DELTA faculty offer an array of courses for Digital Environments, for Learning, Teaching & Agency graduate students. Examples of DELTA courses are listed below.
CI 424: Child Development & Technology
This course uses theories of children's psychological development (e.g., cognitive, socio-emotional) to inform an analysis of current technologies marketed for pre-school children. The course mixes lectures and discussions about child development with hands-on demonstrations and evaluations of a technology or technology genre for young children
CI 437: Educational Game Design
This course examines the role that physical and digital games can play in education as a means to engage students and help them learn a range of topics in a variety of settings. Using ideas from both curriculum design and game design, students in this class will work in teams to create original games--board games, computer games, etc.--with the goal of acquiring new concepts and skills.
CI 438: Computer Programming and the Classroom
This course explores teaching methods related to computer programming in K-12 settings. Students will be introduced to theoretical and practical aspects of computer science education with an emphasis on learning to code and integrating coding into the classroom. No prior programming experience required.
CI 482: Social Learning and Multimedia
Credit: 4 hours
Learning in multimodal environments from a social and cultural perspective. Topics include the formation and expression of individual and group identity across multiple contexts, including social networking, online gaming, reality television programs, streamed video, and in online courses. Assignments include both analytic and project-based tasks, with an emphasis on implications for formal learning environments.
CI 499: Designing Learning Spaces
This interactive, seminar-style course focuses on how features of the physical environment create and shape learning experiences in both formal and informal learning spaces, such as museums and makerspaces. This course will survey methods for observing, collecting data about, and designing novel learning environments.
CI 499: Attention, Learning, and Technology
This course will look at the research on the relationship between attention and learning, recent work on the effects of multitasking and the influence that using technology in classrooms has on students’ engagement and attention. The course will also examine arguments about how the changes in technology influences the speed (and depth) of thought, attention disorders and the use of technology, and consider how the management of attention is a key tool for learners to develop.
CI 499: Critiques of Educational Technology
The course surveys various arguments critical of educational technology as a way of getting past the hype and coming to a better understanding of its true affordances and constraints. Students will examine papers and other works skeptical of educational technology as a whole as well as research questioning specific technology initiatives such as mass distribution of computers in schools, analytics approaches to education, MOOCs, intelligent tutors, virtual reality, and others.
CI 507: Collaborative Learning and Instruction
The purpose of this course is to examine the research on collaborative learning and its utility in instruction. The course focuses first on theoretical questions about collaboration and collaborative learning, followed by a look at a range of research that proposes ways of implementing and supporting collaborative learning. The course will also examine what research says about the role of the teacher in the collaborative classroom.
CI 507: Instruction to Educational Data Mining
This course examines how the data created when students, teachers, and school administrators interact with digital learning environments can be used to improve the educational experience? Educational Data Mining (EDM) is a discipline concerned with the analysis of the unique and increasingly large-scale data that come from educational settings. This course will introduce students to EDM methods and applications, including exploratory approaches, student knowledge assessment, predictive modeling, and data visualization.
CI 507: Learning and the Body
Students in this course will explore how body movement and physical engagement with the environment is connected to how people learn. The course explores embodied cognition and related ideas from philosophy, cognitive science, the learning sciences, the arts, etc. and applies them to the design of educational environments.
CI 555: Advanced Educational Technologies for Engagement and Interactive Learning
Interactive technologies are bringing rapid, often unpredictable change to how we play, and how we live, and how we learn. This course focuses on recent advances and emerging educational technologies that seek to promote and sustain learning, both in formal and informal settings. Topics covered include educational games, artificial intelligence, virtual environments, mobile devices, affective computing, pedagogical agents, tabletops, and more.
EPSY 490: Learning in Everyday Contexts
This course will focus primarily on learning that happens in informal settings and out-of-school contexts, like museums, science centers, after-school programs, and modern digital entertainment environments. Students will consider issues ranging from the design of informal environments (e.g., museum exhibits) to “incidental” learning from modern digital games (e.g., Minecraft). The course will examine theories of motivation, the science of interest development, and emphasize the social and technological aspects of informal learning in the 21st century.
EPSY 590: Mobile Apps for Teaching, Learning, and Educational Research
This course focuses on the design, development, and uses of mobile apps for teaching and learning. Students will explore a wide range of apps, including games, social media, productivity apps, and news readers. The course is structured around three themes: (1) in-depth review of empirical research on the design of apps for learning and health, (2) review and analysis of existing apps for educational uses, and (3) hands-on creation of apps using existing toolkits such as GameMaker, Corona SDK, and RPG Maker.