Program Overview

Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Sciences

About the METALS Program

The Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Sciences (METALS) program is an intense one-year, interdisciplinary master's program that trains graduate students to apply evidence-based research in learning to create effective instruction and educational technologies within formal and informal settings.

The METALS program is jointly taught by faculty with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (CMU School of Computer Science) and the Psychology Department (CMU Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences). This truly interdisciplinary program includes fundamentals from HCII and psychology, but also cognitive science, statistics, computer science, education, and design.

Our Students Are Trained To

• Apply cognitive science methods to map learning objectives to well-designed instructional activities.
• Learn how to use statistics to analyze extremely large data sets.
• Create effective online educational courseware by learning the basics of tutor creation.
• Use software engineering techniques to create these tutors.
• Design an appropriate curriculum using the latest theories.

Highlights of the METALS Program

• One year (12 month) program with 11 core courses and electives.
• Culminates with a 7-month, team-based capstone project for an external client.
• Students emerge as educational technology designers, developers, consultants, entrepreneurs, policy makers, or evaluators.
• Diverse faculty members with backgrounds in learning sciences, human-computer interaction, psychology, design, and computer science.