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.
Join the national community of two-year emergency management program discussion!
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 Emergency Management Core considerations for two-year programs.
Emergency Management Core
The Emergency Management Core Curriculum Model includes 10, three-credit courses and supports a blend of delivery modes including classroom, online, and hybrid formats.
1 (100 level) Emergency Management Framework and Principles
This course guides students to establish baseline knowledge in the emergency management framework, principles, and body of knowledge. Considering an all-hazards approach, students will learn the threat environment, phases of emergency management, varied supporting stakeholder groups, and the impact of disaster. Through an awareness of the operational environment of emergency management, students will explore proactive, anticipatory, and innovative approaches and actions to prevent, mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from actual or threatened disasters and ultimately how to promote safe and resilient communities.
2 (100 level) Disaster Environment and Planning Elements
This course guides students to describe the disaster environment and the comprehensive emergency management planning elements. Through an awareness of disaster-related data sources and collection methods, students gain an awareness of historical events, patterns, and prediction methods. Students identify the planning process, key stakeholders, and disaster intervention, preparedness, and communication strategies. The course guides students to lattice knowledge of the disaster environment and community engagement process with planning strategies to support the strategic disaster planning vision.
3 (100 level) Consequence Management
This course guides students to explore hazards, develop a risk profile, and identify potential consequences. Students gain an awareness of disaster risk identification, assessment, measurement, and reduction in an interconnected and interdependent world. An exploration of the strategies and policies to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing disaster risk, and manage the residual disaster risk result in an awareness of loss reduction and capability and resilience building strategies.
4 (100 level) Emergency Management Law and Policy
This course introduces students to the legislative underpinnings of emergency management. Students will review select legislation with special consideration for the concepts that define legal duties, funding mechanisms, and consequences for emergency management personnel.
5 (100 level) Emergency Management Elective
A 100-level course designed to meet the needs of the community and workforce in which the college services.
6 (200 level) Sociocultural Dynamics in Emergency Management
This course guides students to examine, understand, and, where applicable, respond to disasters from an informed, sociological, cultural, and theoretical perspective. Through an exploration of disaster case studies and theoretical concepts, students will be able to apply critical thinking skills to modern social phenomena with disasters and their impact on society and its culture.
7 (200 level) Leadership in an Interconnected and Interdependent World
This course leads students to examine the complex and critical dependencies in today’s dynamic and turbulent world and the advanced leadership skills required to serve in emergency management. Students explore and discuss the moral obligations of public leadership. Using case studies, students analyze the interconnectivity of the public and private sectors, increased social dependency on technology, increased vulnerabilities of our nation, and the potential for disruption.
8 (200 level) Research and Evolving Technology in Emergency Management
This course leads students to combine emergency management scholarly research and evolving technology to enhance decision making in support of planning, mitigation, response, and recovery actions. Students discover the scholarly research process and products. Students outline the role of technology and amplify skills using current and emerging web-based products including geospatial information systems, global positioning systems, simulation and modeling software, and decision support software platforms. Through an integration activity, students move research and evidence into practice.
9 (200 level) Emergency Management Elective
A 200-level course designed to meet the needs of the community and workforce in which the college services.
10 (200 level) Internship/Apprenticeship
This course provides students with the opportunity to synthesize the knowledge attained throughout the program, apply higher-order thinking skills, produce a tangible product, and form the bridge to the next step in the learning and/or career continuum. Through the use of a variety of applied and project-based activities, worksite interface, and on-the-job training, students develop a culminating project goal, outcomes, and success metrics.
“Internships and apprenticeships stand out as the applied learning experiences most highly valued by employers” (Hart, 2018).
A special note is that not all institutions endorse internships and apprenticeships. An alternative could be a Culminating Experience allowing research, a work product, presentation, and career portfolio development activities.
Join us next week as we discuss a Curriculum Development Resources 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
