Endorsements & Licensing

On July 1, 2023, the traditional path for the Ed. Tech Endorsement was replaced with a Competency-Based Educational Technology Endorsement Program (ETEP). This endorsement program is designed by UEN and approved by the Utah State Board of Education.  Participants who began the traditional endorsement before July 2023 can continue with that route or change to the new competency-based endorsement.  All traditional requirements much be completed before June 30, 2025.

Traditional Ed. Tech Endorsement:

The traditional ETEP consists of 18 credit hours: 9 one-credit courses through UEN and 3 three-credit courses from SUU.  Additionally, there is a requirement to attend an education conference. You can review all the requirements for this route by going to this page. The traditional endorsement’s required core SUU EDUC 5000, 5010, and 5020 courses are no longer being offered.  These have been replaced with new, updated EDUC courses:

• EDUC 5000-365 Foundations of Instructional Design for Educators has been replaced with EDPD 5074: Foundation of Instructional Design and Pedagogy
• EDUC 5010-365 Classroom Integration of Educational Technology has been replaced with EDPD 5077 Supporting and Developing 21st Century Learners
• EDUC 5020-365 Leadership in Educational Technology & Instructional Design has been replaced with EDPD 5076: Professional Growth and Leadership

If you have taken any of the EDUC core courses and would like to transition to the new competency-based path, you WILL NOT need to complete the corresponding EDPD courses.  Below is additional information about the new Competency-Based Educational Technology Endorsement Program.  This FAQ page will help answer some questions about transitioning or starting on the competency-based route verses staying on the traditional route.  Take a look at a couple of handy trackers from UEN - one to complete the traditional ETEP approach and one for the new Competency-Based approach to assist in your journey.  Additionally, here's a little video overview of transitioning over to the new ETEP Competency-Based Endorsement.  If you are still in doubt or have additional questions, please contact Brandon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 435-633-6627. 

New Competency-Based Educational Technology Endorsement:

This endorsement is a total of 12 credit hours, and is divided into four courses, which were developed and designed to help Utah Educators learn and demonstrate the required technology endorsement competencies as you will you will come away with a portfolio of work that aligns with each competency. Also, there is still a requirement to attend a conference.  Participants can join the endorsement program at any time as most courses are self-paced with no set meeting time. Courses must be taken in order, and all endorsement requirements must be completed within three years. The four competencies include:

• Foundation of Instructional Design and Pedagogy
• Digital Citizenship and Information Literacy
• Supporting and Developing 21st-Century Learners
• Professional Growth and Leadership

Within each course, you will learn and be able to demonstrate the following: 

Foundation of Instructional Design and Pedagogy (EDPD 5074)

a. Essential Educational Technology Skills

1. Demonstrate competency when implementing local education agency (LEA) and state-provided (USBE, UEN, STEM Action Center) digital learning tools in the classroom.
2. Use technology to find, organize, and curate educational resources.
3. Evaluate hardware and software regarding instructional goals and student data privacy requirements.

b. Essential Pedagogical Understanding and Application

1. Explore and apply instructional design principles and core standards for high-quality digital instruction using research-based models of technology integration (PICRAT, TPACK, SAMR, Triple E, etc.) to engage and support learning aligned with LEA goals.
2. Design and implement the appropriate learning modality for various situations (Face-to-Face, Online, Blended, etc.)
3. Engage in reflective practice and data analysis as part of the instructional cycle.
4. Integrate elements of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) in lessons to eliminate barriers to learning.

Professional Growth and Leadership (EDPD 5076)

1. Seek out, join, and participate in local and global learning communities to pursue professional learning and stay current with research that supports student learning.
2. Collaborate with colleagues to identify, adopt, and evaluate digital tools and resources for learning.
3. Plan and provide professional learning experiences for a grade-level team, department, school, or professional conference.

Supporting (Developing) 21st-Century Learners (EDPD 5077)

a. Personalized Learning

1. Facilitate student usage of digital tools in a way that enables students to become responsible creators and critical consumers of digital content.
2. Apply the principles of personalized learning to tailor the preferences and interests of various learners as well as instruction that is paced to a student’s unique needs.
3. Foster a classroom climate of inquiry and a growth mindset.

b. Facilitating Learning Through Collaboration

1. Provide opportunities for students to engage virtually with experts, teams, and students, locally and globally.
2. Model and facilitate the responsible repurposing and remixing of digital resources by students.
3. Plan and implement opportunities for students to work collaboratively with others.

c. Facilitating Learning Through Creativity

1. Provide opportunities for students to publish and present original content for various audiences.
2. Encourage responsible evaluation of curated material.
3. Engage students in the curation of original works.
4. Facilitate opportunities for students to positively affect his or her society as a result of their creative works.

d. Facilitating Learning Through Communication

1. Encourage responsible evaluation and appropriate responses to others’ online communications.
2. Demonstrate communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively through a variety of digital objects.
3. Foster opportunities for students to demonstrate effective communication skills online.
4. Provide examples of effective online student communication.

e. Facilitating Learning Through Critical Thinking

1. Design and facilitate Project-Based Learning (PBL) experiences.
2. Provide opportunities for learners to engage in Computational Thinking learning experiences.

Digital Citizenship and Information Literacy (EDPD 5079*) 

a. Digital Citizenship

1. Create positive online experiences for students that foster responsible contribution and empathetic engagement.
2. Empower students to recognize and appropriately respond to inappropriate or dangerous online interactions.
3. Promote and model appropriate data privacy practices
4. Guide students to develop a positive and responsible digital identity.

b. Information Fluency

1. Model and instruct students in best practices for information literacy and media fluency.
2. Model and instruct students to assess the credibility and usefulness of online resources.
3. Model and instruct students to interpret large amounts of complex information meaningfully and communicate and share across various media platforms.
4. Model and instruct students in the best practices for fair use, copyright protection, and creating original works.
5. Create a culture of learning that provides opportunities for collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication (4 C’s), which empowers learners to adapt, create, consume, and connect.

*NOTE you do not need to complete EDPD 5079 digital Info and Leteracy unless you choose.  Instead, in its place you will take and complete two online 6-week digital citizenship courses from UEN:

• EDPD 5260-390 Developing Digital Detectives
• EDPD 5260-388 Digital Empowerment or EDPD 5990-365 Teaching Digital Citizenship

Cost: There is no out-of-pocket cost for taking the core courses if you are a Utah Educator.  USBE will cover the tuition cost of the competency endorsement courses!  With all courses, you will have the chose between SUU or USBE (MIDAS) credit. The EDPD 5260 courses, or any other UEN course, will only by $21 if you elect to receive SUU graduate credit.  There is no charge for USBE credit.  SUU credit can be applied for lane change, while either credit is acceptable for the endorsement as well as relicensure hours.

Sign me up: If you are interested in registering for the new endorsement, simply click here!  You will then be put into a Canvas course where you will have access to each of the required competency courses that need to be completed.  CUES will be your facilitator for all the courses and will help you in your journey.  

Professional Development: CUES and UEN will continue to offer fabulous online, MOOC, in-person, and flex “learn today, use tomorrow” professional development courses, even though they won’t necessarily be needed for the endorsement.  ANY teacher can take any course at any time it is being offered.  Courses are ideal for networking, content knowledge, graduate credit, and/or relicensure hours.  You can always see and register for the CUES listings here, and check out what UEN is offering here.

Continued Learning Paths:  Continue your education after completing the Educational Technology Endorsement Program. Completion of the required core courses can count toward a Master’s degree from either Southern Utah University or Utah Valley University.

Southern Utah University - Master of Education

SUU College of Education offers a Master of Education Degree. The coursework consists of 24 credit hours of core courses and 12 credit hours of elective courses. Completing the endorsement fulfills the elective course requirement for this SUU program. Note that hours must be transcribed as SUU credit. Contact Tamara Lovell, 435-865-8759, for additional information.

Utah Valley University - Master of Education

UVU School of Education offers a Master of Education Degree. After completing the Educational Technology Endorsement, teachers only need to complete an additional 24 credit hours of core courses to earn their Master of Education degree with an emphasis in Educational Technology. Contact Nathan Criman, 801-863-7614, for additional information.