Computing for Educators

The graduate certificate in Computing for Educators is for those desiring to teach computational thinking, computer coding, and computer science skills problem-solving courses primarily in grades 9-12. The 15-credit certificate is available completely online and on-campus. Most courses are taught with simultaneous on campus and online sections. The online section is typically asynchronous but distance students may attend live online at their choosing.

The certificate, designed to educate teachers with little to no or moderate current computer science and programming skills, prepares students with foundational coding and database knowledge enabling them to teach dedicated computer coding and computer science problem-solving courses.

Graduate students completing the certificate acquire the requisite knowledge and skills preparing them to teach both of the Computer Science Advanced Placement (AP) courses recommended to be taught in high schools.

While this graduate certificate program has been designed specifically for teachers and other educators, the individual courses within it are germane for students across many disciplines. The courses strive to serve the substantive content computing needs of graduate students in many domains.

Program Requirements

The Graduate Certificate in Computing for Educators (CfE) consists of 15 credits, all earned in course work. If some required courses are duplicative of courses that may have been taken in the student’s undergraduate or another graduate program, those courses need not be repeated. The student and Graduate Coordinator would then select replacement courses for approval.

Required Courses

The fifteen credits of coursework must include:

• the following three core courses:

SIE 504 The Beauty and Joy of Computing

SIE 507 Information Systems Programming

SIE 508 Object Oriented Programming

• one course from among the following courses:

SIE 509 Principles of Geographic Information Systems

SIE 516 Interactive Technologies for Solving Real-World Problems

SIE 557 Database Applications

SIE 558 Real Time Sensor Databases

COS 465/565 Data Visualization

COS 470/570 Topics in Artificial Intelligence

• one course from among the following pre-approved electives:

Any previously listed course above not yet taken

SIE 550 Design of Information Systems

SIE 505 Formal Foundations for Information Science

SIE 510 Geographic Information Systems Applications

SIE 512 Spatial Analysis

SIE 515 Human Computer Interaction

SIE 517 Spatial Interaction Design

Any other 500 level SIE course

EDT 520 Digital Age Teaching and Learning Methods

EDT 571 Methods of Integrating Inclusive Computational Thinking

Any other 500 level COS course

Only courses in which the student obtains a grade of B or higher count toward the completion of the Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate.

Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate Admission

Students to be admitted into the Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate must hold an undergraduate degree and have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher. Candidates must submit a transcript of their undergraduate degree, an essay, and a current resume that includes contact information for three references. Admissions are rolling.

Students may apply to transfer up to 3 credits of graduate course work (that has not counted toward another degree) into the Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate. While a course may be waived to avoid substantial repetition of course material, the total of 15 credits in course work must still be acquired. The Graduate Coordinator must approve transfer credits after assessing whether they are appropriate and will as well assess proposed waivers and substitution courses on the program of study. No more than one 400 level course, if any, may be approved for inclusion on the Program of Study. Apply at Apply Now.

 

Continuation of Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate to M.S. in Information Systems or Alternative M.S.

Before or upon completion of the Computing for Educators Graduate Certificate, students may apply for and continue through the complete MS Information Systems (MSIS) degree. Students may have accepted into the MS only those courses in which they received a grade of B or higher. If aspiring to both credentials, it is typically less work to apply for both graduate programs at the same time when initially applying to grad school although the two also may be pursued consecutively. Alternatively, the successful candidate might apply the graduate certificate credits in pursuit of a MS Data Science and Engineering, MS Spatial Informatics, or MS Spatial Information Science and Engineering [Project Option] degree.

Additional Information

Graduate Certificate in Computing for Educators SCIS Website

Curriculum for MS Information Systems, MS Spatial Informatics [Online Only], and MS Spatial Information Science and Engineering [Project Option]

Course Descriptions: See SIE course descriptions

Program of Study Forms: Find at Forms and Documents

 

Spatial Computing and Information Systems Graduate Faculty

M. Kate Beard-Tisdale, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1988), Professor. Geographic information systems, map generalization, data quality and its visualization, geographic information retrieval, spatio-temporal phenomena and information integration.

Max J. Egenhofer, Ph.D. (Maine, 1989), Professor. Qualitative reasoning, spatio-temporal reasoning, user interfaces for geographic information systems, design of spatial database systems, and mobile spatial information appliances.

Nicholas A. Giudice, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 2004), Professor and Director of the VEMI Lab. Human computer interaction in real and virtual reality environments, indoor navigation, multimodal spatial cognition, information-access technology and human-vehicle collaboration for autonomous vehicles.

Torsten  Hahmann, Ph.D. (Toronto, 2013), Associate Professor. Ontologies, especially spatial ontologies with application to earth and geoscience applications, ontology engineering, knowledge representation, automated reasoning, information extraction, artificial intelligence, and logic.

Silvia Nittel, Ph.D. (Zurich, 1994), Associate Professor and Director of Geosensor Networks Lab. Stationary and mobile sensor networks, decentralized in-network data collection algorithms for geosensor networks, management of distributed sensor data streams in real-time.

Harlan J. Onsrud, J.D. (Wisconsin, 1982), Professor and Graduate Coordinator. Legal, ethical, and institutional issues affecting creation and use of databases, ethics driven information systems design, assessment of social and societal impacts of spatial technologies.

Nimesha Ranasinghe, Ph.D. (Singapore, 2013), Assistant Professor. Research interests include multi-sensory interactive media, augmented reality, and human-computer interaction.