Boston College’s Lynch School of Education is delighted to announce the start, in late August, 2019, of our new Masters Program in Learning Engineering (PDF); find out more at bc.edu/learningengineering. We hope you will pass this information on to undergraduates who you think might be interested in making a career of designing for learners. That might include undergraduates in education, computer science, HCI, or information who want to design learning technologies or new ways of using them, and undergraduates from other disciplines who are interested in fostering learning but do not want to be teachers.

The program will prepare students to design engaging learning experiences that are informed by the learning sciences and incorporate cutting-edge technologies. The program is experiential and interdisciplinary, leveraging the expertise of faculty from across BC’s Lynch School of Education. Throughout the one-year, on-campus program, students complete design challenges, shadow working professionals, take field trips to technology incubators and collaboratories, and intern with local organizations. At the program’s core are its design studios and reflective seminars. Courses and 1-credit modules are designed to foster learning of how people learn, how to foster learning, how to design for learners, and how to influence a focus on learning among members of a design team. Students use what they are learning to complete their design challenges and participate in their internships. They graduate with a portfolio that showcases the depth and breadth of their design work and demonstrates their capabilities in learner-centered design, leadership, and pedagogical and technological imagination.

We are also looking to hire two post-doctoral fellows who will teach and mentor in the program under the guidance of program faculty, participate in the evaluation and iterative refinement of the program, and carry out research and/or advise on the design of experiential and active-learning curricula and pedagogies and development of professional practices. Post-docs will be able to use the Learning Engineering program and in-development BC programs in Human-Centered Engineering and Integrated and Applied Science as contexts for research. Those who want to study how people learn the practices of a profession will have built-in participants they can follow into the workplace.

Required qualifications include an earned Ph.D. in the learning sciences or a related field with significant education and experience in the design of technology-rich learning experiences and design-based research (or its equivalent). Applicants should be interested in teaching and mentoring masters students. They should be interested in research related to, or curriculum development around, learning practices of a profession, and they should have solid credentials for carrying out one or both.

While we have not yet posted the positions, we are happy to talk to soon-to-graduate Ph.D. students or others who are interested in joining our effort. Please pass this email on to anybody you think might be interested, and ask them to drop a note to Janet Kolodner at janet.kolodner@bc.edu.

Attachment:
Boston College, Lynch School of Education, Master of Arts in Learning Engineering (PDF)