Behind the Scenes with GTPE’s Learning Design Team
In January this year, the Georgia Institute of Technology announced its second at-scale degree, the Online Master of Science in Analytics (OMS Analytics), offered in collaboration with edX, a leading non-profit MOOC provider. This degree follows the Institute’s groundbreaking Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMS CS), which made world headlines in 2013.
Building upon the success of the OMS CS degree, the OMS Analytics includes two new features, a practicum experience at scale and an alternative pathway to enter the program by taking the Analytics: Essential Tools and Methods MicroMasters© program, which is offered by edX.
While the new degree program follows the same model as the OMS CS, and is an online version of an existing top-ranked residential program, it has one key difference. Courses for the OMS Analytics are designed and produced for online delivery entirely in-house by Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE) via edX.org.
Within less than a year, the division’s learning design team of instructional designers, interactive media producers, graphic artists, editors, and simulation experts worked with faculty and leadership to develop seven courses for the master’s degree and the MicroMasters© program, offered by edX. The courses were ready in time for the start of both programs, summer 2017 for the MicroMasters© and fall 2017 for the OMS Analytics.
In this article, Yakut Gazi, Ph.d., GTPE’s associate dean of learning systems, and Shabana Figueroa, Ph.D., director of learning design, take you behind the scenes as they discuss the process of developing these courses within such a short timeframe. Read more.
