Online Higher Education Courses

An overview of the higher education profession. This introductory course will provide students with a framework for their educational and professional experiences. The reflective course will highlight functional areas, course expectations, and instructor backgrounds. This course is Pass/Fail.

Study of the historical growth and advancement of public and private colleges and universities in the United States from the earliest higher education institutions to today’s “virtual” schools. Overview of contemporary issues, policies, and practices in higher education institutions including accreditation, curriculum, financial management, and institutional planning.

Organizational and administrative structures within the hierarchy of higher education institutions will be studied as students examine the relationship between the higher education institution and the community it serves, the role of faculty, staff, and students in academic operations and the outreach of modern institutions.

In this course, students will review research about leadership with an emphasis on transformational leadership, creation and implementation of a vision; develop skills in mobilizing institutional and community organizations and constituents with an emphasis on institutional improvement.

This course examines academic support and student services focusing on admissions, enrollment, orientation, student health and counseling, support services, etc.

This course provides students with real-life, hands on experience in higher education. Students work in administrative and curricular offices to incorporate the knowledge and skills learned in the higher education program.

In this course, students will examine decision-making strategies essential for student affairs administrators. Topics include: review of national governing board ethics, challenges in decisions, and power structure.

A review of historical and recent social issues in the United States and impact on educational systems. Issues will be examined through the eyes of marginalized populations.

This course serves as an introduction to institutional accreditation processes including performing an institutional self-study, defining appropriate outcomes aligned with the institution’s strategic plan as well as an introduction to appropriate assessment methods to improve the curriculum and the delivery of instruction.

In this course, students will explore theories regarding innovation and the challenges associated with innovating in an educational culture. Students will examine aspects of an innovator’s mindset, as well as behaviors and practices conducive to the effecting and sustaining of innovations.

Students will choose one component of higher education, i.e., student affairs, admission and enrollment, administration, etc. to research in detail and complete a terminal project based on their research.

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the writing expectations in published educational research. Students will learn the organization, writing expectations, and citation style of APA. The instructor will present strategies for all aspects of the writing process, especially revision. Students will work in groups to peer review each other?s work and meet individually with the instructor. This course is designed to enhance graduate students? writing skills so they are more prepared for the complex writing requirements of graduate level writing and scholarship. Locating, reading, synthesizing, and evaluating published educational research will also be reviewed. This course emphasizes writing for a specific audience. The final product of this class will be a literature review excerpt on a topic the student desires to investigate further in the certificate program or other professional writing such as a grant application.

This course is designed to engage practitioners in the collection, evaluation, and interpretation of educational research for use in a variety of educational practices. The student will investigate the basis of educational research, along with pertinent methods of data collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative research results. Emphasis will be placed on research problems, designs, and findings in the student’s selected area of concentration. Students will be expected to demonstrate their ability to narrow a research topic, complete accepted scholarly search strategies, identify and synthesize research articles, and correctly format a literature review using established APA guidelines.