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Adult Learning and Leadership

Department of Organization & Leadership

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Program Description

The mission of the Program is to empower graduates as facilitators of learning across the lifespan–in and outside of classrooms and virtual learning spaces. We emphasize leadership for reflective, proactive, and transformative learning. Our students help individual adults learn, and they help organizations, institutions, and communities learn from and with those adults.

Our programs prepare leaders who help adults improve the way they live and work through learning. A hallmark of our academic programs is the fostering of transformative learning. Through transformative learning:

  • Adults are helped to identify, probe, and change assumptions, values, and beliefs that shape how they think, act, and learn;

  • Adult educators are helped to transform organizations, institutions, learning communities, and other settings that influence learning and change.

Graduates from our degree programs lead, manage, design, deliver, facilitate, coach and evaluate learning initiatives. They can be scholars, researchers, executives, coaches, or Learning & Development (L&D) professionals.

Our mission aligns with the mission of the College, because we support diversity, equity and inclusion through learning across the lifespan with an eye to how adult learning shapes, and is shaped by, societal change. We seek understanding of cultural and other kinds of diversity.

The intellectual framework of the Program examines the relationship of adult learning to organizational, management, and leadership issues. The curriculum is designed around  learning, development, and change for individuals, groups, and organizations as a whole. 

The Program appeals to professionals who design, develop, and evaluate programs that meet the learning needs of adults in both face-to-face and online formats in the following settings:

  • Organizations in the profit, not-for-profit, or public sectors;

  • Religious and community-based organizations;

  • Basic education classes (literacy, General Education Diploma);

  • Returning adult students with specialized needs in postsecondary education; and

  • Continuing professional education, including medical education and workforce development.

The 36-point M.A. degree program is most appropriate for educators who are involved in the design, management, and delivery of learning. The 60-point Master of Education (Ed.M.) and 90-point Doctor of Education (Ed.D.). options are appropriate for professionals who are involved in policy development, strategy, change management, and systems-level learning. The Program prepares educators who work with the following groups:

  • Leaders who shape policy and program implementation, as well as those who act as trainers and coaches; and

  • Designers, planners, managers, and L&D professionals.

In addition, we offer two non-degree, credit-bearing advanced certificates (approved by New York State): one for Medical Educators and one in Workforce Development. Credits earned may be applied subsequently to degree programs in Adult Learning & Leadership in which students might enroll.

Each program has between two and three required foundations courses. In addition, students may choose courses in core areas of adult development, adult learning theory, program development and evaluation, leadership, and research. They can apply their learning through courses in strategy and management, facilitation, human resource development, coaching, system learning, and digital learning environments. Many of these courses are offered by the ADUL or ADLO Program, or other Programs in the O&L Department; other courses may be taken elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University.

For more information about the program - including start dates, and enrollment steps—see our website: https://www.tc.columbia.edu/organization-and-leadership/adult-learning-and-leadership/

Degrees

  • Master of Arts

    • Points/Credits: 36

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      Lifelong learning for adults is an increasingly important educational specialization in the 21st century. Rapid changes are transforming society and making it critical for adults to continue to learn across the lifespan. Much of that learning takes place in classrooms, but a lot of learning also occurs informally through interaction in groups, communities, organizations, and social networks.

      The Adult Learning & Leadership Program, at the M.A. degree level, prepares professionals who facilitate learning within and outside the classroom. The intellectual framework of the program examines the relationship of adult learning to organizational, management and leadership issues. The degree program prepares students to understand adult learning and development, to design and deliver learning interventions, and to assist organizations, communities, or other institutions to support learning for individuals and for the organizations or other social units that benefit from the lifelong learning of its members.

       

      Minimum point requirement:

      M.A. students must complete 36 credits of coursework and submit a culminating project. 

      Required Coursework:

      Foundations (6 credits):

      • ORLD 4050 Introduction to adult and continuing ed (3)

      • ORLD 4053 Facilitating adult learning (3)

      Adult Development (3):

      • ORLD 4051 How adults learn (3)

      • ORLD 5070 Leadership for adult development (3)

      Adult Learning Theory and Applications (3):

      • ORLD 4051 How adults learn (3)

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching from an adult learning perspective (3)

      • ORLD 4091 Somatics: Mind/body approach to leadership development (3)

      • ORLD 4815 Developing critical thinkers (1)

      • ORLD 4827 Fostering transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4828 Imagination, authenticity, and individuation in transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4844 Helping adults learn (1)

      • ORLD 4850 Discussion as a way of teaching (1)

      • ORLD 4855 Learning as a way of leading (1)

      • ORLD 4860 Teaching Race in Predominantly White Organizations (1)

      • ORLD 5057 Adult learning and education: Theory and practice (3)

      • ORLD 5815 Critical theory and adult learning (1)

      • ORLD 5823 Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence (CQ) (3)

      Program Development and Evaluation (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5053 Developing and managing adult learning programs (3)

      • ORLD 5063 Online Teaching and Learning: Applying Adult Learning Principles  (3)

      • ORL 5522 Evaluation methods I (3)

      Leadership (3 credits):

      • ORLD 4065 Leading Change in a Democratic Society  (3)

      • ORLD 4091 Somatics: Mind/body approach to leadership development (3)

      • ORLD 5023 Leadership and self-development (3)

      • ORLD 5540 Social entrepreneurship & leadership (3)

      • ORLD 5821 Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ) to enhance organizational effectiveness (3)

      Strategy and Management (3 credits):

      • ORLD 4085 Management & leadership skills in practice (3)

      • ORLD 5054 Strategy development as a learning process in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 6054 Learning to think strategically (3)

      Research (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5073 Action learning design and coaching (3)

      • ORLD 5550 Research on organizational learning (3)

      • ORLD 6914 Learning Communities (2) (focused on research for the integrative project, can be combined with a 1-credit ORLD 5900 course with the student’s advisor, to meet the 3-credit research requirement)

      • ORL 5521 Introduction to research methods in education (3)

      • ORL 5522 Evaluations methods I (3)

      • ORLJ 4009 Understanding behavioral research (3)

      • HUDM 4050 Introduction to measurement (3)

      • HUDM 4120 Basic concepts in statistics (3)

      • HUDM 4122 Basic concepts in statistics (3)

      • BBSR 5582 Research design in movement science and education (3)

       

      ELECTIVE COURSES (12 credits)

      Electives include, but may not be limited to, courses in conflict resolution, policy and evaluation, technology for learning, and management/information systems. These are tailored to the student’s career goals and can be taken in the Department or elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 points total at Teachers College outside of our immediate Program area to satisfy the Teachers College breadth requirement. 

      See recommended elective options below:

      Systems Learning (3 credits, optional):

      • ORLD 4065 Leading change in a democratic society  (3)

      • ORLD 5061 The learning organization (3)

      • ORLD 5550 Research on organizational learning (3)

      • ORLD 5823 Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence (CQ) (3)

      • EDP 4027 Education and Social Transformations: Elites and Inequalities in Transitional Economies (offered as part of the Workforce Development Certificate) (3)

      • ORLJ 4800 Conflict and complexity: A dynamical system approach to addressing protracted conflict (3)

      Human Resource Development (3 credits, optional):

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching from an adult learning perspective (3)

      • ORLD 5055 Staff development and training (3)

      • ORLD 5062 Human resource development in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 5073 Action learning design and coaching (3)

      Group Dynamics (3 credits, optional):

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORL 5362 Group dynamics: A systems perspective (3)

      Organizational Behavior (3 credits, optional):

      • ORLJ 4005 Organizational psychology (3) (Note: This is a prerequisite for many ORLJ courses)

      • ORLJ 5045 Organizational dynamics and theory (3)

      • EDPS 4030 Sociology of organizations (3)

      Digital Learning Environments (3 credits, optional):

      • ORLD 5060 Learning and technology in organizations (3)

      • MSTU 4083 Instructional design of educational technology (3)

      Conflict Resolution (3, optional):

      • ORLJ 4800 Conflict and complexity: a dynamical systems approach to addressing protracted conflict (add points)

      • ORLJ 5148 Managing conflicts in organizations (3)

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive negotiation & conflict resolution (3)

      Coaching (3, optional)

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching from an adult learning perspective (3)

      • ORLD 5073 Action learning design and coaching (3)

      • ORLD 5821 Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ) to enhance organizational effectiveness (3)

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORLD 5823 Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence (CQ) (3)

       

      Final Project

      M.A. (Culminating Project)

      Required

      The M.A. project is a project-based application to practice.

      Guidelines for the M.A. Culminating Project are available in the Program of Study Advisement Guides (as downloadable files) located on the Adult Learning and Leadership program website.

      Students should meet with their advisor the semester before they plan on graduating to review the guidelines.

    • Points/Credits: 36

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      The Adult Learning and Leadership Program has been approved by New York State to offer a fully online Master's degree program. (As noted below, students can also take some face-to-face workshops and courses if they have access to the College campus.)

      Our program is designed for those who design, implement, facilitate, or otherwise support learning and development for adults in many different settings—businesses, non-profits, public sector, healthcare, educational institutions, and community settings. We emphasize leadership for transformative learning and change in today’s rapidly-evolving digital world. The program will help participants to:

      • Use effective strategies for learning that take into account leadership, structural and cultural factors in the groups, communities, or organizations in which adults live or work

      • Design, deliver, and assess adult learning programs and interventions

      • Demonstrate understanding and use of technology for diverse adult learning needs

      Students will earn 36 graduate credits and complete an integrative project. Up to 14 credits in the Online MA degree program may be taken in-person.

      Core courses include:

      FOUNDATIONS (22-23 credits)

      • ORLD 4050 Introduction to Adult and Continuing Ed. (3)

      • ORLD 4053 Facilitating Adult Learning  (3)

      • ORLD 4051 How Adults Learn  (3)

      • ORLD 5063 Online Teaching and Learning: Applying Adult Learning Principles  (3)

      • ORLD 5023 Leadership and Self Development  (3)

      • ORLD 5054 Strategy Development as a Learning Process in Organizations  (3)

      • Either ORLD 4827 Fostering Transformative Learning (3)
        or    ORLD 4828 Imagination, authenticity, and individuation in transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 6914 Learning Communities (2) (Research requirement)

      ELECTIVE COURSES (13-14 credits)

      Electives include, but may not be limited to, courses in adult learning practices, coaching, leadership, conflict resolution, policy and evaluation, technology for learning, and management/information systems. These are tailored to the student’s career goals and can be taken in the Department or elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 points total at Teachers College outside of the ORLD Program area to satisfy the Teachers College breadth requirement. 

      See recommended elective options below:

      Applied Workshops in Adult Learning Practices (online, intensive 2-day sessions):

      • ORLD 4815 Developing Critical Thinkers (1)

      • ORLD 4844 Helping Adults Learn (1)

      • ORLD 4850 Discussion as a Way of Teaching (1)

      • ORLD 4855 Learning as a Way of Leading (1)

      • ORLD 4860 Teaching Race in Predominantly White Organizations (1)

      • ORLD 5815 Critical Theory and Adult Learning (1)

      Coaching Specialization:

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching From an Adult learning Perspective (3)

      • ORLD 5821 Leveraging EQ to Enhance Org. Effectiveness (F2F) (3)

      • ORLD 5822 Building Productive Relationships with SQ (F2F) (3)

      • ORLD 5823 Bldg 21st Century Cap. W CQ (Cultural Intelligence) (F2F) (3)

      Leadership Specialization:

      • ORLD 4065 Leading Change in a Democratic Society  (3)

      • ORLD 4085 Management and Leadership Skills in Practice (F2F) (3)

      • ORLD 5070 Leadership for Adult Development (3)

      • ORLD 6054 Learning to Think Strategically (F2F) (3)

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive Negotiation & Conflict Resolution (F2F) (3)

      Other Breadth Course Options, including but not limited to the following (check the Academic Catalog or the Course Schedule for potential prerequisite requirements and whether the course is offered online or in-person):

      • ORL 5522 Evaluation Methods I (3)

      • ORL 5524 Instrument Design and Validation (3)

      • CCPJ 4050 Microagressions in institutional climates: Race, gender, and sexual orientation (3)

      • C&T 4002 Curriculum theory and history

      • MSTU 4083 Instructional Design of Ed Tech (Online) (3)

      • HBSS 5112 Social marketing and health communications (3)

      • HUDK 4012 Learning In Small Groups (3)

      • HUDK 4029 Human cognition and learning (3)

      • HUDK 5029  Personality development and socialization across the lifespan (3)

       

      Culminating Project

      Required

      The M.A. project is a project-based application to practice.

      Guidelines for the Online M.A. Culminating Project are available in the Program of Study Advisement Guides (as downloadable files) located on the Adult Learning and Leadership program website.

      Students should meet with their advisor the semester before they plan on graduating to review the guidelines.

  • Master of Education

    • Points/Credits: 60

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      The Adult Learning & Leadership degree program, at the Ed.M. level, appeals to professionals who hold a masters degree in a substantive area, and who wish to enhance their knowledge and skills in supporting adult growth in organizations and helping adults learn. Students build on prior knowledge to advance their capabilities and conduct research in their areas of interest. The intellectual framework of the program examines the relationship of adult learning to organizational, management and leadership issues with a focus on strategic learning and whole system change. Students can deepen their capabilities as facilitators of learning and in helping organizations, communities, or other institutions to support learning for individuals and for the organizations or other social units that benefit from the lifelong learning of its members. 

      The Ed.M. degree program in Adult Learning and Leadership is structured around a sequence of core courses, research requirements and electives. A culminating project with a research component is required. In addition to three required foundations courses, students may choose courses to take in the following areas: adult development; adult learning theory and applications; program development and evaluation; systems learning; leadership; strategy and management; human resource development; group dynamics; organizational behavior; technology; conflict resolution; and research. At least one course must be taken (or transferred from prior accredited graduate study) in each of these twelve areas. 

      Please see the most recent Program of Study Advisement Guide (located on the Adult Learning and Leadership program website as a PDF file) for actual core sequence requirements.

      Minimum point requirement:

      Ed.M. students must complete 60 credits of coursework and conduct a culminating research study.

       

      Required Coursework:

      Foundations (6)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 4050 Introduction to adult and continuing eduction (3)

      • ORLD 4053 Facilitating adult learning (3)

      • ORLD 5057 Adult learning & education: Theory & practice (3)

      Adult Development (6 credits):

      • ORLD 4051 How adults learn (3)

      • ORLD 5070 Leadership for adult development (3)

      • HUDK 4024 Developmental psychology: Adult learning and the lifespan (3)

      • HUDK 5023 Cognitive development (3)

      • HUDK 5027 Moral development (3)

      • HUDK 5028 Spiritual development across the lifespan (3)

      Adult Learning Theory and Applications (12 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching from an adult learning perspective (3)

      • ORLD 4091 Somatics: Mind/body approach to leadership development (3)

      • ORLD 4815 Developing critical thinkers (1)

      • ORLD 4827 Fostering transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4828 Imagination, authenticity, and individuation in transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4844 Helping adults learn (1)

      • ORLD 4850 Discussion as a way of teaching (1)

      • ORLD 4855 Learning as a way of leading (1)

      • ORLD 5057 Adult learning and education: Theory and practice (3)

      • ORLD 5815 Critical theory and adult learning (1)

      Program Development and Evaluation (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5053 Developing and managing adult learning programs (3)

      • ORL 5522 Evaluation methods I (3)

      Systems Learning (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5823 Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence (CQ) (3)

      • ORLD 5550 Research on organizational learning (3)

      • ORLD 5061 The learning organization (3)

      Leadership (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5023 Leadership and self-development (3)

      • ORLD 5540 Social entrepreneurship & leadership (3)

      • ORLD 5821 Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ) to enhance organizational effectiveness (3)

      Strategy and Management (3 credits):

      • ORLD 4085 Management & leadership skills in practice (3)

      • ORLD 5054 Strategy development as a learning process in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 6054 Learning to think strategically (3)

      Human Resource Development (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5055 Staff development and training (3)

      • ORLD 5062 Human resource development in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 5073 Action learning design and coaching (3)

      • ORLJ 5003 Human resource management (3)

      Group Dynamics (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORL 5362 Group dynamics: A systems perspective (3)

      Organizational Behavior (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORLA 4010 Introduction to organizational analysis in education (3)

      • ORLJ 4005 Organizational psychology (3) (Note: This is a prerequisite for many ORLJ courses)

      • ORLJ 5045 Organizational dynamics and theory (3)

      Technology (3 credits):

      • ORLD 5050 Mobile learning design for professional growth (3)

      • ORLD 5060 Learning and technology in organizations (3)

      Conflict Resolution (minimum of 3 points):

      • ORLJ 5148 Managing conflicts in organizations (3)

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive negotiation & conflict resolution (3)

      Research Requirements

      Ed.M. (minimum 6 points):

      Ed.M. students must take two research courses, one of which must be a statistics course.

      Elective Courses

      Electives are tailored to the student’s career goals and may be taken in the Department or elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University. Electives may include transfer courses. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 points total at Teachers College outside of our immediate Program area to satisfy the Teachers College breadth requirement.

      Final Project

      Ed.M. Culminating Project

      Required

      Research-based

      Guidelines for the Ed.M. Culminating Project are available in the Program of Study Advisement Guides (as PDF files) located on the Adult Learning and Leadership Program website.

      Students should meet with their advisor the semester before they plan on graduating to review the guidelines.

  • Doctor of Education

    • Points/Credits: 90

      Entry Terms: Even Year Summer Only; Available 2022

      Degree Requirements

      AEGIS students must complete 39 graduate credits at an accredited institution taken prior to beginning of the AEGIS program; either transfer credits or TC credits. AEGIS students fulfill the remaining 51 course points at Teachers College in a structured program that provides required courses in three areas: theory, research, and the study of professional practice in various settings where adults learn. For the final phase of the program, students must pass a certification examination, write a qualifying paper, and complete a dissertation.

      First Year: (22 points)

      Summer (Two-week session)

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in adult education: Adult Learning Facilitation (2)

      • ORLD 6902 Pro-seminar in adult education (3)

      • ORLD 6908 Adult development: Advanced Seminar: Leadership in Adult Ed (3)

      Fall

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in adult education: Critical Literacy (1)

      • ORLD 6908 Adult education/Learning: Theory and practice (3)

      • ORLD 6918 Introduction to research (3)

      Spring

      • ORLD 6918 Literature Review (Virtual)y (2)

      • ORLD 6903 Qualitative research (3)

      • ORLD 6906 Program development: Adult Development (3)

      Second Year: (26 points)

      Summer (Two-week session)

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in  adult education: Life History and Adult Education(2)

      • ORLD 6914 Learning Communities I (2)

      • ORLD 6918 Literature review II(1)

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (3)

      Fall

      • ORLD 4027 Societal Transformation (3)

      • HUD 4120 Methods of empirical research (3)

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in adult education: Coaching from an Learning Perspective (2)

      • ORLD 6915 Learning Communities II (b Virtual)  (1)

      Spring

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in adult education: Program development in Digital Era (1)

      • ORLD 6908 Workplace and organizational learning (3)

      • ORLD 6915 Learning communities II (b Virtual) (1)

      • ORLD 6918 Advanced research seminar on Proposal Development and Writing (3)

      Third Year: (3 points)

      Summer (Two-week session)

      • ORLD 6800 Workshop in adult education: Capstone (1)

      • ORLD 6916 Learning communities III (2)

      AEGIS course offerings vary from cohort to cohort. Please see the most recent Program of Study Advisement Guide (located on the Adult Learning and Leadership program website as a PDF file) for current core sequence requirements.

    • Points/Credits: 90

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      The Adult Learning & Leadership program, at the Ed.D. level, is designed for professionals who wish to develop their skills  in helping adults learn inside and outside the classroom, and hone their leadership abilities. The intellectual framework of the program examines the relationship of adult learning to organizational, management and leadership issues. The program prepares scholar-practitioners who examine practice in light of theory, and vice-versa, in ways that enable them to lead, assess, and plan strategically for adult learning programs and interventions. Students master research skills that support their leadership in helping individuals to learn more effectively, and in helping organizations to learn from and with those adults.

      The EdD program has three required foundational courses. In addition, students make choices in consultation with their advisor about courses to take in the areas of adult development, adult learning theory and applications, program development and evaluation, systems learning, leadership, strategy and management, human resource development, group dynamics, organizational behavior, technology, conflict resolution, and research. At least one course must be taken (or can be transferred from prior accredited graduate study) in each of these twelve areas. Many of these courses are offered by the ADUL Program or the O&L Department; other courses can be taken elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University.

      Required Coursework:

      Foundations (9 credits)—required:

      • ORLD 4050 Introduction to adult and continuing ed (3)

      • ORLD 4053 Facilitating adult learning (3)

      • ORLD 5057 Adult learning & ed: Theory & practice (3)

      Adult Development (6)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 4051 How adults learn (3)

      • ORLD 5070 Leadership for adult development (3)

      • HUDK 4024 Developmental psychology: Adult learning and the lifespan (3)

      • HUDK 5023 Cognitive development (3)

      • HUDK 5027 Moral development (3)

      • HUDK 5028 Spiritual development across the lifespan (3)

      Adult Learning Theory and Applications (12-14 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 4060 Coaching from an adult learning perspective (3)

      • ORLD 4091 Somatics: Mind/body approach to leadership development (3)

      • ORLD 4815 Developing critical thinkers (1)

      • ORLD 4827 Fostering transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4828 Imagination, authenticity, and individuation in transformative learning (2-3)

      • ORLD 4844 Helping adults learn (1)

      • ORLD 4850 Discussion as a way of teaching (1)

      • ORLD 4855 Learning as a way of leading (1)

      • ORLD 5057 Adult learning and education: Theory and practice (3)

      • ORLD 5815 Critical theory and adult learning (1)

      Program Development and Evaluation (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5053 Developing and managing adult learning programs (3)

      • ORL 5522 Evaluation methods I (3)

      Systems Learning (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5823 Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence (CQ) (3)

      • ORLD 5550 Research on organizational learning (3)

      • ORLD 5061 The learning organization (3)

      • ORLJ 4800 Conflict and complexity: A dynamical system approach to addressing protracted conflict (3)

      Leadership (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5023 Leadership and self-development (3)

      • ORLD 5540 Social entrepreneurship & leadership (3)

      • ORLD 5821 Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ) to enhance organizational effectiveness (3)

      Strategy and Management (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 4085 Management & leadership skills in practice (3)

      • ORLD 5054 Strategy development as a learning process in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 6054 Learning to think strategically (3)

      Human Resource Development (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5055 Staff development and training (3)

      • ORLD 5062 Human resource development in organizations (3)

      • ORLD 5073 Action learning design and coaching (3)

      Group Dynamics (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORL 5362 Group dynamics: A systems perspective (3)

      Organizational Behavior (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5822 Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ) (3)

      • ORLA 4010 Introduction to organizational analysis in education (3)

      • ORLJ 4005 Organizational psychology (3) (Note: This is a prerequisite for many ORLJ courses)

      • ORLJ 5045 Organizational dynamics and theory (3)

      Technology (3 credits)—choose from the following:

      • ORLD 5050 Mobile learning design for professional growth (3)

      • ORLD 5060 Learning and technology in organizations (3)

      • MSTU 4039 Video games in education (3)

      • MSTU 4083 Instructional design of educational technology (3)

      Conflict Resolution (minimum of 3 points):

      • ORLJ 5148 Managing conflicts in organizations (3)

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive negotiation & conflict resolution (3)

      Research Requirements

      Ed.D. (Minimum 18 points):

      At the Ed.D. level, coursework must include a research design course, a data collection course (either qualitative or quantitative), a data analysis course (either qualitative or quantitative), and a dissertation seminar. These courses include, but are not limited to, those listed below. Ed.D. Candidates must take ORLD 7500 (1 point) in the semester in which they defend their dissertation proposals. Ed.D. candidates must also enroll in ORLD 8900 (or a 3-point Teachers College course) during fall and spring semester, after passing the certification examination.

      • HUDM 4120 Basic concepts in statistics (3)

      • HUDM 4122 Probability and statistical inference (3)

      • ORLD 4800 Workshop: Critical literature reviews (2)

      • ORLD 5550 Research on organizational learning (3)

      • ORL 6500 Qualitative research methods in organizations: Design and data collection (3)

      • ORL 6501 Qualitative research methods in organizations: Data analysis and reporting (3)

      • ORLD 7500 Dissertation seminar in adult education (1-3)

      • ORLD 7900 Directed dissertation research (3)

      Elective Courses

      Electives include, but may not be limited to, courses in conflict resolution, policy and evaluation, technology for learning, and management/information systems. These are tailored to the student’s career goals and can be taken in the Department or elsewhere in Teachers College or Columbia University. Electives can include transfer courses. Students are required to take a minimum of 6 points total at Teachers College outside of our immediate program area to satisfy the Teachers College breadth requirement.

      Final Project

      Ed.D. (Dissertation)

      Students in the Ed.D. program are also required to pass a certification examination, write a qualifying paper, and successfully defend their dissertations. Dissertations frequently focus on topics of interest to the candidates and the organizations they lead or aspire to lead.

      Please see the most recent Program of Study Advisement Guide (located on the Adult Learning and Leadership program website as a PDF file) for actual core sequence requirements.

  • Advanced Certificate

    • Points/Credits: 10

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      The Advanced Certificate in Adult Learning and Leadership for Medical Educators is a 10-credit, New York State-approved certificate. The program is designed for allopathic physicians (MDs) and/or osteopathic physicians (DOs) who wish to elevate their instructional and leadership skills. The program concentrates on developing knowledge and skills in needs assessment, learning design and facilitation, educational research, and organizational change.

      The certificate program is designed around a collaborative action research learning model that integrates conceptual knowledge grounded in the science of adult learning, coupled with real-world experience and practice. Students will learn research skills in coursework and will work in teams with other physicians to apply what they learn to current professional challenges of their choice. They will learn how to create and nurture communities of practice (professional learning communities) with colleagues and peers within and across disciplines and specialties.

      The targeted participants are physician faculty, primarily in academic medicine, as they are learning leaders for other physicians in training, residents, fellows and colleagues, as well as the teams with which they work.

      Physician participants will complete the 10 credits during one academic year (two courses in the Fall and two courses in the Spring semesters) in a hybrid format: four face-to-face meetings one Saturday a month in each semester, complemented by asynchronous web-based interaction before and after the face-to-face sessions.

      Each semester, one course will meet three hours in the morning, and the other course will meet three hours in the afternoon. Modules in the Fall include “ORLD 4053: Facilitating adult learning” and “ORLD 5023: Leadership and self-development.” Courses in the Spring include “ORLD 6914: Learning communities” and “ORLD 5073: Action learning design and coaching."

      https://www.tc.columbia.edu/advanced-certificate-in-medical-education/

    • Points/Credits: 12

      Entry Terms: Fall Only

      Degree Requirements

      The Adult Learning and Leadership program at Teachers College launched a new 12 credit, non-degree, New York State approved Advanced Certificate designed for working professionals in human resources, non-profits, higher education, and other institutions seeking to make an impact on developing diverse talent. The program was created to address the human capital challenges of growing unemployment for underserved or socially excluded populations.

      Based on over 10-years of research-based experiences, the one-year hybrid cohort certificate program will develop capabilities in strategic advocacy, negotiation, policy and practices, and technology-intensive learning oriented toward workforce innovation.

      Participants will create actionable knowledge and improve their capacity to rethink and enhance their workforce development initiatives.

      Program objectives will help graduates:

      • Design relevant workforce and education training strategies

      • Utilize digital technology and tools to improve assimilation of underserved and socially excluded adults

      • Develop better negotiation skills to improve the upward mobility of workers from diverse background

      • Create assessment programs to determine workplace success

      • Use innovative communications to improve support services

      • Evaluate public policy surrounding workforce development programs

      Four courses will be taken over two semesters—two courses in the Fall and two courses in the Spring. They will be taught in a hybrid format. Each course will meet in four face-to-face intensive sessions per semester as well as participate in asynchronous online coursework. These courses include:

      • ORLD 5054 Strategy development as a learning process in organizations

      • ORLJ 5340 Adaptive negotiation & conflict resolution

      • ORLD 5060 Learning and technology in organizations

      • EDP 4027 Education and social transformations; elites and inequalities in transitional economies

      Participants will apply what they learn throughout the year by participating in group-based projects centered on common interests. Participants will choose projects and form groups based on the challenges and opportunities they wish to address in their current work roles and settings. Through learning by doing—and discussion with others of what is found—participants will create actionable knowledge and build their capacity to improve workforce development operations. Participants will develop a portfolio of work that forms the basis for presentation of findings at conferences or through publications or other means of sharing new knowledge.

Faculty

  • Faculty

    • Ellie Drago-Severson Professor of Education Leadership
    • Terrence Earl Maltbia Associate Professor of Practice
    • Victoria J Marsick Professor of Education/Co-Director J.M. Huber Institute
    • Amra Sabic-El-Rayess Associate Professor of Practice
  • Visiting Faculty

    • Jeanne E Bitterman Adj/PTVisiting Prof/PTLecturer
    • Zachary Johannes Van Rossum Adj/PTVisiting Prof/PTLecturer
  • Emeriti

    • Lyle Yorks Professor Emeritus of Adult and Continuing Education
  • Lecturers

    • Pierre Faller Lecturer, Adult Learning & Leadership
    • Arthur Mark Langer Part-Time Lecturer in Department Organization & Leadership
  • Adjunct Faculty

    • Carmela Celeste Bennett Adjunct Assistant Professor of Adult Learning and Leadership
    • Constance A. Chartrand Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Rachel Danielle Fichter Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Carmine Paul Gibaldi Adjunct Professor of Adult Learning and Leadership
    • Randee Lawrence Adjunct Associate Professor
    • Dorothy Marcic Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Donna Murdoch Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Judith Ann O'Neil Instructional Staff
    • Judith K Parker Adjunct Assistant Professor of Adult Learning and Leadership
    • Carrie Lenora Shockley Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Julia Ann Sloan Adjunct Assistant Professor
    • Marie Volpe Adjunct Professor
    • John Carrington Welch Adjunct Assistant Professor
  • Instructors

    • Stephen D Brookfield
    • Edward J. Fleming
    • Sandra Hayes
    • Leodis Scott

Courses

  • ORL 6500 - Qualitative research
    This course is an introduction to qualitative research methods—conceptualization, design and data collection procedures–with a special focus on organizational study. Students will formulate qualitative problem statements and research questions; design a qualitative study guided by an interactive model and consideration of five different approaches; learn to use observation, interviewing, focus groups, and archival data resources; and apply design and data collection skills by undertaking a pilot research study. Consideration will be given to conceptual frameworks, ethical considerations, field work, sampling, and data management. This course requires a minimum of 27 hours per week of out of classroom work.
  • ORL 6501 - Qualitative Research Methods in Organizations: Data Analysis & Reporting
    "Prerequisite: ORL 6500 or equivalent qualitative design/data collection course. This course is designed for students who have taken coursework on qualitative research design and data collection and who have data (including pilot data) they can use for coding, analysis and synthesis with a view to writing and interpreting results. First and second cycle coding, memoing, and use of data displays are introduced along with advanced data collection strategies. Differences in data analysis are explored that vary with different design approaches (e.g. narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, case study). Computer Assisted Data Analysis Software is used for coding and analysis."
  • ORLD 4027 - Education and Social Transformation: Elites and Inequalities in Transitional Economies
    Drawing from several bodies of literature, this course explores critical bridges between education, on one hand, and the complex dynamics of the elite formation, polarization, corruption, development and social transformation, on the other hand. Students will examine the elite dynamics in crises or developing contexts; what role education plays in those contexts; and how education systems work to validate or delegitimize the old or new elite. Current events will be incorporated.
  • ORLD 4050 - Introduction to adult and continuing education
    The purpose of this introductory course is to develop familiarity with the core theory and field of practice in adult and continuing education. This course will provide an overview of the current thinking about the nature of adult education, adult learning theory, various areas of practice, and the challenges adult educators face. It will also look at areas for future research and development. The goal is to help students build a common language for understanding adult education concepts, learning theory, and practice, as it is found and utilized in different settings and disciplines.
  • ORLD 4051 - How adults learn
    This course provides a sophisticated introduction to the field of adult learning and its relationship to adult development and how these principles can be used to support learning across various types of organizations. Students will learn how to practically operationalize the science of human development in their instructional design, facilitation and experiential learning, and assessment and course evaluations. The course takes a design thinking approach to learning, enabling students to engage with prominent models of human development and learning in a hands-on and practical way, grounding their learning through action and lived experience.
  • ORLD 4053 - Facilitating adult learning
    In-depth consideration of issues, strategies, and methods for facilitating adult learning. Theory is considered in relationship to practice. Methods are identified that are suited to adult learning in different settings, and to the role played by groups in individual to team learning. No prerequisites required, but learning is enhanced when taken following ORLD 4050 and ORLD 4051.
  • ORLD 4060 - Coaching from an Adult Learning Perspective
    This course takes a selective look at the contribution of major adult learning theories and their relationship to the fast-growing field of coaching. Exploring the links between key adult learning concepts and current coaching practices, the class will outline a number of critical adult learning concepts and frameworks selected because of their practical applications to the coaching process. The course will also give students space to experience coaching through various coaching experiential activities and build a model of coaching adapted to their organizational contexts and their coaching style.
  • ORLD 4065 - Leading Change in a Democratic Society
    This introductory course aims to help participants learn about and understand the paths that others have traveled in their quests to create revolutionary change within democratic societies. By drawing on the common frameworks and general example of the champions of social and political change, this course explores sets of repeating practices, principles, patterns and recurring themes that effective agents of change employ in the process of learning about and, ultimately, creating revolutionary change. Embedded in a practical, action-oriented framework for creating broad, revolutionary change, this course consists of four core components: Thinking About Change, Preparing for Change, Leading Change, and Sustaining Change. We examine together the role leaders and change agents play in learning to create social and political change within free, open and democratic societies. Ultimately, this course is geared toward understanding the lessons we can learn from the champions of change in a way that we can apply to our own organizational or institutional areas of practice. Finally, this course attempts to draw practical inspiration from change leaders as well as insights useful in our own individual lives with an ongoing emphasis on practical application. This fully asynchronous course centers around online group discussions, individual or small group workbook exercises and activities, and limited video lecture.
  • ORLD 4085 - Management and Leadership Skills in Practice
    This course develops skills as a manager and leader using a cognitive-science based approach to skills development. Taking a hands-on, experiential approach, the purpose is to demystify the notion of management, provide students with feedback about their own management potential, and facilitate their personal and intellectual growth as a skilled leader. To paraphrase the father of modern management, Peter Drucker: Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires management and leadership. In this course, students will learn how to more effectively lead and motivate groups while understanding, as Paul Hawkes said, "Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them."
  • ORLD 4091 - Somatics: A Mind/Body Approach to Leadership Development
    This course presents a somatic, or whole body, approach to professional and personal leadership development. Somatics is a methodology and change theory that views the individual as an integrated mind, body, and spirit and utilizes the whole body, not just the mind, as an essential place of intelligence, learning, and change. Working with our interdependent system of thoughts, emotions, and neuromuscular physiology, somatics give us “a way in” to quickly and directly develop deep insight into our embodied and largely unconscious patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that result in our actions, conversations, decisions, relationships, and the leader we show ourselves to be. Throughout this experiential course, students will participate in an interactive, creative learning experience designed to build whole-body awareness, reconnect with their leadership purpose, gain a repertoire of practices that can enhance their potential to develop a more powerful leadership presence, maintain balance in chaos and conflict, and build more effective relationships and teams in a diversity of contexts. Connections will be made to the ways somatics is supported by neuroscience, Western and Eastern philosophies, spirituality, psychology, adult learning, leadership, and organizational development theories.
  • ORLD 4800 - Workshop in higher and adult education
    Special topics or events related to the administration of programs in adult education. Topics change each semester. Open to degree and non-degree students.
  • ORLD 4815 - Developing critical thinkers
    In this workshop, participants will explore the ways in which adults learn critical thinking and they will experience different techniques to teach critical thinking. Exercises to be reviewed will include: Scenario analysis, critical conversation protocols and critical incidents. The course is highly participatory and will take participants through a series of increasingly complex critical thinking activities.
  • ORLD 4827 - Fostering Transformative Learning
    In this course, we will explore how adult learners transform their habits of mind through critical self-reflection and discourse. We will also examine individual and social transformation and how they are connected. We will focus on practical and innovative strategies for fostering transformative learning in a wide range of adult education settings. This is a fully asynchronous distance learning course.
  • ORLD 4828 - Imagination, authenticity and individuation in transformative learning
    Participants in this course will engage in an in-depth exploration of transformative learning with an emphasis on the role of affect, imagination and the arts in the learning process. We will investigate how the journey of becoming authentic is a transformative process. Jung's concept of individuation - —i.e., differentiating one's Self from the collective—will be used as yet another lens through which we can view transformation. Participants are encouraged to engage in various creative processes for exploring transformative learning in personal and professional contexts. This is a fully asynchronous distance learning course.
  • ORLD 4844 - Helping Adults Learn
    This workshop will explore different methods and contexts for facilitating adult learning. Participants will be encouraged to explore their own experiences as learners and facilitators and to consider how these experiences might help them to reframe their practice. This highly interactive course will examine what counts as an adult educational approach to learning, the emotional rhythms of learning and what adult students look for in their teachers.
  • ORLD 4850 - Discussion as a way of teaching
    Discussion is one of the most frequently used teaching methodologies in higher and adult education today. This 2-day workshop takes participants through a number of increasingly complex and varied discussion exercises with the intent of participants being able to use and adapt these in their own practice. It is based on Stephen Brookfield (the workshop leader) and Stephen Preskill's books Discussion as a Way of Teaching (2005) and The Discussion Book (2016).
  • ORLD 4855 - Learning As A Way of Leading
    This two-day workshop builds on practices of social justice leaders to argue that effective leadership involves constantly learning about the practice of leadership in different contexts, and learning how best to support the learning of colleagues, followers and subordinates. We explore the different learning tasks associated with transformational, organic, and social justice leadership such as practicing openness, supporting the growth of others, analyzing experience, learning to question, and fostering democracy. Over the two days participants are taken through a series of sequenced exercises to gain experience in practicing learning leadership tasks.
  • ORLD 4860 - Teaching Race in Predominantly White Organizations
    This course is aimed at practitioners who work mostly in predominantly white settings. It explores the process of teaching about race and racism in educational contexts, corporations, communities, organizations and social movements. We examine the complex dynamics of working to unmask white supremacy and expose color blind perspectives in such settings. Participants consider how to use autobiographical disclosure, sequence the consideration of increasingly contentious racial issues, create conversational protocols to discuss race, prepare students for ‘brave space’ (rather than safe space) environments and respond to expressions of anger, hurt and pain. We examine the importance of examining the leader or teacher’s own racial identity, and the need for multiracial teaching teams to model difficult conversations. Finally, the course explores how to move people from individualized to structural ways of thinking about race and racism.
  • ORLD 4900 - Research and independent study in adult education
    Permission of instructor required.
  • ORLD 4999 - Career Strategy Development as a Lifelong Learning Process
    This course is designed as a two-day workshop to develop students’ understanding of the career development process, in order to design informed and appropriate strategies for their career and ongoing educational pursuits. Students will explore key career development activities and learn how to integrate self-knowledge into occupational/life decisions, set career goals, and devise strategies to attain these goals leveraging active learning.
  • ORLD 5023 - Leadership and Self Development
    This course investigates the nature and process of leadership and self-development. It is based on the assumption that effective leadership starts with self-development, mindfulness, and critical self-reflection, and is further cultivated through dialogue, inquiry, and active listening as means of influencing others towards shared goals, rather than through traditional top-down, command and control approaches. Each student will be asked to take on a personal development goal for the semester and will be working with other students in a peer coaching process that supports the practical cultivation of their leadership abilities.
  • ORLD 5050 - Mobile Learning Design for Professional Growth
    This course provides students with comprehensive practical strategies to leverage mobile first learning designs, and utilizing mobile devices in numerous contexts. As mobile-learning can happen anywhere and anytime, the concept of learning and that of a classroom has become more fluid. Today’s contemporary classrooms can be imagined and realized as any place where students of all ages can engage in student-centered, active learning using various mobile technological tools. This course enhances people’s ability to learn, access and leverage technology who are not experts in the field of technology. It provides an adult learning overview on mobile devices, and helps you pursue mobile learning activity designs, mobile app design and prototyping, m-Learning delivery, assessments, monitoring, and evaluation.
  • ORLD 5053 - Program Development: Designing for Complexity and Sustainability
    Program Development: Designing for Complexity and Sustainability introduces students to the process of program planning for adult learners from theoretical, conceptual, and practical perspectives with the goal of promoting a more informed, reflective, and contextually relevant practice. Students will explore program planning in a complex world through the lens of sustainability, one of the most “wicked problems” of our time. Students will also critically analyze the strengths and limitations of a range of program planning approaches and acquire practical tools through the use of experiential learning.
  • ORLD 5054 - Strategy development as a learning process in organizations
    This course provides a comprehensive view of organizational strategy from a learning perspective. Students examine various models for facilitating the development of strategic initiatives through learning interventions.
  • ORLD 5055 - Staff Development and Training
    Introductory course covering the organization, management, and instructional process involved in staff training and development programs in business, industry, unions, healthcare institutions, government, and other noncollegiate settings. Current developments, innovative practices, and issues.
  • ORLD 5057 - Adult learning and education: Theory and practice
    In today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, we are faced with a myriad of challenges and need to be better equipped to navigate this ever-changing world. This course introduces adult educators (i.e. learning designers, coaches, facilitators, teachers/professors, and consultants, etc.) to the 3 pillars of adult learning practice: 1) Transformative Learning, 2) Learning from Experience, and 3) Self-Directed Learning. Understanding and applying these theories to real-life issues and problems will be core in this course. Students will examine these theories in various cultures and contexts through formal, informal, and incidental learning in corporations, medical healthcare and non-profits, among others. To consolidate learning, students will be equipped with the knowledge, understanding, and capabilities to apply the learning theories to their own unique situations and challenges. Prerequisite: This course requires basic knowledge of adult learning theories & practices. Please contact Prof. Victoria Marsick (marsick@tc.columbia.edu) and graduate assistant, Chali Kaewla (ck3110@tc.columbia.edu), for more information and special permission for course registration.
  • ORLD 5060 - Learning and Technology in Organizations
    This course is designed to help students understand the rapidly changing role of intelligent technology for organizational learning about strategy and capacity building. The course draws on a combination of research case studies together with the existing theories on organizational learning in the workplace to address the complex dilemmas faced by human resource managers and corporate executives regarding the impact of technology on employee learning and management. The objectives of this course are presented in four integrated competency units: first, the ways in which IT has revolutionized learning in organizations; second, the alternative ways technology can be used to support distance learning; third, technology as it supports knowledge management; and, fourth, how technology changes organizational functioning and management.
  • ORLD 5061 - Learning Organization: Digital Workplace
    "This course will explore the concept of a digital learning organization, and how to create or improve one that already exists. We will cover topics such as digital learning strategies, creating a learning culture, using technology for learning, assessing digital learning needs, emerging technologies, and implementing solutions for maximum impact. We will also address the need to support adults as they navigate the ambiguity that is a constant in today’s organizations, regardless of sector. Technology is changing at an increasing velocity and organizational practitioners should be equipped to be empathic and support the fluid needs that digital technologies will continue to bring as they emerge, regardless of what they are and context in which they are used."
  • ORLD 5062 - Global and Strategic Human Resource Development in Organizations
    This course seeks to provide graduate students from varied backgrounds which may or may not be directly related to human resources with a comprehensive view of the field of human resource development. This view includes a strategic HRD focus in global organizations and implementation of HRD initiatives that develop the social/human capital resources of the organization, contribute to the organization’s sustainability, and advance the organization’s strategic positioning in a way that accounts for all stakeholders including the community and society. The emphasis is on how HRD relates to a changing workplace and emerging theories and practices in the management of organizations and learning and development needs of people in the workforce.
  • ORLD 5063 - Online Teaching and Learning: Applying Adult Learning Principles
    In this course we will explore online teaching and learning within adult education, higher education, community colleges, and organizations (corporate, non-profit); new theories, research, and applications that inform best practices in online learning; and “participative culture” vis-à-vis communities of learning, the history and evolution of online learning, and planning and designing an online course.
  • ORLD 5070 - Leadership for Adult Development
    Supporting adult development enhances adults’ internal capacities, which in turn enables them to manage better the complexities of leading, teaching, learning and living. This course seeks to help leaders—across levels and sectors—support adult growth within organizations. To support internal capacity building, leaders need to implement practices in service to adults’ professional and personal development. This is especially important given the complexities of the adaptive challenges we face in the course of leading, learning and working —especially today. In this course we will explore an expanded notion of leadership that includes adult development. We will study research on adult developmental theories and their connections to practices that facilitate adults’ transformational learning (i.e. learning that helps adults develop greater cognitive and affective capacities to better manage the complexities of leadership, work and life). We will consider questions such as: How can we create organizations and systems that support adults’ transformational learning? What practices support adult development? What developmental principles inform these practices? How can we support leadership development in the workplace? What supports and conditions are necessary and needed?
  • ORLD 5073 - Action Learning Design and Coaching
    Organizations increasingly build learning directly into work—as a part of the way that people get and use new ideas, solve problems and meet difficult challenges. Action learning is a popular strategy for leadership development that does just that. In this approach, people learn as they work together in small groups to ask questions about their challenges, try out new solutions, and rethink results in light of the data they collect. Sometimes this results in organizational learning and change. This course is an experiential learning laboratory that will help participants begin to develop a framework and skills for designing and coaching action learning programs. Students will learn using a project of their own choosing and will work as peer coaches in small teams during the course.
  • ORLD 5540 - Social Entrepreneurship & Leadership
    Social Entrepreneurship can be simply defined as the application of the mindset, processes, tools, and techniques of business entrepreneurship to the pursuit of a social and/or environmental mission. Social entrepreneurship brings to bear the passion, ingenuity, innovativeness, perseverance, planning bootstrapping abilities, and focus on growth characteristic of business entrepreneurs on the work of meeting our society’s most pressing challenges. Incorporated into each class will be implications for how entrepreneurs learn (entrepreneurial learning theory) through practice. The course will concurrently address the necessary skills needed to start a social enterprise including how to develop a business plan with a social/societal benefitting focus. Students will develop a comprehensive business plan for a social enterprise of their choosing throughout the semester, as well as a Pitch.
  • ORLD 5550 - Research on organizational learning
    In our today VUCA world, organizational learning – understood not only as learning in organizations, but above all as learning by organizations – is more necessary than ever. In a changing world, organizations of any kind (companies, schools, hospitals, public agencies etcetera) need to learn to stay alive. Research on organizational learning, including its actors and its objects, its triggers and its phases, its obstacles and its support, needs to be well founded on both theories of organization(s) and theories of organizational learning as well as on given empirical literature. This course develops such theoretical and empirical foundations alongside students‘ research projects in self-chosen organizations. Students will prepare and realize small own-research projects. Presenting and discussing both preparation and realization will serve to support this process. As this course sees organizational learning as a process of praxis, qualitative research methods will be favored. Therefore it would be helpful if ORL6500 or comparable qualitative research course have been completed or will be be studied parallel with this course.
  • ORLD 5815 - Critical theory and adult learning
    In this workshop, participants examine the core elements of critical theory as originated by the Frankfurt School. Critical theory holds that ideological manipulation works to make inequity appear as the natural order of things. Participants will examine core concepts such as ideology, power, alienation and liberation via the works of Marcuse, Fromm, Gramsci and Foucault and consider how these relate to adult learning and the practice of adult education.
  • ORLD 5821 - Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ) to enhance organizational effectiveness
    Leveraging Emotional Intelligence (EQ) to Enhance Organizational Effectiveness will explore research, best practices, and future directions. Students will learn to select among popular EQ assessment and measurement tools, distinguish between cognitive learning and emotional learning strategies, effectively position the business case for EQ, and evaluate the effectiveness of EQ learning strategies. Participants will receive personal profiles based on three popular EQ assessments (i.e., Emotional Social Competence Inventory - ESCI; Emotional Quotient Inventory - EQi 2.0; and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test - MSCEIT) and applied insights to leadership development strategies including executive coaching.
  • ORLD 5822 - Building productive relationships with social intelligence (SQ)
    Building Productive Relationships with Social Intelligence (SQ) describes the components of the emerging emotional economy and why it's important to organizational performance, expand EQ capability by amplifying social intelligent components, examine the social neuroscience behind the dynamics of productive relationships, combine non-verbal agility to expand empathic accuracy for improved communication, and develop foundational human interaction skills to enhance relationships. Participants will examine the results of 3 assessments: (1) NBI (Thinking Style); (2) Listening Style Profile; and (3) Coaching Mindset Index, with a focus on devising small group and team development interventions.
  • ORLD 5823 - Building 21st century organizational capability with cultural intelligence
    Building 21st Century Organizational Capability with Cultural Intelligence (CQ) students will learn a strategic learning and leadership framework used to guide cultural diversity interventions in organizations, examine the theoretical and philosophical foundations associated with evidence-based cultural diversity strategies, explore a set of core practices informed by important leadership questions, experiment with sample tools designed to launch strategic cultural diversity processes, apply strategic diversity learning and change process to personal project to integrate key learning. Participants will examine how three assessments (i.e., Culture In the Workplace Questionnaire, CQ Assessment, and Bennett's Intercultural Development Inventory) can be used to inform the design and implementation of various learning strategies focused on building a leveraging diversity capacity in the workplace.
  • ORLD 5900 - Research and independent study in adult education
    Permission required. Conduct research studies (not a part of a doctoral dissertation) under guidance. Focus on a particular institution or type of institution, e.g., college of liberal arts, professional school, community college.
  • ORLD 6054 - Learning to Think Strategically
    This highly interactive seminar offers an opportunity for participants to challenge conventional approaches to strategy by focusing on how successful strategists learn to think strategically — the learning aspect of strategic thinking will be emphasized. As organizational leaders, the seminar participants will be encouraged to critically assess their own and their organizations’ strategy development habits. Accordingly, participants will be working with their own current strategy cases in order to expand the breadth and depth of their strategic thinking baseline. This seminar provides a thorough grounding in the foundation and underlying concepts of strategic thinking. Based on a critical reflective process-oriented design, this course content explores the genesis of strategic thinking, its value to an organization, and includes extensive practice and intensive reflection as learning methods.
  • ORLD 6900 - Research and independent study in adult education
    Permission of instructor required.
  • ORLD 6914 - Learning Communities: Introduction to Research
    Drawing on the literature, presents students with the central challenges of establishing learning communities as an adult education method of practice. Special attention is given to the use of the web as a way of establishing virtual learning communities. Students gain experience through the use of the web to facilitate dialogue linked to their course work.
  • ORLD 7500 - Dissertation Seminar in Adult Education
    Permission required. Students should have completed most or all coursework (including research methods courses) and have passed the certification examination. The course is intended for students who have identified a reasonably narrow area for research and have already completed a preliminary literature review. The course will assist the student in design, methods, and other matters of concern in the preparation of an acceptable dissertation proposal.
  • ORLD 7900 - Directed Dissertation Research
    Permission required. All doctoral students eligible for this course must register each semester until a proposal hearing has occurred and a proposal has been approved.
  • ORLD 8900 - Dissertation Advisement in Adult Education
    Individual advisement on doctoral dissertations. Fee to equal 3 points at current tuition rate for each term. For requirements, see section in catalog on Continuous Registration for Ed.D./Ph.D. degrees.
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