Instructional Design · California

Instructional Design colleges in California

CampusPin lists 290 U.S. colleges in California that offer Instructional Design programs. Compare tuition, acceptance rate, and enrollment in the table below, every figure links back to the institution's official IPEDS data.

Instructional Design is the craft of planning, building, and evaluating courses and digital learning materials, a fit for people who like turning complex content into clear lessons.

Schools in California that offer Instructional Design

Instructional Design programs in California: by the numbers

A quick comparison of the 50 schools (of 290 total) listed above, drawn from each institution's published IPEDS data.

Schools listed

290

Public / private

25 / 25

Universities / 2-year

42 / 8

Cities represented

40

In-state tuition range

$1,104–$57,946

Median in-state tuition

$9,029

Lowest published in-state tuition

Barstow Community College

$1,104

Most selective

California Institute of the Arts

26% acceptance

Largest by enrollment

California State University-Fullerton

41,793 students

Figures reflect the schools currently listed and each institution's most recent reported data. Verify current tuition and admissions details with the school before applying.

What you'll study in a Instructional Design program

  • Foundations of learning theory and how people acquire skills
  • Instructional design models and the analyze-design-develop-evaluate process
  • Writing measurable learning objectives and outcomes
  • Needs analysis and audience research for a course or training
  • Storyboarding and building multimedia and web-based lessons
  • Authoring tools and learning management systems for e-learning
  • Designing assessments, quizzes, and learner feedback
  • Evaluating and revising courses using learner-performance data
  • Studio and capstone projects that build an instructional-design portfolio

Where a Instructional Design degree can lead

  • Instructional Designer
  • Curriculum Developer
  • Learning Experience Designer
  • Corporate Training Specialist
  • E-Learning Developer
  • Instructional Coordinator

Typical pay: Early-career wages vary by employer, region, and experience (BLS, 2024 instructional coordinators median $74,720).

Instructional Design focuses on how people learn and how to build learning experiences, courses, and digital materials that help them learn well. Rather than preparing you to lead a primary or secondary classroom the way a teacher-preparation major does, this field centers on designing the instruction itself: you study how learning works, analyze what an audience needs to know, set learning objectives, and then storyboard and produce lessons, modules, and assessments around them. Coursework draws on learning theory and the foundations of educational technology, and you spend time building multimedia lessons, web-based and online courses, and self-paced training, along with the quizzes, activities, and feedback that measure whether learners actually met the objectives. You also learn to evaluate and revise a course using data on how learners performed, treating each design as something you test and improve rather than finish once.

Programs are commonly offered at the bachelor's and master's levels, and for many design and coordinator roles a master's degree is the typical entry point. Studio and project-based work is central: you usually build a portfolio of finished courses and e-learning samples, often through a capstone or a practicum where you design real training for a campus office, nonprofit, or workplace partner. Because this field is not classroom teaching, it generally does not require a state teaching license, though any program-specific accreditation or credential expectations should be verified directly with the school and the relevant state or professional body. Graduates work in settings such as company training and learning-and-development teams, colleges and online-program units, government and military training offices, healthcare and nonprofit organizations, and e-learning and educational-software companies, where they design courses, develop training, and coordinate instructional programs.

In federal data for the closely related occupation of instructional coordinators, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2024 median wage of $74,720 and projects employment to grow about 1.3% from 2024 to 2034; a master's degree is the typical entry-level education for that occupation. National figures are occupation-wide medians across all experience levels, not starting wages or graduate outcomes.

Instructional Design in other states

Other majors in California

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Use CampusPin's filter-first search to narrow 290+ Instructional Design programs in California by tuition, school size, acceptance rate, and campus setting.

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