Early Childhood Special Education Teaching Endorsement Masters Degree Program
About
Tuition & Fees
Courses
Tech Requirements
Application Process
Contact Us
The Program
The Department of Special Education (SPED) offers a high quality interdisciplinary program in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) that can lead to a teaching endorsement and/or to Masters, Ed.D. or Ph.D. degrees.
The doctoral degrees are not available via distance.
The program prepares early childhood special educators to work with infants,
toddlers and preschool children with a range of delays/disabilities and their
families. The program reflects both the basic principles of The Council for Exceptional Children, Division for Early Childhood Recommended Guidelines for Personnel Preparation (1995), as well as the minimum requirements for teaching endorsements in the areas of Preschool Disabilities and Early Childhood Special Education for the Nebraska Department of Education. This program prepares entry-level educators at a graduate level and provides advanced study for experienced personnel in the field of early intervention.
The program aims to assure that services for young children with delays/disabilities and their families be:
Family-centered
Comprehensive
Interdisciplinary
Community-based/Inclusive
Equitable
Developmentally appropriate
Methods of Delivery:
The core of the Early Childhood Special Education program is offered via distance technology, usually via the Internet through the Blackboard learning management system and Adobe Connect software. Each course requires access to e-mail and high speed Internet connection. Occasionally, phone-based audio or videoconferencing may be required. Videoconferencing equipment, usually located in a local school or learning center may also be used to interact during each 16-week course. Some supporting courses in the program may not be available via distance from UNL. Courses not available via distance can be taken on the UNL campus in Lincoln, from another University of Nebraska campus (Omaha or Kearney), or from another accredited institution.
Prerequisites:
All prerequisite courses are currently available via distance with the exception of 802, which is expected to become available via distance sometime in 2010. For the most updated listing of distance graduate courses, please refer to our catalog.
Teaching certificate* and the following:
SPED 800
Characteristics of Exceptional Children or equivalent
SPED 802
Advanced Assessment Techniques or equivalent
SPED 803
Effective Instruction for Learners with Special Needs or equivalent
SPED 804
Managing Challenging Behavior or equivalent
TLTE 861
Multicultural Education or equivalent
*Persons without a teaching certificate will need an additional 16+ credit hours in College of Education and Human Sciences
Required Courses (All available via distance):
SPED 860
Issues in Early Childhood Special Education (3 cr)
SPED 861
Interventions for Infants with Disabilities (3 cr)
SPED 862
Classroom Programs for Preschool Children with Disabilities (3 cr)
SPED 863
Medically Fragile Infants (3 cr)
SPED 882
Advanced Methods for Students with Retardation or Severe Disabilities (3 cr)
SPED 960
Family-Centered Services for Children with Disabilities (3 cr)
SPED 897Q
Practicum: Preschool and Infants with Disabilities (3-6 cr)
Endorsement in ECSE or Preschool Disabilities (30+ credit hours required):
Additional courses required may include:
Language development
Early childhood education
Reading instruction for students with disabilities
These courses may not currently be available via distance from UNL.
Undergraduate coursework may be applicable for the endorsement. The required UNL courses for the endorsement can be completed in three years on a part-time basis.
Research design
(EDPS800 Foundations of Educational Research is available online at UNL, but requires a prerequisite course of Statistical Methods)
Minor or supportive courses of interest
Not all supportive courses of interest may be available via distance through UNL. Additional coursework required for the endorsement or degree can be transferred to/from cooperating campuses or taken via distance education from other UNL departments.
Tech Requirements
High speed Internet connection is required. Check the Graduate Distance Catalog to learn the specific requirements for your program.
Some distance courses have supplemental materials on videos or CDs and others may require phone conferencing. You will interact with the professor and other students through e-mail, phone conferencing, and Blackboard.
Blackboard™ Requirements and Browser Configurations:
To effectively use Blackboard the Javascript and cookies on your computer must be enabled. Some content for features may require additional software. Pop-up blockers should be disabled for Blackboard (My.UNL). The browsers below are officially supported.
Internet Explorer: 7.0 or higher
Firefox: 2.0 or higher
Safari: 2.0 or higher
Older versions of the above or alternative browsers (such as Mozilla and Opera) may be compatible, but some features might not be available. To download the latest browsers, click the “help” button in Blackboard (My.UNL) and access the Downloads area.
Operating Systems:
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 and up, or Mac OS X, 10.2 and up are strongly recommended. Older operating systems (Microsoft® Windows® 98SE/ME, MacOS 8/9) or alternative platforms (Linux) are compatible, but may not have full functionality. Blackboard (My.UNL) is not currently compatible with handheld devices or Web-enabled phones.
Windows
Macintosh
Minimum System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System:
Windows XP SP 2
(Home or Professional)
Operating System:
OS X (10.2)
Processor:
1 GHz
Processor:
G3 800 MHz
RAM:
256 MB
RAM:
256 MB
Recommended System Requirements
Recommended System Requirements
Operating
System:
Windows XP SP 2
(Home or Pro)
or Windows Vista
Operating
System:
OS X (10.4) or OS X (10.5)
Processor:
2 GHz or higher
Processor:
G4 1.25 GHz or higher
RAM:
768 MB or more
RAM:
768 MB or more
Note: Using Blackboard with AOL: While you can use AOL as your service provider, you cannot use the AOL Web browser to access Blackboard (My.UNL). If you try to use the AOL browser, you will find that it will automatically log you out every few minutes and you will experience problems with some of Blackboard’s services including assessments (tests and quizzes).
If you are an AOL user, once you’ve connected to the Internet, use a different Web browser to access the Internet.
Application Process
Required by Office of Graduate Studies
Online Application for Graduate Admission (If applying for the master’s degree, check the “Degree Objective” box in Part III of the application form. If applying for the teaching endorsement, check the “Non-degree, Post-Baccalaureate” box in Part III.)
If earning initial certificate/endorsement: Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST)
Application Deadline Rolling admissions, contact the department for more information.
For information regarding courses offered and department admission contact:
Department of Special Education & Communication Science
Dr. Chris Marvin
302B Barkley Center
Lincoln NE 68583-0732 Phone: (402) 472-5483 Fax: (402) 472-7697 E-mail:cmarvin1@unl.edu Web: http://www.unl.edu/ECSE
Extended Education & Outreach
900 North 22nd Street
P.O. Box 888805
Lincoln, NE 68588-8805 Phone: (402) 472-2715 Fax: (402) 472-4345 E-mail:unlextended@unl.edu Web:onlinegraduate.unl.edu
