Review: Grad Cert Econ Educ: U.Colorado Colorado Springs

[eriehiker]

One of my major objectives during the past year has been to complete a graduate certificate in economic education from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Economic Literacy Colorado.  The program was created for Colorado teachers and requires 12 graduate credit hours from UCCS.  There are two required courses.  I am pretty sure that both of the required classes can be completed online.  That said, there is an in-person Economics for Leaders program that I completed as an alternative last summer.  That program was essentially free for teachers because of a stipend.

Here is the page for the program:

https://econlitco.org/certificate-program/

The program also requires elective courses up to the 12 credit total.  I completed these through courses offered by Economic Literacy Colorado and the Foundation for Teaching Economics.  Both are fantastic organizations with great programs and classes.  Here are the links:

https://econlitco.org/all-programs/

https://www.fte.org/teachers/

Many of the Economic Literacy Colorado programs are one-day programs in Denver, Colorado.  These are cheap, but are in-person.  I attended one taught by an economics professor from the Air Force Academy.  The weeklong FTE program that I attended was taught by an economics professor from Clemson University.  The fantastic part of this is that the credits are transcripted with the ECON prefix by UCCS.  I am currently at 16 graduate credit hours in economics and aim to reach 18 or more by this summer.  It is a great way to gain qualification to teach economics at the community college level.

Just a caveat: The program was created for Colorado teachers and with the intention that credits would be earned through Economic Literacy Colorado.  My path worked because UCCS transcripts for both programs and ELC waived the Colorado certificate requirement for me.  Everybody was really great, but I was a bit of an odd duck.

Here is a picture of my transcript with the credits and certificate:

https://www.snapfish.com/photo-gift/shar...0/SNAPFISH

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The online courses were composed of weekly modules with readings, online discussions and an overall pre-test/post-test. There was normally a comprehensive project. These were legitimate classes, but I really enjoyed them and learned a lot.

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UCCS charges a bit over $100 per graduate credit hour in this program, but, again, some of the programs are stipended.

[Yenisei]

Very interesting, eriehiker, especially to those of us with a bachelor's degree in economics! Thanks...

[videogamesrock]

I signed up for this for the June semester. How difficult is the work?

[eriehiker]

I wrote two or three pages per week. It was a couple of hours each week, maybe. There is some reading, but I tried not to read if I could help it. You don't need to read too closely. You are smart, you should probably not have too much trouble.

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There is also a discussion component. You need to write a response and then respond to two other participants. Most of the time there is a pre and post test, but nothing to go crazy about. There is usually a project, but not too intense. Grading for all of it is lenient.

[Life Long Learning]

Nice find!

[videogamesrock]

I wrote two or three pages per week. It was a couple of hours each week, maybe. There is some reading, but I tried not to read if I could help it. You don't need to read too closely. You are smart, you should probably not have too much trouble.

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There is also a discussion component. You need to write a response and then respond to two other participants. Most of the time there is a pre and post test, but nothing to go crazy about. There is usually a project, but not too intense. Grading for all of it is lenient.

Great thanks. Looking forward to knocking out 2/10 this summer.