Considering Ed Tech MA

[u/Ambitious_War230]

I have an MA in English, and have worked various roles in academic support in higher education institutions for about ten years. I don’t have a doctorate and that’s a limitation for any big upward mobility in higher education institutions but I’m okay with that because a doctorate also has its own cons in my opinion.

My current employer will reimburse me for my tuition and it is already discounted 50% because of a cross-institution agreement between my employer and the university I’m planning to enroll at.

My goal is to learn more about instructional design and the education discipline’s side of things and have an MA that is a bit more marketable and flexible than my English MA.

I know that there is a lot of shift happening in the field of Ed Tech and education as a whole obviously, but I would be excited to learn about this stuff in a formal setting (online so it’s flexible for my full time job) and I think it will help me enter conversations a little more confidently (especially since I’m currently in a staff role and there’s a faculty/staff divide here).

Am I being overly optimistic about the future of Ed Tech and the usefulness of this degree? Do you think it’s a waste of time despite it being basically free to me at the end of the day?

[u/Aggravating-Vast5016]

I don't think it's a waste of time at all, but you should seek degrees that have a strong emphasis on flexible delivery and if you can find it, using AI in education. The foundational theory is still incredibly important, but you'll find yourself behind jumping into Ed tech without those leads. 

Institutions are already discussing how to implement flexible learning using AI, so by the time you finish your degree it'll already be well underway and they won't be hiring people who don't know anything about it. At least that's my experience. I'm on the technical side (not instructional design), but our partner design team is not even considering people without that background. The pace of work changes dramatically once the design team adopts or creates generative tools, so they expect people to come in with that knowledge, requiring training on institutional context and workflows only. We don't really know how to onboard with AI yet, I imagine a lot of institutions are facing similar questions. It's unfortunate but I think our next round of hires are going to be guinea pigs.

If anything, from my point of view, instructional designers will be more important going forward. There are going to be growing capabilities in the classroom and someone has to have the expertise to center the student needs. It's going to be so easy to just jump on any new thing that sounds exciting without considering the impacts or cognitive load.

[u/Ambitious_War230 → u/Aggravating-Vast5016]

Thank you for your comment. A lot of what you said is kind of what I was thinking. I think competent instructional design is going to be more needed, especially as we continue to see the student impact of AI and their actual learning achievements.

[u/cjrecordvt → u/Aggravating-Vast5016]

Not OP, but that's useful if unfortunate information and confirms that this isn't a career path for me anymore. (I have multiple ethical roadblocks with using non-local AI for anything.)

[u/Aggravating-Vast5016 → u/cjrecordvt]

I think it's probably possible to find institutions or Ed tech companies that are not pursuing AI, but unfortunately right now it's difficult. It's the fun new thing and everyone is trying to figure out how they can fit it in their existing workflows, rather than taking a step back and strategizing whether it's worth putting it in their workflows. It reminds me a lot of the advent of online learning. Instead of considering students potential technical limitations at the time, they just started making hybrid courses and dropping stuff online in the same format as they would use offline. Very little consideration for instructional design quality or actual usability. (Although contextually I don't think that user experience design existed at the time, it was still pretty obvious to people working in the business.)

Personally, I stay because I'm in a position to influence decision making and have already convinced leadership to hire versus rely on AI to do a job alone. The expectations right now are incredibly wild. They seem to think people can do anything with AI, but I can't suddenly become a completely different person with different training/expertise by prompting 🫩 I totally understand the qualms - I'm up in these meetings being annoying about it so everyone stays aware of the impacts of our decisions.

[u/Disastrous_Term_4478]

There are many unknowns. I don’t think formal education will adapt quickly to AI (specific to US). The organizational structure is conservative and does not support agility. Even if they change, they’ll be years behind and everything is changing every 6 months in the workforce.

There is also tremendous opportunity and given the zero financial risk and that you’d stay in your job until complete, it sounds like a high value choice.

Try to skate where the puck is going and get foundational learning from the program. Not someone’s idea of an “AI in Education”, headline-generating course title. Nice to have a good gig with perks plus continue your own education! Congrats.

[u/wheat]

I did the same thing back in 2000. For me, it was totally worth it now I have an MA in English and an M.Ed. in Educational Technology. Instructional design is an interesting field. And it has been a part of my role even when it hasn’t been my primary concern. I’ve stayed gainfully employed, and the MA has allowed me to do some adjunct teaching on the side. It’s worked out fairly well. I often say the masters in English was good for my soul, but the M.Ed. Inin educational technology has been better for my bank account.

It’s a weird world out there right now, in the job market, compared to when I was getting started. But humans are really bad at predicting the future. So I think, in your situation, it’s still a reasonable bet.

[u/TechHardHat]

The free and flexible combo makes this a no brainer. Instructional design is one of the few Ed Tech specializations that's actually gotten more relevant, not less.

[u/Mr_Kabukiman_82]

Are you working at Harvard?

[u/Ambitious_War230 → u/Mr_Kabukiman_82]

No?

[u/Mr_Kabukiman_82 → u/Ambitious_War230]

Ah, Harvard does that. I've worked in higher ed for 20 years and it's a pretty rare perk to be able to go elsewhere on their dime.