Integrating EMGT into the General Education Curriculum:

Jessica Jensen, Assistant Professorand

Daniel J. Klenow, Professor and Headfrom

North Dakota State UniversityDepartment of Emergency Management

An Idea for Higher Education Programs

Presentation Overview

• Tell the story of our introductory course;• Its role in our curriculum;• How it ended up as a general education course in

the social and behavioral sciences category; and, • Suggest considerations if you want to pursue such a

course too

History of Program at NDSU

• Brief, general history• Original orientation/approach to program• Role of course within that perspective

History of Course

• Original design of course• How course was offered

Initial Changes to Course

• From EMGT 201: Introduction to Emergency Management to • EMGT 101: Emergencies, Disasters, and

Catastrophes

Initial Changes Continued…

• Change in Content• From government-centric, technical, doctrine

driven course to…• Exploration of 3 parallel streams• History of disasters• Evolution of emergency management• Functional areas of emergency management

and key concepts • Relationship of streams to one another

Initial Changes Continued…

• More frequent offerings• From 1 x per year to• Every semester

Departmental Shifts

• Convergence of three shifts in general orientation of the program led to exploring the possibility of 101 as a General Education course

#1: Orientation to Numbers

• Campus wide focus on the $ relationship to #s of students in courses and program• Desire to draw more MINORS, majors too, BUT

MINORS

#2: Orientation to Awareness-Building

• Students• Other departments• Administration

#3: Orientation to EMGT in Hi Ed

• Emergency management as • Broad career area• Distributed function• Emergency management as academic discipline

Implications of Shifts

• Curriculum • Potential numbers• Potential awareness • Potential societal impacts• Potential impact to program sustainability

Deciding to Pursue Gen Ed

• Factors considered• Requirements for general education versus

current course design• Benefits to program• Additional demands if so designated• Process involved with getting approval

• Decision made

Process of Pursuing Gen Ed

• Learning expectations• Feeling out committee members• Developing application• Initial feedback• Formal submission• Corrections• Revised approval • Future steps

Results

• Successful• Numbers• Enrollment only limited by size of classroom

• Generating awareness• Broader audience• Shrinking proportion of our majors to others in

the class• Who we are attracting• Minors, minors, minors

• Implications

Considerations if Interested

• Course requirements to become a general education courses at your institution• The process at your institution including• Steps• Players• Timeframe• Recent approvals

• Teaching capacity

Broader Potential

• Addressing a range of challenges programs experience currently• Majors versus minors and jobs• Numbers• Awareness• Sustainability

• Societal impact

Questions????????