Three New Online Graduate Courses for BRAC Workers
Developed by Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals
Three online courses in systems engineering, designed to prepare workers for jobs coming to Maryland through the federal Base Realignment and Closure process, are being launched by Johns Hopkins University Engineering for Professionals, EP, the part-time graduate program of the university's Whiting School of Engineering. The new master's level courses are Software Systems Engineering, developed by Scott Donaldson and Stan Siegel, Tools and Techniques of Software Project Management, developed by Allan Bowers, and Systems Architecting, developed by Matt Henry. All course developers are EP faculty members. The online instruction is open to military and civilian personnel, along with members of the general public who desire additional education in these areas. One class, Tools and Techniques of Software Project Management, will be offered this fall. The other two are slated to be offered in Spring 2010.
EP began developing the new courses after receiving a $140,000 grant from the Maryland Higher Education Commission in the fall of 2008. The grant was awarded to help the university give workers some of the skills needed for jobs coming to Maryland through the federal BRAC process, which seeks to find efficient and cost- effective ways to close and/or realign military bases. With this financial support, EP has developed the first three of six anticipated online courses in systems engineering, one of several graduate degree areas identified as important for relocated military personnel. The remaining three courses will be developed by the end of 2009.
The first three courses were recently reviewed by Quality Matters, a faculty-centered peer review program. Each course was recognized as having met or exceeded 17 essential standards in areas such as accessibility, learner engagement and support, and course technology. A national non-profit organization, Quality Matters features a rigorous course review quality assurance process for online courses. Review criteria are linked to external standards; criteria and process are supported through instructional design principles; and the process is vetted by faculty experts. The goals of the program are to increase student retention, learning and satisfaction in online courses by implementing better course design. Quality Matters is sponsored by MarylandOnline and has been adopted by hundreds of higher education institutions across 40 states and Canada.
EP students are able to complete the master's in systems engineering degree program fully online. For more information, go to www.ep.jhu.edu/se.
Part of The Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, Engineering for Professionals offers master's degrees in 15 distinct disciplines. There are currently more than 2,200 students enrolled in EP programs at eight education centers throughout the Baltimore/Washington area and online. For more information on EP programs and functions, contact Associate Dean Allan Bjerkaas at 410-516-2300, visit www.ep.jhu.edu/ or send e-mail to jhep@jhu.edu. Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at www.jhu.edu/news_info/news. Information on automatic E-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address.