When Innovation Meets Education

When City University of Seattle began offering classes on the weekday morning ferry traveling from Bremerton to Seattle more than 30 years ago, it did so to meet the real needs of its students, many of them working professionals. Offering an array of subjects from art appreciation to business administration by blending easily into students’ busy schedules, the “floating college” allowed students to maximize commuting and class time by letting them learn while en route to work.

Thinking outside the box to its meet students’ ever-changing needs has been a CityU of Seattle trademark since its inception. Today, CityU is still as innovative as ever and offers flexible learning opportunities through a wide range of degrees and certificate programs, several locations worldwide, and enhanced opportunities for online learning.

Management Skills for the Technologically Savvy
At the School of Management, innovative programs abound. Take the Master of Science in Technology Management program, designed for technology professionals and current technology managers who wish to advance their careers; senior level technology managers who want to move into leadership positions; as well as any professional who is interested in understanding management in a technology company.

“One of the real reasons we created this program was to help prepare technology people when they are tapped for promotion into leadership or management positions since this is often new domain for them,” says Kurt D. Kirstein, Ed.D., Interim Dean of the School of Management at CityU. “So this program is largely designed to prepare them for management positions but it also gives people the skills they need to handle different areas that are emerging in the information systems or IT world, such as managing the technology vendor relationship for the growing number of companies that are outsourcing this technology function.”

Created last summer, the program offered its first course in the fall of 2007; meanwhile the actual Master of Science degree will be available later this year. According to Kirstein, the program can actually be taken in two different ways—students can take the first five classes and earn a certificate or take all 17 courses and earn the degree.

“We are officially kicking off the Master of Science degree in the fall of 2008 and now are piloting the first five courses as a certificate. By rolling out the program in phases, we’re ensuring its future success and viability.”

The program’s use of technology and online education are by far its most innovative features. “We are really able to stretch the boundaries in terms of technology,” says Kirstein. “We moved from what was really exclusively asynchronous model, using tools such as Blackboard, to one that is now synchronous, where instructors and students are able to share all kinds of information using various delivery methods.”

Having students record PowerPoint presentations was the first way innovative technology was used in the course. In the past, students would assemble PowerPoint slides and send them in as a static presentation. In this course, students now are required to record the actual delivery of their presentation and use the PowerPoint slides in the background. Students must then write that presentation out to a wave file, place it on a disk, or post the presentation on YouTube, to show that they have demonstrated the material properly, explained Kirstein.

“The instructor, who is also the course designer for this first course, actually made her students deliver the presentation in front of a real audience and then had them turn the camera around to show that there were actually people in the audience," says Kirstein. "But these days where web cams are now built in to many laptops it’s very easy to access the technology to record yourself giving the presentation.”

Presenting the information this way also allows students to see the faces of fellow classmates, which is typically unheard of in an online course, adds Kirstein.

In addition to giving students the ability to use sites such as YouTube, the course also uses Skype, a technology that allows users to make free calls from their computer to other Skype users, and web/video conferencing technology such as WebEx.

“Say you want to display your PowerPoint presentation over multiple computers, you just set up your WebEx meeting and people just link up to your WebEx meeting, watch your presentation, then dial in using Skype or a conference bridge,” explains Kirsten. “The idea is to construct a program that utilizes technologies that are actually being used in the real world.”

The Albright School of Education at CityU takes an innovative approach to education by constantly gauging what the needs are in the community and then creating new programs or classes to address them. The School also is increasingly setting its sights internationally to offer more exciting programs abroad.

“Part of the mission of the Albright School of Education is to serve populations that have not been traditionally served well within higher education,” says Judy Hinrichs, Interim Dean for the School of Education at CityU. “That mission extends to providing service in areas that are considered high needs within the community such as the need for math and special education teachers.

Meeting District Needs Collaboratively
Two years ago, for example, in order to bring greater diversity to its teaching population and solve teacher shortages in Washington schools, CityU, along with Seattle Public Schools, began working with the Seattle Education Association and the Professional Educator Standards Board to create the Classified-to-Certificated program, an alternative route to certification.

The innovative program focuses on solving the shortage area of special education; it recruits skilled candidates who reflect the diversity of the district student population. Upon completion of the two-year program, participants are “dual-endorsed” to teach K-12 special education and K-8 elementary education. Students earn a Washington State Residency Teaching Certificate with the two endorsements.

“This program is innovative because it allows paraeducators or bilingual paraprofessionals (such as special education, technology, or bilingual paraeducators that have some schooling but who are not certified teachers) to become teachers,” says Jo Masterson, ASOE Marketing Account Manager at CityU. “And since these people are already employed in the schools and have experience working with children, the state is essentially saying, ‘Hey, we are willing to help these people become teachers because we already know they are dedicated to this.’”

To accommodate such working professionals’ busy schedules, the CityU's Alternative Routes Program is offered two nights a week (from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.) and then all day on Saturday (from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) so class times do not conflict with participants’ work schedules.

After the coursework is completed, program participants take part in a year-long mentored internship. “This yearlong mentored internship is the hallmark of an alternate route. At this point in the program they are in the classroom full time, for the entire year in an apprenticeship model, steadily taking over throughout the year greater responsibilities as the classroom teacher,” says Corll Morrissey, Program Coordinator with CityU’s Albright School of Education.

Starting in July, the School of Education will expand the Alternative Routes program to address new shortage areas across the state, specifically King, Skagit, and Snohomish counties.

“The legislature reviews data from the districts annually and when they review the shortage areas (the positions the school districts have trouble filling) they look at the patterns and at the geographic areas and the universities that are able to work with the school districts to solve those shortage areas,” explains Morrissey. “So a request for proposals went out for universities to form partnerships to serve that need across the state and our proposal was accepted; so we will partner with local school districts in these three counties.”

In fact, the program will be fine-tuned going forward. "We have received enthusiastic reviews by the Professional Educator Standards Board in November of 2007, and we have taken some guidance from the external reviewers to design the program in an even more effective way. So we are excited about that,” adds Morrissey. “The partnership with SEA and Seattle Public Schools is the strength of this program, reflected in the understanding and support of building principals for the programs and their candidates.”

Another cohort, designed specifically for career changers will begin this summer. It targets those currently working in the private sector who would like to become secondary math teachers. “The qualifications are pretty hefty to get into the program. It’s not just ‘come one, come all, I want to be a math teacher.’ You really have to pass a rigorous test be ready to do a full-time mentored internship,” notes Morrissey.

Qualified applicants must have a degree in math or a related subject that requires higher levels of math as well as five or more years of career experience applying math skills.

“The reason this program is so innovative is that we actively sought out this partnership with Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)Professional Educator Standards Board to see how we can help, how we could be involved to assist the state meet these needs, so a lot of it is built on this relationship,” says Masterson.

Starting in the fall of 2008, the School also will launch a Master of Education Degree program, which is a modification of an existing program plan. Called the Master of Education Curriculum and Instruction Specialized Study Program (Option for Professional Certificate for Teachers), each of the courses is designed to ensure that candidates will meet the outcomes defined in the 12 criteria for the Washington State Professional Certificate.

“In other words, the assignments and assessments are consistent with what our Professional Certificate candidates will need to do to show that they meet standards in all 12 criteria,” says Christine Katayama, Ed. D., Program Coordinator, Professional Certification and M. Ed. Programs at CityU.

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