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We offer high-quality, flexible, and accessible online degree programmes designed to provide the convenience you need to achieve your academic goals.
Our aim is to provide you with a learning environment in which you can strengthen your skills as a self-directed learner and enhance your capacity to interact and collaborate with your peers, share experiences, challenge accepted ideas and build new knowledge.
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Introduction
Organizations today face increasingly complex challenges that impact employee and organizational performance. Many of these challenges cannot be resolved through training alone and require a broader understanding of the factors that influence workplace effectiveness. As organizations seek to improve productivity, support change, enhance workforce capability, and achieve strategic goals, there is growing demand for professionals who can identify performance barriers and implement evidence-based solutions.
The Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology (MSc IDT) with a Concentration in Human Performance Improvement (HPI) prepares professionals to address these challenges through a systematic and data-driven approach to performance improvement. Drawing on principles from learning, performance improvement, organizational development, and technology, the programme equips graduates to develop solutions that improve both individual and organizational effectiveness in a wide range of workplace settings.
About the Programme
The programme develops advanced knowledge and practical skills in Human Performance Improvement (HPI), instructional design, learning technologies, and organizational performance. Students learn to analyse performance challenges, identify their root causes, design and implement targeted interventions, manage organizational change, and evaluate results to ensure continuous improvement.
Graduates of the programme will be able to:
- Examine the principles and models of human performance improvement
- Analyze root causes of gaps in organizational performance;
- Design effective performance improvement interventions, including training programmes, process improvements, and organisational changes;
- Oversee solutions from inception to completion;
- Conduct evaluations of intervention implementation and outcomes;
- Apply evaluation data to refine interventions and ensure continuous improvement.
Graduates will be well positioned for roles such as Instructional Designer, Learning Designer, Learning and Development Manager, Learning and Performance Strategist, Human Performance Improvement Specialist, Organizational Development Practitioner, Performance Consultant, and other leadership positions focused on workplace learning and organizational effectiveness.
The programme is also intended for graduates of the 13-credit Postgraduate Certificate in Human Performance Improvement (PgCert HPI) who wish to further their qualifications and continue their professional development.
Entry Requirements
Applicants must possess an undergraduate degree (at least a Lower Second Class or its equivalent) from an approved tertiary institution.
Holders of the postgraduate Diploma in Instructional Design and the postgraduate Certificate in Human Performance Improvement programmes may transition into the programme as per Board for Graduate Studies and Research Regulations.
Who is this programme for?
The programme is designed not only for individuals with educational background but also for professionals across business and industry, corporate learning and development, human resources and talent development, organisational development, government, healthcare, technology, defence and security, and other sectors who want advanced expertise at the intersection of learning, technology and organisational performance.
Target audiences include:
- Instructional and learning designers
- Learning and Development professionals
- Training managers and specialists
- Human Resource and Talent Development professionals
- Performance improvement and organisational development practitioners
- Managers and Team Leaders
- Technology specialists involved in workplace learning and performance
- Professionals responsible for workforce development, organisational learning, change, and performance.
When will the programme start?
The programme commences in January and September each academic year.
Duration of Programme
Part-time, 2 years (including the summer sessions)
Programme Structure
The MSc in Instructional Design and Technology with a Concentration in Human Performance Improvement is a 39-credit, fully online postgraduate degree completed part-time over two years, including summer sessions. The programme combines the core instructional design curriculum with specialised HPI courses. Students complete 10 credits specifically related to HPI, including Analysis of Human Performance, Intervention Selection, Design and Development, and Evaluating Human Performance Improvement Solutions.
The programme also includes a Design-Based Research course, a six-credit Design Project, and one elective. The Design Project serves as a culminating applied experience in which students work on real-world learning and performance challenges.
Assessment
Assessment is designed to emphasise the application of learning to authentic academic, workplace and organisational contexts. Students engage in a range of practical and applied activities, projects, analyses, evaluations and other assessment tasks that demonstrate both conceptual understanding and professional competence.
Academic Preparation
All successful candidates must complete the Graduate Induction course that introduces students to online learning and prepares them for the demands of a UWI graduate programme.
Students in the MScIDT with HPI concentration programme must also participate in the Introduction to Graduate Academic Writing course (GRST6800), which should be completed in the first semester of study.
Course of Study
This course is designed for advanced level graduate students. The aim of this course is to help students to become more competent, confident and critical members of their chosen academic discourse communities by developing their abilities to successfully write at an acceptable scholarly level. The goal of this course is to assist students in developing the writing skills necessary to meet a range of anticipated writing tasks that they will encounter during their academic career. Students will learn how to utilise key features of discourse, for example audience and purpose, organization and structure, information flow, vocabulary, grammar, etc. to analyse research articles and to enhance their own writing. Students will be introduced to the recommended Style Guide for the discipline as one of the primary resources for the course.
Part 1 - Technology Skills
Part 1 is designed to help students to learn how to use the features of the Learning Exchange, without attending a training course. It also helps students to understand the skills needed before they start their programme. This section consists of five subsections. Each subsection provides a list of the topics or tasks that demonstrate the skill level expected and provides access to tutorial information, practical exercises, and a challenge quiz. As students progress through each, they will be required to pass the challenge quiz for each topic area.
Subsections covered include:
● OC Portal
● OC Mail
● Learning Exchange
● ePortfolio
Part 2 - Academic Journey
Part 2 guides students through the expectations of being a postgraduate student of the Global Campus, and the support mechanisms in place to enhance students’ success. This portion of OOL6001 provides an overview of the policies and procedures that govern students’ role in the courses offered. It also identifies the roles and responsibilities of the GC staff that supports each programme, provides guidance on how students should approach their studies, and gives students an opportunity to reflect on their readiness for the programme selected. As with Part 1, there are tutorial information, practical exercises and challenge quizzes.
Subsections covered include:
● Knowing the Academic Support Community
● A Culture of Life-Long Learning
● Assessment Methods
● Graduate Student Skills including Academic Integrity, using Turnitin, Research Skills and Writing Skills
● Regulations and Study Habits
● APA Format & Citation
Critically examines historical, current and emerging developments in instructional design, online learning and distance education, including emerging technologies such as AI, analytics and adaptive and personalised learning.
Focuses on selecting, designing and implementing HPI interventions based on identified performance gaps and root causes, while integrating change-management approaches to support sustainable implementation.
Develops capabilities in formative, summative and confirmative evaluation of HPI solutions and the use of evaluation evidence to improve interventions and organisational performance.
Introduces Design-Based Research as an iterative approach to analysing, designing, developing and evaluating interventions in real-world settings. Students culminate the course by designing a DBR study addressing a learning or performance problem.
Applies project-management principles to instructional design projects, including planning, stakeholder engagement, risk management, quality assurance and resource allocation.
