A GW Hybrid Master's Program in GSEHD

Patty Dinneen (TLC) and I just attended a master's portfolio defense at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD).  This hybrid program (Early Childhood Special Education) takes advantage of study on-campus, on-site (clinical experience) and online.

The ECSE program is organized around a set of about fourteen capabilities that students develop cumulatively as they take courses (e.g., the ability to use a variety of assessment procedures as they work with children).  Each ECSE course helps students take another step in developing several of those capabilities. And in each course the student uploads projects to their portfolio and writes about how those documents provide evidence of what they can now do.

As the program comes to a climax, the students use their portfolios to describe their personal philosophy of the practice and document their achievements in each of the fourteen areas as they relate to that philosophy.  It was obvious that this particular student, Rebecca Parlakian, was exceptionally good at articulating what she had learned and how she now thought as she worked in the profession; she drew interesting lessons from each of the experiences she had documented.

It's looking more likely that the Innovation Task Force will help us work with GW departments at creating hybrid master's programs.  The ECSE program is just one example of what such a hybrid degree program might look like.