North Dakota State University’s general education course brings emergency management information to students across the campus, developing a better informed citizenry and workforce.
North Dakota State University offers a general education course on emergency management — will other higher education institutions follow in its path? (Heather Whisenhunt/Shutterstock)
Universities and colleges throughout the U.S. have been adding emergency management degrees to their education offerings for the last decade. But in what could be the next evolution of emergency management-related offerings, at least one school has launched a general education course on the topic, therefore expanding the information to students in a variety of majors and future careers.
North Dakota State University began offering a general education course focused on emergency management during the fall 2012 semester after making a series of changes to an existing class and seeing an opportunity to engage more students on the subject.
The course was originally focused on technical government policy and doctrine and intended to be an introduction for students majoring in emergency management. Called EMGT 201: Introduction to Emergency Management, the thinking was that it would lead students to government emergency management positions, said Jessica Jensen, an assistant professor in the university’sDepartment of Emergency Management. “Over time our thinking about who we were educating and the career fields that they would be going into with our degree evolved and our thinking about the potential of this course also did,” she said.
The initial modification was to change the course level and title to EMGT 101: Emergencies, Disasters and Catastrophes in fall 2008, with the goal of using the class name to open up its coverage to allow a range of topics to be covered while also attracting students in majors outside of emergency management.
“If you change the content so it’s attractive and still important for everybody and begin attracting these other majors, you begin to think about profound future impacts that it could have on the way emergency management is practiced,” said Jensen.
The class remains an introduction for future emergency managers, while also educating students who will become nurses, government officials and construction managers, for example, on topics including preparedness. “You’re introducing them to critical topics that will inform how they prepare and mitigate as individuals within their households,” Jensen said, “but also how they interact with emergency managers in a professional framework.”
EMGT 101 covers three tracks: the history of disasters in the U.S.; the history of emergency management as an emerging profession and a distributed function; and addressing historical events to introduce foundational concepts. As the enrollment increased and more students outside of the emergency management major signed up, the discussion began over developing it into a general education course. Jensen said there was a conversation happening on campus at the time about what is general education and what the university was looking to get out of those courses. The idea came about in spring 2011, the department applied for general education approval in fall that year, with approval being granted in spring 2012. The first emergency management general education course was then offered to students the following fall semester.
“That means a student could take our 101 Emergencies, Disasters and Catastrophes course the same as they could an introduction to sociology or an introduction to anthropology or economics or history,” Jensen said. “It's treated as an equal subject, and it's given an equal credit within this category that has these longstanding, well established disciplines.”
Today the course is offered twice a semester with classes reaching capacity. Jensen said the size of the class is limited by the classroom space available, with more than 100 students registered for the course this semester.
Based on her department’s experience with obtaining general education approval, Jensen offered four pieces of advice for others who are interested in spreading emergency management education to a wider audience:
North Dakota State University began offering a general education course focused on emergency management during the fall 2012 semester after making a series of changes to an existing class and seeing an opportunity to engage more students on the subject.
The course was originally focused on technical government policy and doctrine and intended to be an introduction for students majoring in emergency management. Called EMGT 201: Introduction to Emergency Management, the thinking was that it would lead students to government emergency management positions, said Jessica Jensen, an assistant professor in the university’sDepartment of Emergency Management. “Over time our thinking about who we were educating and the career fields that they would be going into with our degree evolved and our thinking about the potential of this course also did,” she said.
The initial modification was to change the course level and title to EMGT 101: Emergencies, Disasters and Catastrophes in fall 2008, with the goal of using the class name to open up its coverage to allow a range of topics to be covered while also attracting students in majors outside of emergency management.
“If you change the content so it’s attractive and still important for everybody and begin attracting these other majors, you begin to think about profound future impacts that it could have on the way emergency management is practiced,” said Jensen.
The class remains an introduction for future emergency managers, while also educating students who will become nurses, government officials and construction managers, for example, on topics including preparedness. “You’re introducing them to critical topics that will inform how they prepare and mitigate as individuals within their households,” Jensen said, “but also how they interact with emergency managers in a professional framework.”
EMGT 101 covers three tracks: the history of disasters in the U.S.; the history of emergency management as an emerging profession and a distributed function; and addressing historical events to introduce foundational concepts. As the enrollment increased and more students outside of the emergency management major signed up, the discussion began over developing it into a general education course. Jensen said there was a conversation happening on campus at the time about what is general education and what the university was looking to get out of those courses. The idea came about in spring 2011, the department applied for general education approval in fall that year, with approval being granted in spring 2012. The first emergency management general education course was then offered to students the following fall semester.
“That means a student could take our 101 Emergencies, Disasters and Catastrophes course the same as they could an introduction to sociology or an introduction to anthropology or economics or history,” Jensen said. “It's treated as an equal subject, and it's given an equal credit within this category that has these longstanding, well established disciplines.”
Today the course is offered twice a semester with classes reaching capacity. Jensen said the size of the class is limited by the classroom space available, with more than 100 students registered for the course this semester.
Based on her department’s experience with obtaining general education approval, Jensen offered four pieces of advice for others who are interested in spreading emergency management education to a wider audience:
- Understand the layers of approval at your institution for getting a general education course approved. It’s different at every university, so it’s necessary to know the path and key benchmarks. "Emergency management on a lot of our campuses is still relatively new or relatively unknown, and I only mean that relative to something like psychology, which is a staple,” she said. “Approach key committee members and say, ‘How receptive are you to a class like this? How aware of this are you? What do you understand it to be?’ to sort out any existing misperceptions. That's a huge opportunity that can only streamline the process.”
- Understand your institution’s perspective on general education and what those courses are supposed to accomplish for students. Look closely at the requirements for general education designation and what would need to be changed in a current course or develop a new offering with those requirements in mind.
- Be familiar with the timeline. Jensen said the process at North Dakota State University took a year from when the application was submitted through its approval.
- Be prepared for success by knowing your department’s teaching capacity and how that could be adjusted if the course quickly becomes popular.
The course is teaching students to see how emergency management impacts their future career field, as well as how they should work with emergency managers and others in the profession. And it’s also having an impact on students’ personal lives. Jensen said after the flooding in Minot, N.D., in 2011 — one of the state’s largest disasters in recent memory — she received an email from a student who had taken the 101 course and went on to be a nurse. Her family had lost everything and was struggling with the impacts from the flooding and navigating the path to receiving assistance. The email said: “Thank you so much for that class. I now understand what's going on after the disaster happens and what everyone is working on and some of the stuff that's involved and restrictions on aid and how that all works. I was able to share that with my family, and it doesn't change the stress of the situation, but we were able to understand what was going on and why it was happening that way. And I would have never had that if not for your class."
That’s the potential of the course, said Jensen, to create a more engaged and aware citizenry.
That’s the potential of the course, said Jensen, to create a more engaged and aware citizenry.
Elaine Pittman |
Elaine Pittman is the associate editor of Emergency Management magazine. She covers topics including public safety, homeland security and lessons learned. Pittman is also the associate editor for Government Technology magazine. She can be reached viaemail and @elainerpittman on Twitter.
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