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Curriculum, Technology, & Educational Reform (CTER)
Courses & Schedule
Overview | Schedule | Core Courses | Elective Courses
Overview
Course instruction is 100% online, allowing students great flexibility in scheduling their learning. Course requirements include a time each week when students participate in synchronous online group sessions live synchronous online class sessions. Courses are offered over four 10-week terms each year. This innovative approach acknowledges that most of our "students" are actually working professionals who must manage the work/life/learning balance. Students are part of a cohort and enroll in one course per 10-week term. This schedule allows students in the cohort to complete their degrees in two years. However, the degree may be completed at a slower pace if arranged.
The 32 credit hours required for the Master of Education degree are earned through successful completion of eight, 4-hour courses. Six of these courses are considered "Core Courses," and are taken by all CTER Online students. The remaining two courses are your "Electives," which allow you greater influence and direction over your education. Below, you will find an overview of the core courses, as well as a description of the electives that have been offered in the past.
**Please note: Any syllabi that might be presented here are examples posted to illustrate the typical content outline and course requirements. At the beginning of this class, students will receive a current syllabus which may differ from the example
Schedule
The four 10-week terms are loosely linked to the traditional Fall/Spring/Summer semester system:
Spring
Term 1 (January - March)
Term 2 (April - June)
Summer
Term 3 (July - September)
Fall
Term 4 (October - December)
Please see the respective "Current Students" page for the most up-to-date course offerings.
Core Courses
The following six courses are required of all CTER Online EdM students.
**Please note: This information is valid for incoming CTER Students, starting Summer 2011. Students who began their program prior to Summer 2011 should consult with the Faculty Director or Program Coordinator for their course schedule.**
1. CI 484: Learning Technologies (4 hrs)
This course aims to develop learners' skills in identifying, selecting, and justifying the implementation of learning technologies in the overall learning environment design process. The course requires learners to align learning theories, introductory instructional system design models, existing learning technologies, and the learning environment design blueprint together in order to solve organizational problems (for example, lagging performance). Learners will experiment and evaluate a variety of learning technologies such as screen capture tools, online games and simulations, test development tools, etc. Learners will actively engage in learning activities and discussions with their instructor and classmates. Learners are expected to produce presentable final deliverables for the final design portfolio.
2. EPSY 457: Computer Use in Education (4 hrs)
This course is designed to help enhance your understanding of computers in the schools. This course looks at computers in the broadest sense and considers a variety aspects of technologies and digital media that impact pedagogy, curriculum, and student learning. In this course, we will consider the context of computing by exploring the history of computing, what is currently occurring in the schools, and how technologies and student expectations are encouraging teachers to redefine the classroom experience. The main goal of this course is to enable you to develop a flexible and working knowledge of computers as educational resources in order to better reach your students --- students of the 21st century.
3. EPSY 474: Evaluating Learning Technologies (4 hrs)
The primary purpose of this course is to teach graduate students how to plan evaluations of learning technologies and critically analyze evaluations of learning technologies. Students will be introduced to a variety of evaluations related to learning technologies including needs assessments, implementation and outcomes evaluations as well as the conceptual and practical tools that characterize the evaluation craft.
4. EPS 415: Technology & Educational Reform (4 hrs)
This is a special section of a course devoted to exploring the social, ethical, and policy dimensions of new technology use in schools. Computers, the Internet, and other multimedia technologies introduce new challenges in thinking about the consequences of technology uses for the learning opportunities and outcomes of students. This course will explore such critical themes as access and equity issues, censorship, privacy, commercialization, new forms of literacy, online communication, and developing a "global community" through the Internet.
5. EPSY 408: Learning and Human Development with Technologies (4 hrs)
This course is designed to provide learners with a deep understanding of human development with learning technologies. Topics include behavioral, cognitive, social cognitive, identity, personal-social development, and integration with learning technologies. It aims to develop learners' skills in identifying, selecting, and justifying the implementation of learning technologies using e-learning applications. The course requires learners to align learning technologies , existing learning technologies, and the potential or real learning environment. Learners will explore and evaluate a variety of web-based learning technologies. Learners will actively engage in learning activities and discussions with their instructor and classmates.
6. EPSY 556: Analysis of Advanced Instructional Technologies (4 hrs)
The goal of this inquiry-based course is for you, as an educator, to define and to begin to answer the question "what does the future of learning look like"? In doing so, you will be asked to critically consider emergent and advanced learning technologies such as Web 2.0 media and other digital technologies, and how their integration in the classroom may transform the way we teach and the way students learn and what a future learning environment may look like. To do this, you will be designing the classroom or learning space of tomorrow. The focus of the course has you exploring and evaluating advanced technologies and the means by which educators learn about them and sustain them in a learning environment. Your goal is to determine how best to engage these technologies and in so doing, determine new ways to construct and share knowledge. This course is designed to assist you in identifying, analyzing and evaluating new media and digital technology so that you determine exemplary practices in the uses of advanced instructional technologies as they relate to the learning environment. The course aims to provide you with practical experiences that are framed within theories related to blended learning, digital (and other new) literacies, ubiquitous learning, and creativity.
Elective Courses
In addition to the six core courses, CTER students can choose from a suite of electives to complete the remaining eight credit hours required for the degree. CTER students may have the option of taking one or more of the following electives:
A. HRE 590: Innovations in eLearning (4 hrs)
Innovations in eLearning is designed to engage students in all disciplines to critically think about two main questions - “what’s driving innovation” and “how do we come to recognize instances of innovation”. As a participant in our global society, we see innovations all around it. This is no different in eLearning environments. But what does it really mean? What does it take to be innovative, what impact do innovations have in business, education, and in our daily lives? We need to understand both the strengths and challenges that innovation presents in a learning environment. Students will collectively and individually explore a number of examples of innovations, read and explore widely from a number of traditional and non-traditional sources, and create their own community of practice around this topic. Course conversations will be framed around three main readings: The Element: How finding your passion changes everything by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica, A whole new mind by Daniel Pink, and the Education Technology Plan 2010. These readings allow students to explore the concept of innovations from a perspective of creativity, cognition, and policy/practice. The Horizon Report and the K12 Horizon Report joint publications by New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative will also set a foundation for identifying projected innovations that will influence learning environments.
B. EPSY 590 TOC: Technology & Organizational Change (4 hrs)
Technology and Organizational Change takes an in-depth look at educational reform, past and present, and of emerging research in this area as it relates to education in the United States. Major topics in inquiry include changing the organization of schools, the instructional program, and the roles students, teachers, and school administrators, play when integrating technology and school improvement.
C. EPSY 590 VE: Virtual Worlds for Education (4 hrs)
Educational Psychology 590 VE: Virtual Environments for Learning is designed to engage students in critical and continual study of virtual learning environments. From the simple, text-based wiki page to the complex, three-dimensional virtual world, students will study how modern technologies can shape thinking, learning, creating, and sharing in both formal and informal situations. In practice, this means students explore a number of tools/technologies, complete field work in a wide variety of virtual environments, read widely from a number of traditional and non-traditional sources, and connect with others in this field of practice.
D. EPSY 590 ML: Mobile Learning in Education (4 hrs)
EPSY 590ML explores mobile technologies and their impact on how students learn and they foster changes in pedagogy. This class will have more of an independent study feel, where each student will research and explore a mobile technology and how it is used (maybe used) within their learning environment.
E. EPS 431: New Learning (4 hrs)
An introduction to the changing social and cultural contexts of education. What changes are afoot today in workplaces, civic life and everyday community life? What are their implications for education? Examines the possible impacts of contemporary social transformations on teaching and learning - including in the areas of technology, media, globalization, diversity, changing forms of work in the 'knowledge society', and, in these contexts, changing learner needs and sensibilities. Contrasts canonical and classical theories and practices of education with new and emerging educational institutions and pedagogies.
F. EPSY 540: Networks for Learning (4 hrs)
In this course students engage in hands on activities through which they come to understand the intricacies of building substantial and sustainable networks for learning environments, in particular network planning for school districts. Studies read and discuss literature that relates to the building of network systems. Students will explore various tools and techniques that best serve the network environment. Students will complete a major project in which they design (or modify) their own network and discuss the means by which they come to understand critical factors associated with maintaining and growing such an environment.
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