Educational Planning Course

This is not as much a decision as it is a requirement if you choose to pursue a more flexible individualized degree – those with an asterisk (*) on the ESU catalog page on Undergraduate Programs

ESU’s policy on Educational Planning courses states that “Individualized degree programs require educational planning course credits. A minimum of 4 credits are required for bachelor’s programs and 2 for associate degree programs, with a minimum of 2 credits required from an educational planning course that results in a rationale essay and completed degree plan.” ^[1]

You and your mentor/advisor will decide when to register for an Educational Planning course. Your mentor/advisor will provide you with course registration information.

Educational planning courses bring you through a structured investigation intended to help you make decisions about your degree.

You make decisions based on general education requirements, knowledge foundations required for your area of study/concentration, and whether you want to include credit for prior learning.

In order to make decisions, educational planning courses may ask you to do such things as:

• examine your goals
• investigate current skills and knowledge required in your professional field
• work on developing your own skill/s
• investigate credit for prior learning and create credit requests
• write an essay offering your explanation or rationale for why you chose certain courses to fulfill certain knowledge foundations

At the end of the educational planning course, you should have a roadmap for the rest of your studies.

After an educational planning course, your degree plan and essay go through academic review, which means that a committee double-checks that your course choices fulfill the knowledge foundations for your chosen area.