Students participating in this program are graduate-level learners in SUNY Potsdam’s Educational Technology, Instructional Design, and Curriculum & Instruction programs completing a culminating capstone experience. 

Participants draw on prior coursework, practicum experiences, certifications, and professional interests to define a capstone project aligned with their career goals. Projects may be situated within external organizations, institutional settings, students’ own classrooms, or future teaching and training contexts. 

All students are expected to demonstrate a high level of independence, professional judgment, and design rigor. Faculty provide guidance and feedback, while students are responsible for managing scope, timelines, research, design decisions, and final deliverables. 

The capstone prioritizes process transparency, reflective practice, and professional readiness, not simply the completion of a single artifact.

The primary learning objectives of this program are to enable students to: 

Students design and execute a self-directed instructional design capstone project that synthesizes theory, research, and applied practice into a professional-grade learning product or artifact. 

Capstone projects may include (but are not limited to): 

Rather than prescribing a single outcome, the program emphasizes:

Exemplary capstone projects are curated as Exemplar Outcome cases within the Instructional Design & Education Technology Case Library.

This program supports a wide range of authentic learning contexts, including external organizations, schools and districts, nonprofit and public sector institutions, and students’ own current or future teaching environments. 

When projects are situated within an external organization or institutional setting, participating partners may benefit from: 

Even when no formal external partner is involved, the work produced through this program contributes to the broader educational ecosystem by advancing reflective practice, quality-aligned instructional design, and reusable learning resources. Exemplary projects may be preserved as instructional design cases, creating long-term value for future students, educators, and collaborators.