EDU614 - Facilitating Online Learning

• 3 credits
• This is a required course

What kind of learning activities work better online? What work better in-person? In this course students configure, manage and support an established learning management system (LMS). Students will research and study the pedagogical premise upon which LMSes are based, and how they are used in K-12, higher eduction and corporate training organizations. They will then create a course that integrates pedagogy with appropriate technologies to meet instructor s and students needs. Students will also become familiar with the community of users, and many applications supported by Moodle (the LMS used by MCGS).

EDU620 - Clear Writing Workshop A

• 1 credit
• Taught in Fall, Winter, Spring
• This is a required course

Writing effectively is essential in every profession. This course focuses on ways to analyze the structure of professional texts and gain practice in discipline-specific professional writing. Students will select a type of writing using a real-world writing task that incorporates all phases of the writing process.

MAT603 - Web Design and Media Production

• 3 credits
• Taught in Fall
• This is a required course

A foundation course in the delivery of educationally oriented multimedia via the Internet. Students will use a best-of-breed content management system (WordPress) to practice the basic production of educationally oriented text, photos, video, audio and files for download. Students will study and discuss the history of the Internet, Web, current trends, usability, assistive technology, universal design and the analysis, ethics, and effective use of Internet media and software for educational purposes. The final project is the creation of a professional online electronic portfolio in a second authoring platform in Google Sites. E-portfolios are used throughout the EdTech program for final polished work. They are designed to be used after graduation to broadcast one's best work to potential employers and collaborators.

MAT605 - Digital Research Technologies

• 3 credits
• Taught in Spring
• This is a required course

Educators need to develop effective Internet search strategies, academic writing skills, sound criteria for evaluating and analyzing Web sites and online publications, and experience in integrating Web-based research into classroom research methods. This course trains educators to efficiently and effectively search, evaluate and document digital educational resources. Students are guided through an investigation of educational materials available on- and off-line. A series of small research projects, on the topic of the student's choice, will be used to build a body of research that culminates in a final paper. The paper will be submitted to one of several publications, following their submission guidelines.

MAT606 - Legal and Ethical Issues

• 1 credit
• Taught in Fall
• This is a required course

Intellectual property and copyright issues are covered, with a focus on educational materials. Topics include the latest legislation, guidelines and practices in use by Internet publishers. Current topics such as Creative Commons, file sharing and the effect of the Web on all manner of intellectual property will be studied and discussed.

MAT609 - Capstone I: Planning

• 2 credits
• Taught in Fall, Winter, Spring
• This is a required course

Students enroll in Capstone I: Planning in their penultimate trimester. The course offers guidance and support as students plan their response to the problem or opportunity they have identified. Each student completes a project proposal in his or her own website with the support of others in the class, course faculty and their Program Director. Deliverables for this phase include: completion of a comprehensive project proposal document and the first two pages of students individual Capstone websites, and creation and delivery of an elevator pitch  a very brief statement that communicates their Capstone project.

Capstone involves both process and product. Students engage in the process of identifying a problem or opportunity, planning and carrying out a project, and reflecting on their learning. During the two-trimester process, students create products including a completed website, a project deliverable designed to solve the problem or address the opportunity, and an elevator pitch. There is a strong focus on ensuring an agile approach to planning and implementation and on clear, professional communication. Together process and product provide students with a deep learning experience during their last two trimesters at the Graduate School.

MAT610 - Educational Technology

• 3 credits
• Taught in Fall
• This is a required course

Students will study the theory and history of educational technology and instructional design. This will include topics such as instructional systems design (ISD), cognitive psychology, past and present learning theories, curriculum design, assessment, evaluation, and who the key people and organizations are in the industry. Students will develop their own style of instructional design and their own amalgam of learning theories and use it to design a basic instructional unit of their choosing.

MAT611 - Instructional Design

• 3 credits
• Taught in Winter
• This is a required course
• Prerequisites: MAT603 Web Design and Media Production; MAT610 Educational Technology

This course puts into practice the theories learned in Educational Technology. Students will continue to study the different approaches of established instructional systems design models, and the integration of technology into teaching. They will apply one of those models to create a fully functioning instructional unit that successfully resolves a real-world instructional problem. The unit will be usability tested and evaluated to see if learning outcomes were met. Students will then learn how to integrate the unit into an instructional setting, addressing issues such as accessibility, change management and training. This prepares students, both professionally and for their eventual Capstone Project, to implement the analysis, creation and evaluation of a given learning solution that appropriately and effectively integrates technology with teaching. Students will write a final report and present their project and findings.
Prereqs: Educational Technology and Web Design I
or permission of the instructor

MAT614 - Facilitating Online Learning

• 3 credits
• Taught in Winter
• This is a required course

What kind of learning activities work better online? What work better in-person? In this course students configure, manage and support an established learning management system (LMS). Students will research and study the pedagogical premise upon which LMSes are based, and how they are used in K-12, higher eduction and corporate training organizations. They will then create a course that integrates pedagogy with appropriate technologies to meet instructor s and students needs. Students will also become familiar with the community of users, and many applications supported by Moodle (the LMS used by MCGS).

MAT616 - Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds: Games and Simulations

• 1 credit
• Taught in Spring
• This is a required course

This is a participatory exploration of the educational issues and opportunities in 3D virtual worlds. Students research pedagogical issues and uses of three dimensional environments and experiment with instructional techniques. The course will be taught completely online using a combination of a learning management system and a virtual world platform, such as Second Life. Participants will learn to navigate within a virtual world by creating an avatar (digital representation of self), building and using educational tools, and meeting and collaborating with other educators.

MAT699 - Capstone II: Implementing

• 4 credits
• Taught in Fall, Winter, Spring
• This is a required course

Students enroll in Capstone II: Implementing in their final trimester and complete their Capstone project thereby completing a key degree requirement. Supported by an Advisor, students: create the deliverable planned in Capstone I; deliver a formal presentation of his/her project; participate in a conversation about what they have learned doing the Capstone and their course of study; and submit their completed Capstone website, which includes a written Project Summary and Retrospective on Learning. Students Capstones are assessed on a pass/fail basis.

Capstone involves both process and product. Students engage in the process of identifying a problem or opportunity, planning and carrying out a project, and reflecting on their learning. During the two-trimester process, students create products including a completed website, a project deliverable designed to solve the problem or address the opportunity, and an elevator pitch. There is a strong focus on ensuring an agile approach to planning and implementation and on clear, professional communication. Together process and product provide students with a deep learning experience during their last two trimesters at the Graduate School.

EDU615 - Technology and the Common Core

• 3 credits

The Common Core State Standards present an opportunity for greater technology integration in our schools. Participants in this course will collaborate to find pathways to digital age teaching and learning as they unpack the Common Core to discover the connections between these new standards and opportunities for transformative technology integration. Using curricular models such as Understanding by Design®and transformation models such as SAMR, participants will design usable units of study to present to their students. This online course will provide a rich and engaging professional learning environment that will take full advantage of online collaborative tools to allow students to share and work together. This course will begin with a light literature and standards review in May and mid-June and will take on a full load after the end of the school year. It meets fully online with several synchronous online meetings.

EDU619 - Assistive Technology and Universal Design

• 3 credits

The course will provide an overview of Assistive Technologies (AT) and innovative practices as guided by Universal Design (UD). Students will gain an understanding of the ways AT and the UD principles are shaping our understanding of traditional classroom instruction, assessment, accommodations and student support, both at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Course discussions will focus on the applications of universal design and traditional assistive technology software (e.g.; Kurzweil, Inspiration, and Dragon-Naturally Speaking). Students will design and develop a UD instructional product of their choosing.

Online instruction will be supplemented by on site observations at Landmark College.

EDU910 - Tech4Educators

• 3 credits

A summer intensive for teachers and administrators in K-12 and higher education. With Web 2.0 - the offering of applications online - technology for educators has never been easier to learn and apply to the classroom. Learn to: Use blogs and wikis for student journaling and communication with parents. Make a Webquest for students Build simple websites for delivering content that are free to host online. Understand learning environments such as Second Life, and the Vermont Young Writers Project. Learn about and use an industry-standard Learning Management System (LMS), Moodle. Manage and manipulate photos and graphics using online tools. Create podcasts and basic video screencasts as learning tools. Add animation and avatars, online drawing, photography, and other multimedia tools & applications, to your teaching strategies.

MAT613 - Planning for Change

• 3 credits
• Taught in Spring

After an instructional unit is created, it needs to be integrated into the organization for which it was made. This is a complex process, involving many layers of cultural change within an individual classroom, school district, campus or business. This course provides planning strategies for leaders of change. Topics of study include the political and economic ramifications of introducing new technology, strategies for change management, various organizational models, and the need for professional development. 3 Credits.

MAT618 - Online Collaborative Tools

• 3 credits
• Taught in Fall

Web-based Cloud collaboration has both empowered and disrupted organizations. It is changing the way we work and learn. This 100% online class will prepare you to successfully use online collaboration in the classroom/workplace, and provide the chance to practice being an expert user and domain administrator of Google Apps for Education. A custom domain installation of Google Apps For Education will be used. Readings will include Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, and Disrupting Class, How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. Students will design a final project that demonstrates using Google Apps for Education at an expert level. Students may choose to prepare to take the Google Trainer Certification exams as a final project. Access to a well functioning laptop and DSL/Cable speed Internet connection are required.

MAT622 - Transforming Learning with Mobile Devices

• 3 credits
• Taught in Winter

Tablets, smartphones, readers and other mobile devices are rapidly becoming part of the learning landscape. This course will explore and evaluate features and resources to leverage when integrating mobile devices in instructional design and curriculum. Course topics will include apps, multimedia, and multimodal resources such as ibooks, ebooks, iTunes U and Open University. There will be a heavy focus on moving beyond consumption into creation and collaboration with mobile devices, using text, audio, images, and video. Personalized learning, accessibility, and other pedagogical considerations will be explored as we pursue a creative inquiry into what type of transformation is possible with mobile devices. This course is fully online and asynchronous; two synchronous online meetings will be arranged once the course starts.

A tablet or mobile device with the ability to capture and edit images, videos, and audio, and up to a $50 budget for purchasing apps will be required. This course will focus on iPads/ipod touch/iphone. Other mobile devices may be used instead of Apple devices with permission of the instructor. Please confer with the instructor about using non-Apple devices prior to enrollment.

MDO616 - Nonprofit Seminar

• 1 credit
• Taught in Fall, Winter, Spring

Short topic courses covering various aspects of nonprofit management and mission driven organizations.

MSM602 - Project Management

• 3 credits
• Taught in Fall

In Project Management 1, students learn the Agile Project Management framework with an emphasis on planning. Starting from an organizations strategy, students learn how to develop the project road map, identify user roles, and write user stories. Additional topics include stakeholder identification, team development, release planning, value assignment, communication, quality, risk and change management.

MSM603 - Project Management II

• 3 credits
• Taught in Winter

In Project Management 2, students learn Agile Project Management techniques to successfully complete projects. Students will actually run the two-week cycles of a typical project sprint or iteration. Students learn how to quickly incorporate changes to project plans in order to constantly and consistently deliver business value. Specific topics include sprint planning, feature estimation, daily scrum, burndown charts and velocity, and retrospectives. Project Management 1 is recommended but not required.

MSM616 - Leadership I

• 1 credit
• Taught in Fall

This course explores the various aspects of leading teams, specifically in a Project Management environment. Students will explore internal and external aspects of Project Management while developing better strategies for leading groups of all types. This first semester will focus on identifying and developing internal leadership characteristics. Students will come away with techniques for becoming more productive and a strategy for developing leadership skills within their organization.

MSM616 - Leadership II

• 1 credit
• Taught in Winter

This course explores the various aspects of leading teams, with a focus in a Project Management environment. Students will explore the internal and external aspects of Project Management while developing better strategies for leading groups of all types. This second semester will focus on leading teams: their inception, development, and continued support in both virtual and non-virtual environment. We will explore new ways of communicating, interacting and understanding the promotion of teamwork. We will investigate new techniques and processes for moving teams to higher and higher levels of productivity.

MSM616 - Leadership III

• 1 credit
• Taught in Spring

This course will deal with what an individual needs to do to be able to lead within any one part of an organization. The majority of the people who are getting the work done in our large corporations are not the Executive Staff. These individuals have to report up and across, and down as well. This course will explore the needs and requirements of that dynamic, and give suggestions on the best ways to deal with each one of those leadership challenges. Also, we will take a look at some of the latest information on how to make changes stick within an organization.