Course Summaries

Doctor of Education in Educational and Organizational Leadership

• EOL 701: Engaging Adult Learners
  Explore adult learning theories (andragogy). Apply principles of highly effective adult learning in professional contexts.  Design experiences for adult learners that account for their unique characteristics, motivations, and developmental level. Foster an organizational culture of continuous professional growth.
• EOL 702: Writing and Research Foundations
  Develop the knowledge, dispositions, and skills required for professional research and writing in the fields of educational and organizational leadership. Explore writing as a recursive process and complex social activity as it is used by scholar-practitioners. Provide and receive revision-focused feedback on works in progress through peer review activities and individual conferences. Synthesize existing research to create writing products that summarize evidence-based practices.
• EOL 703: Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Leadership
  Explore theoretical and practical approaches to leadership. Examine foundational theories and practice of educational and organizational leadership. Synthesize a personal philosophy of leadership. Critically reflect on relationships between leadership theory and actual leadership practice. Apply philosophical and theoretical concepts of leadership to solve real-world and relevant problems in schools and organizations.
• EOL 704: Group Dynamics: Theory and Application
  Examine the behaviors, dynamics, and processes that occur between individuals within groups as they achieve shared outcomes. Learn to develop productive teams and learning communities, facilitate change, motivate employees, and resolve conflicts. Develop skills that promote effective communication, understanding and motivation in group settings. Apply evidence-based group dynamic theory and practices to help teams achieve shared goals in schools and organizations.
• EOL 705: Sustaining Diverse and Inclusive Organizations
  Explore organizational characteristics and leadership practices designed to create and sustain diverse and inclusive school and organizations. Develop an understanding of the socioeconomic, political, and historical conditions that produce patterns of inequity and exclusion among diverse populations. Critically evaluate the influence of these patterns of inequity and exclusion on the structural development of schools and organizations. Build conceptual frameworks and practical strategies for transforming the culture and structure of schools in ways that support relations of diversity, equity, and inclusion at all organizational levels. Apply the perspectives necessary for serving as an effective leader in a diverse organization.
• EOL 711: Grant Writing Essentials
  Explore funding opportunities–proposal types and RFPs. Develop a selected grant project. Understand grant requirements. Write the sections of the grant including the executive summary, goals, needs statement, evaluation, and budget. Evaluate the importance of peer review. Participate in grant review processes. 
• EOL 712: Writing for Professional Publication
  Participate in the published scholar/practitioner dialog on various topics in learning and leadership. Develop and refine writing skills in the production of scholarship. Learn peer and editorial review processes, explore scholar/practitioner venues to present their work, respond to editorial feedback, engage in robust peer review practices, and practice presenting ideas to colleagues. Create an editorial manuscript and a conference presentation proposal and submit them both for peer review.
• EOL 713: Organizational Policy and Public Relations
  Define management functions and processes that create value for schools, organizations, and communities. Explore theories and methods of organizational improvement and change. Identify management policies, practices, and procedures that optimize organizational operations. Reflect on frames of leadership and their application in organizational operations. Reflect on the role of one’s own school or organization in the various communities in which it participates. Manage messaging and communications to the community in ways that enhance both a school or organization and the community.
• EOL 714: Organizational Improvement and Change
  Explore theories and methods of organizational improvement and change. Evaluate catalysts and barriers to systemic change. Critically reflect on stakeholder perspectives. Apply principles of effective change management in simulations and case studies. Design a plan for a substantive improvement to a real-world organization. 
• EOL 721: Applied Research Capstone I
  Reflect on a relevant problem for which an evidence-based solution may be applied. Review existing data and scholarship describing the parameters of the problem and summarize proposed difficulties and opportunities present in the existing literature on the subject. Prepare a problem statement and research questions that outline the issue to be addressed.  Designate a Capstone Mentor who can assist in executing the proposed project. Construct an Applied Research Capstone Project Proposal that presents a plan for addressing the issue identified in the problem statement, describes a plan for ameliorating the problem, and outlines a plan for collecting data to assess the effects of implementing the plan. 
• EOL 722: Applied Research Capstone II
  Finalize all elements of the Problem Statement and Applied Research Capstone Project Proposal. Explore commonly used research and data analysis methodologies. Select an appropriate methodology and finalize the methods section of the Applied Research Capstone Project. Submit a completed Institutional Review Board application and receive approval to conduct proposed project. 
• EOL 723: Applied Research Capstone III
  Deploy data collected in Applied Capstone II to summarize and assess the applied capstone project questions developed in Applied Capstone I.  Prepare a comprehensive written report of the project including a revised literature review and method section, data analyses, and discussion of the importance of the findings and limitations of the research. Prepare a leadership development reflection. Finalize the Applied Research Capstone project and deliver an oral presentation to colleagues, the course instructor, and Capstone Mentor.