Learning Sciences and Technologies (LST) program at GSE is designed for students who wish to explore at an advanced level the interdisciplinary connections between the most contemporary issues in computer-based learning environments, design issues, and educational concerns. Focusing on the intersection of collaboration, creativity, complexity, and computation, the program values rigorous academic exploration that goes beyond analysis to produce knowledge and propose contemporary solutions. LST students enjoy personalized courses of study in a small, community-oriented cohort of well-focused students.

Our faculty in the LST program work as both designers and researchers of both formal and informal learning environments that are often computer-based in some form; they work in clubs, museums, classrooms, virtual worlds, and are often across multiple settings connected by some form of virtual participation.

As such, they not only conduct research on learning-rich environments but produce the knowledge that in turn serves to shape these. Their research work includes multi-million dollar, collaborative grant-funded projects on complex systems research, interventions to shape learning in formal and informal environments and classrooms, and children’s educational experiences in virtual worlds. Working on large-scale research projects that impact significant populations on a national and international scale, LST faculty figure among leaders in the field. Through their research sites, their work ties into GSE’s focus on urban education and dedication to equitable access to education.

The LST master’s degree provides students with an in-depth understanding of how learning occurs in information-rich environments that they can apply to a variety of job settings. Students gain the knowledge, skills, and techniques to assess, design, and implement programs in learning settings that range from after-school programs to corporate professional development, or doctoral programs in LST.