Masters in Human Resource Development
Courses

This course introduces HRD as a professional field of practice, places HRD within the context of the contemporary workplace, presents theories, paradigms, and issues in the field; introduces the concept of a learning organization and the HRD practitioner as a change agent

As miniaturization, wireless access, and powerful processors converge, the information we need in real time is at our fingertips in cell phones, GPS modular devices, and web resources. The critical factor is how we design performance support with the learner in mind. This course focuses on why, how and when performance support systems, job aids, and assessment tools meet performance requirements in education and business. Students study and design performance support approaches that include "planners" and "sidekicks" for information help, procedural support, guidelines with adaptive feedback and a performance analysis and implementation plan.

The learning sciences and learning by doing bring about a new instructional design emphasis on how the learning technologies provide scaffolding for collaborative learning and reasoning. Students will learn innovative learning techniques and develop an experiential learning design such as, problem-based learning, goal-based scenarios, role-plays, mini-games and simulations.

Strategies for attaining continuous success in academic marketplace are examined including concept development activities and role of professional development in attaining faculty and administrative performance to sustain these strategies.

Examinations of cyclical continuum beginning with individual learning, extending through work unit and corporate learning activities, and resulting in organizational success indicators. Students will explore structures for promoting and sharing learning, such as the corporate "university," systems theory, career development and other techniques employed by learning leaders. The course will illumine leadership attributes of the chief learning officer and methodologies for inspiring an organizational culture of leadership.

This course explores in-depth analysis of relevant theories relating to contemporary application of adult learner materials and methods. Many adult education theories and practices are explored to provide the participants with a broad understanding of andragogy (the art and science of teaching adults) and how it related to their field.

This course examines the impact of distance learning and multimedia technologies on human resource supervisors, trainers and other professionals who are responsible for implementing technology integration and professional development. Several models of online learning communities will be examined and researched. We will investigate theories and recent research on professional development, online learning, and more specifically, the role of an instructional technologist in a changing organization.

Covers the differences between evaluation and other disciplines; how to design an evaluation framework to work with; transformations in evaluation; new methodological approaches, including performance measurement; and issues that evaluators must deal with.

The role of the Human Resources Professional as consultant and leadership coach is the focus of this course. Students will learn about the field of internal and external consulting and explore a variety of services offered by consultants. Students will be provided with pragmatic steps, when sequentially followed, which will make one an effective consultant and coach. The second emphasis of this course is to understand the role of the leadership coach in the workplace. This course addresses how coaching is a subset of consulting and how both must establish a helping relationship with their client to achieve success. You will develop your knowledge in diagnostic measurement tools, interpersonal skills, learning tools and ethics.

This course helps students develop knowledge and skills to enhance their professional development and to become effective leaders. Students will understand trends in contemporary organizations, enhance their self-awareness, and refine their interpersonal skills, and apply these skills to improve their work effectiveness.

Prepares students to make informed decisions as leaders in common institutional and environmental contexts. The focus of the contingency-based perspective of this course is to help leaders understand how best to motivate and coordinate employees and to control outcomes in a manner that ensures they fulfill strategic objectives.

This is an introductory level course in economics for MBA students. Students will learn basic theoretical principles and acquire skills to apply these principles in analyzing real economic phenomena. This course will cover microeconomic issues as well as macroeconomic issues. Specific topics to be covered are: for the Microeconomics -- supply and demand, market equilibrium, elasticity, market efficiency, firm behavior, market structure, labor market, and consumption choice; for the Macroeconomics -- the measurement and determination of national income, business cycle and inflation, saving, investment and macroeconomic equilibrium, production and growth, interest rates, inflation and monetary policy, government deficit/debt and fiscal policy, and new macroeconomic approaches to optimal policy choice. International economic issues are also briefly covered.

The course objective is to provide prospective users of financial accounting information with an understanding of accounting fundamentals and the ability to evaluate the quality of financial accounting information for use in business decisions. In the first part of the course, we will study the accounting process and the primary financial statements. In the second part, we will discuss the accounting treatment for financial statement line items and explore the implications of the treatment and related accounting choices for the quality of the financial accounting information.

Students learn to find, use and allocate needed resources for their schools, communities, and organizations from experienced business and school leaders. Management and monitoring technology tools for optimum effective use of resources and how to gain entrepreneurship skills for expanding opportunities to gain new resources will be explored.

This course provides the rationale, theoretical constructs and methodology for conducting Action Research within a school classroom or organizational setting. Students gain significant practical applications for other school practitioners or for employee/program performance in organizations. Students complete Chapters 1 (Introduction), Chapter 2 (Literature Review), and Chapter 3 (Methodology) of an Action Research Project. HRD students conduct the research and write up Chapter 4 (Results) and Chapter 5 (Conclusions/Recommendations) in the EHRD 715 Capstone Course.

Research and experience on mentoring as a critical need in sustaining new teachers, creating renewal for experienced teachers, and building leadership capacity across the staff or employees in an organization is the focus of this course. Specific skills and concepts for effective mentoring/coaching of others and collaborative leadership is learned and practiced. The importance of establishing learning communities in schools or organizations will be emphasized with a student's plan for induction or implementation within a context of supportive organizational practices.

Provides understanding of career patterns of faculty, deans, vice presidents, provosts, and presidents while exploring academic employment markets of these professions. Traditional career paths, diverse points of entry in Higher Education and career development of faculty are explored as well as administrative roles of managing academic units, decision making and change implementation.

Exploration and Analysis of international and comparative education. Comparative method serves as the framework to understand comparative analysis. Theories of the state serves as the framework to understand global theories of education across cultures.

Exploration of global education through concepts of culture, cultural relativism and ethnocentrism from a comparative perspective.

Examine current international organizations, foreign assistance and their influence on educational policy. Both public and private organizations will be explored.

Examination of conceptual underpinnings of peace and conflict resolution and the paradigmatic models of conflict resolution currently practiced, as well as the substantive enquiry into a variety of approaches to building peace at local, national and global levels.

The School of Education has partnered with the Steinbright Career Development Center to produce an innovative co-op experience for students. Several options are available to accommodate the various needs of working students. Students are required to participate in a part-time co-op that lasts no less than two quarters (20 weeks). The co-op is structured to provide students with real-life, hands on experience in the field of human resource development. At the end of the co-op, students are required to submit a portfolio, including a current resume, samples of projects completed in the co-op position, and samples of presentations and studies completed in the HRD program. This experiential component is especially valuable for HRD practitioners - both those already working in the field and those who want to move into it.