Adventures in Curriculum Design - Master of Leadership & Organization, Development and Coaching

Many of you have been following and participating in the development of our proposed Master of Leadership and Organization, Development and Coaching at the Adler Graduate Professional School. Thanks to great contributions from a variety of collaborators, we anticipate that we are within a couple of months of submitting our application for accreditation to the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities—after that, we await their review, suggested revisions, and final determination.

We have truly benefited from the ideas, insights, and guidance of many people, beginning with our Conversation Cafés last fall, and culminating with curriculum design charrettes at the beginning of this year (check the AGPS label for related postings). Specifically, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Linda Page, Marilyn Laiken, Melinda Sinclair, Peter Chiaramonte, Cinnie Noble, and Venita Indewey for their valuable contributions in helping to create what I think is a truly exceptional degree curriculum.

Now, it’s time (once again) to hear from YOU. I have posted the draft of the Program Content section of our application, and I invite you to take a sneak peak at what we’ve created so far. The complete document is quite long (the government has specific requirements for its layout and contents), but there is no need for you to read it entirely to get an appreciation of what it is we’re planning.

Here’s a quick guide on where to find specific items that you might find interesting:

• Pages 2 through 8 are the derivation and discussion of the program learning outcomes. 
• Page 9 is the quick summary of learning outcomes. 
• Pages 10 through 12 map the learning outcomes to specific courses. 
• Pages 12 through 18 outline the course descriptions by year and trimester, much like one would find in a program calendar. 
• Pages 28 through 57 contain the “good stuff”—course syllabus outlines for all our courses (two pages per course).

The document can be downloaded from here. It will be available for the next two weeks only, that is, ONLY UNTIL FRIDAY, APRIL 20, after which we will be consolidating the comments and completing our application submission.

I invite you to download the document and read through as much or as little as might interest you. Please offer whatever feedback, ideas, inspirations, critiques, concerns, kudos, considerations, plaudits, or brickbats you think might help us bring to life what we intend to be a truly outstanding master’s degree for leaders, organization development practitioners, and coaches who are interested in a research and empirically-oriented education to augment their practice, and transform organizations worldwide for the better.