Master the fundamentals of learning analytics to inform better teaching and learning
The Learning Analytics Online Master’s Degree will empower you to leverage data to drive high-quality decision within the educational context. The program prepares data scientists to build highly functional and ethically sound ways to perform measurement, analysis, predictive modeling, and to identify algorithmic bias. Technically valid and responsible data collection and analysis practices are critical to developing impactful educational systems.
What Sets Us Apart
About the Program
This fully online program (no in-person component) prepares graduates to work as data scientists in research and development in areas such as at-risk prediction, intelligent tutoring systems, and educational recommender systems. You will emerge understanding when and why to use different methods for a range of applications in order to make a real-world impact. The program teaches you both the latest learning analytics algorithms and tools as well as how to engineer data streams to turn raw data into interpretable and valuable features. Your use of contemporary methods will be grounded in the rich history of educational thought, with an understanding of how this grounding can support efforts to address challenges such as algorithmic bias to improve educational outcomes at scale.
Fall: 3 courses; Spring: 3 courses; Summer: 2 courses; Fall: 2 courses and capstone.
Culminating experienceMaster’s capstone project
- Full-Time
- Part-Time
- Online
- Online
Learning Analytics uses educational data and modern algorithms to develop learning technologies that enhance student outcomes, support teachers and school leaders, and help identify and address gaps. Successful use of learning analytics depends on understanding both algorithms and learning, including the social context that surrounds learning and the use of learning analytics.
This program can be completed within 16 months by following the recommended schedule (Fall, Spring, Summer, Fall), or students can enroll part-time and complete the program within two years. The program consists of coursework and a capstone project where students will develop projects with real-world relevance and of a quality that can be submitted as a demo or short papers to international conferences. The program is fully online (no in-person component) and will have a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, with multiple sections/time slots for synchronous activities to accommodate students around the world.
Curriculum
The program will have 7 required classes, and 3 concentration courses, culminating in a capstone, where students will demonstrate their readiness to work in industry and/or produce competitive submissions to demo and short paper categories at top international conferences.
- Core Methods in Educational Data Mining (Baker)
Teaches essential methods and algorithms used in practice - Big Data, Education, and Society (Baker)
Prepares students for opportunities, challenges, and constraints in real-world usage of learning analytics, including challenges around algorithmic bias. Covers key applications in practice and factors accelerating and impeding their usage. - Dashboards and Analytics for Reporting (Ocumpaugh)
Dashboards are a type of report for teachers, school leaders, school counselors, and other stakeholders. This class will cover design principles and current use cases. - Databases and Data Management
This course teaches the use of databases within analytics -- i.e. how to set up a database, extract data from it, and analyze data. - Foundations of Teaching and Learning (Kafai)
The course covers key thinkers and ideas in education and the application of their ideas around the world. - Feature Engineering (Baker)
Feature engineering is the practice of transforming complex data streams into interpretable variables that can be used within algorithms to generate models that can be validated and used. - Learning Analytics Masters Capstone Seminar
Concentration Courses will include multiple options, such as Adaptive Learning and Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Design of Learning Environments, Production Analytics Environments, Deep Learning and Transformer Models, and Quantitative Ethnography.
Our Faculty
Our Graduates
The Learning Analytics program prepares students for careers in industry, government, non-profits, higher education, and K-12 school systems, as well as to go on to pursue doctoral programs. The program prepares graduates to work in research and development in areas such as at-risk prediction, intelligent tutoring systems, and educational recommender systems. Although this program is currently admitting its first cohort, recent graduates from other programs at Penn GSE who specialized in learning analytics have gone on to jobs in industry (including Chegg, McGraw-Hill, and ETS), have founded companies, and have gone on to top doctoral programs.
Admissions & Financial Aid
Please visit our Admissions and Financial Aid pages for specific information on the application requirements, as well as information on tuition, fees, financial aid, scholarships, and fellowships.
Contact us if you have any questions about the program.
Financial Aid
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-6415
admissions@gse.upenn.edu
finaid@gse.upenn.edu
Please view information from our Admissions and Financial Aid Office for specific information on the cost of this program.
Most students in this program are anticipated to fund their degree through a combination of personal resources, employer benefits, and student loans.
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