CCL Curriculum
The Program is three years in length including an integrated dissertation process. Students participate in coursework throughout the academic year (which are three semesters in length) as well as two summer sessions. Two courses are completed each semester. The summer coursework takes place after the first year and after the second year. Guided study over the internet supports coursework.
Course Sequencing
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Course Descriptions
(65 credits)
CCL600 Introductory Seminar on the Community College System
The course is designed to introduce the student to and/or provide the opportunity to reflect upon higher education as: the location of your educational experiences; the environment in which you participate in professional practice; an organizational entity; the subject of scholarly research; and an economic, social, cultural, and political institution within American society. The course acquaints graduate students with the study of the community college higher education system as an interdisciplinary field of study that bridges practice, theory, and empirical and other forms of research.
1 semester hour
CCL601 History & Philosophy of Community College Education
This course is designed as an introductory overview of the historical antecedents and development of Community Colleges and an overview and analysis of the philosophical and theoretical foundations.
3 semester hours
CCL603 Globalization and the Community College
In this course, students will examine globalization, its many facets, complexities, paradoxes, and controversies, especially as these affect the mission and work of the community college. The impact of globalization on the current and future lives of community college students—on workplace mobility and the consequent instability of labor markets—will be emphasized. Students will demonstrate their personal understanding of how economic, socio-political and cultural forces of globalization might influence local communities, nation-states, multicultural and transnational societies, agencies, and organizations.
3 semester hours
CCL604 Community Development through Partnerships
Participants will learn to design, monitor, and evaluate participatory community development projects framed within the mission of the community college. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between organizing and capacity building and the sustainable development of communities. Field based projects focus on the development of partnerships among all levels of government and the private sector, including for-profit and non-profit organizations.
3 semester hours
CCL605 Organizational Theory and the Community College
Examines the organization of community colleges and other institutions relative to advances in system theory, with a special emphasis on the role of leaders in these institutions. Emphasis is on integrating theory and concepts from the behavioral and social sciences as a basis for understanding human behavior within organizations. Factors that influence the structure, design, operation, and performance of individuals in complex organizations will be explored. Students will apply varied theoretical frameworks to their own experiences of organization within the community college.
3 semester hours
CCL610 Paradigms of Research: Multiple Ways of Knowing
In this course, students explore multiple theories of knowledge and research and their enactments in diverse community college contexts. Students investigate the nature and language of epistemological claims as they are created and legitimized through scientific, philosophical, historical, cultural, and personal renditions of knowledge. Students examine the implications of specific paradigms of knowledge for critiquing, conceptualizing, conducting, interpreting, and using research in their immediate settings. Critical reflections on the intersections of knowledge, power, identity and context are emphasized throughout the course.
3 semester hours
CCL615 Research: Dissertation Concept Paper
An intensive immersion workshop in which students review the research elements of the dissertation process and develop concept paper describing the project, its guiding questions, directions for the development of a literature review, and the significance of the project for practice. This concept will be a working draft of their dissertation proposal to be completed in subsequent semesters.
6 semester hours
CCL620 Research: Literature Review
This course is designed as an introduction to the “art and science” of designing and conducting a literature review related to the student’s specific dissertation. Students will be introduced to various organizational schemas to assist in the identification and organization of pertinent sources.
3 semester hours
CCL691 Dissertation: Literature Review Seminar
This course provides a setting in which to build upon constructs students learn in the Research: Literature Review course. The purpose of this course is to provide a structured opportunity for students to prepare a detailed dissertation literature review chapter specific to their research topic. The student develops a systematic understanding of the process through consistent guiding collaboration of their dissertation Chair.
2 semester hours
CCL621 Adult Development and Learning for the Community College
Reviews current theory and advanced research on adult development and learning and critically examines claims for distinctive forms of adult cognition. Analyzes cultural and social influences on adult learning and the place of adult learning in the lifespan. Examines the special learning needs of persons with disabilities and Universal Design, which addresses the needs of all learners with equity.
3 semester hours
CCL622 Human Resource Development for the Community College
This course provides a comprehensive overview of human resource development from its historical evolution to current methods, trends, and issues. A number of HRD functions—including training, staff development, personnel management, and the development of the college and its programs and services—will be explored. Participants will examine both the theory and practice of designing, implementing, evaluating, and managing effective HR divisions within an organization, as well as the ways HR relates to other departments within the college.
3 semester hours
CCL623 Politics, Policy, and Law: Community College Issues
In this course, students will examine Illinois community colleges in relation to the Community College Act, as well as general community college issues in relation to current legal, political, and economic factors that affect the American community college. Students will critically examine the basic assumptions and social forces that influence current educational policy making efforts with an emphasis on their legal, economic, and political underpinnings.
3 semester hours
CCL625 Research: Methodology
This course reviews and critiques different systems of inquiry, methods and techniques available for educational researchers and practitioners, especially for those involved in the community college leadership. The argumentative discourse of “quality” and “quantity” opens space for debate and connects a variety of research designs and approaches. Students have opportunities to select appropriate research methodologies for their projects and to prepare preliminary drafts of the research methodology section of their dissertation.
3 semester hours
CCL692 Dissertation: Methodology Seminar
This course provides a setting in which to build upon constructs students learn in the Research Methodologies course. The purpose of this course is to provide a structured opportunity for students to prepare a detailed methodology chapter specific to their research topic. The student develops a systematic understanding of the process through consistent guiding collaboration of their dissertation Chair.
2 semester hours
CCL626 Community College Leadership and Governance
The course is designed to actively investigate the roles of leaders and leadership within the contemporary community college setting. Attention will be given to concepts and practices endemic to administration, models for governance, administrative structure and operations, decision-making and leadership. This course is intended to provide the student with theoretical and practical background on issues related to community college leadership, institutional effectiveness, and quality management.
3 semester hours
CCL629 Community College Strategic Planning and Finance
This course focuses on the theory and practice of strategic planning in community colleges. It is designed to provide non-financial community college leaders with a working knowledge of fiscal resource management and oversight. Students are exposed to tools for strategic planning including its phases of pre-planning, implementation, and evaluation as well as the art of building budgets, from the fundamentals of budget building to how and in what ways budgets are influenced, finalized, and monitored. The course will emphasize a "big picture" systems perspective to understand the integration of finances, budgeting and strategic planning for community colleges.
3 semester hours
CCL630 Research: Advanced Data Collection and Analysis
Reviews data collected in relation to a dissertation in progress and provides a forum for critique of preliminary analysis and further refinement of collection and analysis procedures.
3 semester hours
CCL693 Dissertation: Data Collection & Analysis Seminar
This course provides a setting in which to build upon constructs students learn in the Research: Advanced Data Collection and Analysis course.The purpose of this course is to provide a structured opportunity for students to prepare a detailed well written dissertation data collection and analysis chapter(s) specific to their research topic. The student develops a systematic understanding of the process through consistent guiding collaboration of their dissertation Chair.
2 semester hours
CCL631 Accountability, Evaluation, and Outcome Assessment
This course provides an overview of the need to demonstrate the administrative and academic effectiveness of community colleges and their programs. Various tools, techniques, and approaches for assessment and evaluation are examined for the distinctive areas within the institution: student outcomes, program and departmental evaluations, program certification and institutional assessment and accreditation. Students explore formal systematic and structured assessments and evaluations used to obtain performance information and data to measure the activities, characteristics, effectiveness, and efficiency of programs, departments and the institution as a whole.
3 semester hours
CCL632 Student Affairs and Services in the Community College
The course provides an overview to the student affairs and student services in the community college by examining the history, purposes, organization of the department. Student affairs functions are explored with special emphasis on admissions and registration, financial aid, records, counseling and advising, and the student activity programs. Enrollment management issues and concerns are examined along with data collection and reporting requirements for college admission, retention, progression, and promotion processes.
3 semester hours
CCL633 Technology in the Community College
Explores current technologies serving both programs and infrastructure—PeopleSoft and Banner, interactive video, online courseware, multimedia, and computerized instruction—in the context of best practices in Community Colleges. This course, grounded in each college’s Facility Master Plan, will evaluate the uses of technology as well as its costs and how these costs are realized within the college’s budget.
3 semester hours
CCL699 Research: Dissertation Clinic
Reviews and strengthens students’ work by assessing research in progress, including methodology, literature review, data collection and analysis, and conclusions.
4 semester hours
