions are evaluated through a Learner Experience (LX) design rubric to ensure effective, equitable, and professional information delivery.
LDT 535 – Curating Digital Assets and Artifacts
This course explores the lifecycle of digital assets and artifacts within instructional systems, from initial needs assessment to final implementation. Students analyze assets as critical system inputs–ranging from tangible media and AI-generated content to intangible learner prior knowledge. A significant portion of the course is dedicated to the legal and ethical landscapes of instructional design. Students will navigate the complexities of U.S. Copyright law, the TEACH Act, and Creative Commons, with a specific focus on the emerging intellectual property challenges posed by generative AI. Through case studies and hands-on design, students conduct needs assessments to evaluate assets for pedagogical alignment, accessibility, and technical feasibility. The course further examines the shift toward authentic assessment and the disruptive impact of generative AI on learning. By the conclusion of the course, students will be able to craft ethically sound, comprehensive design plans that balance the risks and liabilities of copyright with the innovative potential of modern instructional tools.
LDT 540 – Strategic Leadership in Digital Learning
This course establishes the foundations for ethical leadership within the digital learning landscape. Students develop essential skills for leading cross-functional remote teams, managing complex project delivery, and navigating the requirements of regulatory bodies (e.g., Accreditation, Accessibility, and GDPR). Students will use generative AI as a strategic tool to enhance research, facilitate project management tasks, and streamline professional communication. Through a user-centric lens, students map learner journeys and synthesize their expertise into a comprehensive business plan for an online program.
LDT 550 – Applying Educational Research Methods
This course prepares students to critically engage with educational research to inform effective, evidence-based decisions in learning design and instructional technology. Students will identify a real-world problem of practice, conduct a scholarly literature review, and design an actionable research proposal to address it. Through scaffolded assignments and collaborative peer feedback, students will analyze current research, develop well-aligned research questions, and explore appropriate methodologies, ethical considerations, and data presentation strategies. Throughout the course, students will engage with generative AI tools as analytic and reflective supports, using them to interrogate ideas, surface assumptions, and refine scholarly reasoning. By the end of the course, students will not only produce a comprehensive research proposal but also reflect on how educational research shapes their professional identity and strengthens their ability to justify design decisions grounded in data and theory.
LDT 545 – Learner Assessment and Evaluation of Training Programs
This course examines theories and techniques for assessing and evaluating educational and training programs, with an emphasis on contemporary, technology-supported evaluation practices. Students apply methodologies to identify needs, establish measurable objectives, and design, test, and refine assessment and evaluation plans for educational, training, and adult learning environments. Students will examine practical applications of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation and how they are supported by generative AI to draft, analyze, and pressure-test assessment and evaluation artifacts. Through an applied case study, students will demonstrate workforce-ready competencies in program evaluation and assessment best practices, informed by AI literacy and responsible use.
LDT 555 – Emerging Technologies in Learning Design
Designed as a dynamic exploratory lab, this course explores the rapidly evolving landscape of learning technologies with content that continuously adapts to reflect the latest industry advancements. Students evaluate the value and practical application of cutting-edge tools in creating high-impact learning activities for diverse learning and development contexts. Students will actively engage in the applied use of generative AI to create diverse training content, such as animated training videos and AI-powered chatbot tutorials, aligned with the specific learning needs of their Capstone project. By assessing real-time learning design trends and the ethical implications of rapid tech adoption, students learn to move beyond the hype and make responsible, research-based recommendations for technology deployment in the modern workforce.
LDT 560 – Capstone Project: Professional Portfolio and Online Course Design
This Capstone course is the culminating assessment of the Master of Science in Learning Design and Technology. In this course, students will demonstrate all program learning outcomes through an instructional design portfolio project that showcases their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the field. They’ll complete a two-module online course that reflects their ability to apply learning theories, instructional design processes, and technology integration to address a specific instructional need for a target audience. Additionally, students will engage in peer evaluation to demonstrate critical evaluation skills against ethical, quality, research-based, and professional standards in learning design and technology. Throughout the online course design process, students are encouraged to collaborate with AI systems, assess output accuracy, document transparent use, and justify the strategic application of AI as a professional tool of the trade.
LDT students graduate with a strong mix of technical and professional skills, positioning them to stand out in a competitive market. As demand for skilled learning designers continues to increase, the program ensures you’ll be ready to lead.
“I enrolled in University of San Diego’s MS-LDT program because I wanted to start a new career as an instructional designer. This program is amazing because within the first semester I already felt like I had gained invaluable foundational knowledge and skills in the field. It gave me the confidence to apply for an instructional design job with a large consulting firm, and I was offered the position! The interviewers specifically said I had an impressive fundamental understanding of the instructional design process. This is all thanks to the immersive and purposeful design of the courses in this program.”
– Rowan Shartel, Instructional Designer at Booz Allen
Why Choose University of San Diego?
Academic excellence, top-ranked university
Aside from attending a prestigious university with a long history and a great reputation, you’ll enjoy a practical, immediately relevant curriculum geared toward advancing your career.
Outcomes that arrive before graduation
Graduates frequently land new roles in instructional design and corporate learning, often before completing the program. The skills you build are immediately applicable, and employers notice.
Radical Hospitality: The USD Way
You’re paired with a dedicated program coordinator who guides your entire journey, from enrollment through graduation. It’s white-glove support that’s rare in graduate education, and it means you’re never navigating your degree alone.