This blog contains excerpts from the “Planning Resource for Developing a Two-Year Emergency Management Academic Program” (March 2019) and reflects the collective contribution of the time and expertise of several individuals sharing their dedication to preparing the next generation of emergency management professionals.
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Did you know that FEMA Higher Education Program includes Special Interest Groups (SIG) to inform the emergency management profession through education and to promote and connect our nation’s academic community members? This effort includes a SIG entitled Collaboration, Connection, and Commitment of 2-Year Emergency Management Programs. The next few weeks of the blog will focus on planning resources for two-year programs. This week, let’s look at Course Level Differentiation considerations for two-year programs.
Course Level Differentiation
Two-year institutions offer lower division courses designated as 100 and 200 levels. Most institutions through the Senate or Curriculum Committee, will have course level standards. The academic industry does offer a few general assumptions and expectations.
Requiring no discipline prerequisites, 100-level courses provide foundational knowledge, address basic concepts, present terminology, and establish the theoretical foundation of a discipline. It is assumed that students will possess sufficient writing ability to compose definitions, paragraphs, and course deliverables, including essays, discussion board postings, and research papers plus possess the reading ability to comprehend college-level material in textbook and supplemental course products.
Requiring 100-level course(s) as prerequisite(s), 200-level courses offer intermediate college-level difficulty within the discipline. It is assumed that students will have completed expository writing (basic level for your institution) or the equivalent and therefore possess general skills such as recognition, reading, appropriate quantitative skills, and a varying degree of fluency in writing and articulateness in expression. It is also assumed that students are acquainted with the basic language, terminology, or methodology of the subject itself and are at the stage of understanding and application where they can progress toward some significant conclusions, experiments, or explorations.
The 200-level courses expect that students possess the basic knowledge and comprehension to progress at a reasonable pace, perform within assignments involving increased reading and comprehension of material, prepare organized papers, and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the material covered.
Know that institutions and states may have requirements for the numbers of 100- and 200-level courses linked to the type of degree.
Join us next week as we discuss “Delivery Mode and Sequencing” for an Emergency Management 2-Year Academic Program. In the meantime, please enjoy our one-pager that we created. It’s designed to help programs get started using the resource we’re discussing! Promote2YearCritInfluencers
