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Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Dr. Ioannis (Yannis) Bellos

Dr. Ioannis (Yannis) Bellos is an Associate Professor in the Information Systems and Operations Management area at the School of Business, George Mason University. His research interests are found at the intersection of sustainable and service operations with an emphasis on innovative business models. His primary focus has been on service-based business models shaping what is known as the sharing and access economy. The novelty of these business models lies in the fact that customer value is linked primarily to the product “use” rather than the product. He also studies the emerging practice of service design as a managerial discipline. Prof.Bellos’ work has appeared in book chapters and leading journals, including Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Production and Operations Management. Read his full biography here.

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MS in Data Analytics Engineering

Bernard Schmidt

Bernard Schmidt is an Instructor at George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Engineering, MS Data Analytics Engineering Program. He is also the Assistant Director of the MS Data Analytics Engineering Program. He joined Mason’s VSE Faculty in the Fall of 2020 from Northern Virginia Community College where he served as a professor of Information Technology as well as an Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Computer Science at the NVCC Manassas campus.

Schmidt was involved with computing and the computing industry for over 35 years prior to joining academia. His early career involved computer operations and programming of IBM mainframes, which then led to researching computer image processing algorithms for multi-sensor aided target recognition at the Army’s Night Vision Lab. He has subsequently held progressive technology and management positions at a variety of organizations in Northern Virginia including Oracle Complex Systems, Cordant, IBM, ORBCOMM, Sprint, Battelle, and Prison Fellowship Ministries. Read his full biography here.

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MS Applied Information Technology

Dr. Ioulia Rytikova

Dr. Ioulia Rytikova is an Associate Professor and an Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology. She received a B.S./M.S. degree in Automated Control Systems Engineering and Information Processing and her Ph.D. in Automated Control Systems from National University of Science and Technology. Dr. Rytikova designed and developed multiple interdisciplinary programs, concentrations, and courses in the emerging areas of data sciences and big data analytics, computer and information technologies, health information technologies, and statistical analysis. Read her full biography here.

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Masters in Economics

Christopher Coyne

Christopher Coyne is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. He is the Co-Editor of The Review of Austrian Economics, The Independent Review, and Advances in Austrian Economics. He also serves as the Book Review Editor for Public Choice. In 2008, Coyne was named the Hayek Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and in 2010 he was a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy & Policy Center at Bowling Green State University. Read his full biography here.

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MS in Health Informatics and Graduate Certificate

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Dr. Wojtusiak, Professor of Health Informatics and Director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, has expertise that spans machine learning, health informatics, artificial intelligence in clinical decision support and knowledge discovery in medical data, and a wide range of applications of these fields in health care. His particular area of interest is in developing algorithms that derive simple, transparent and usable models from complex health data to predict patient and population outcomes. He studies how to create and evaluate reproducible, unbiased and trustworthy algorithms and models.

Dr. Wojtusiak serves as the Division Director for Health Informatics in the Department of Health Administration and Policy. He oversees undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs in health informatics. Dr. Wojtusiak teaches several courses focused on machine learning, data mining, artificial intelligence and computing applied in medicine, healthcare and individual/population health.

He authored or co-authored over 100 research publications and presentations and continues to collaborate with multiple national and international institutions. Read his full biography here.

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MS in Learning Design and Technology

Dr. Douglas Wilson

Dr. Douglas Wilson is Assistant Professor of Learning, Design, and Technology in the College of Education and Human Development. His primary focus areas are online teaching and instructional design. Dr. Wilson joined George Mason University in 2021 after serving online as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Learning Technologies at Texas A&M University-Commerce; there, his teaching portfolio included a diverse set of online courses in the areas of instructional design and educational technology. Dr. Wilson has also contributed instructional design expertise to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Dallas College and to the Center for Teaching Excellence at Southern Methodist University. Prior to moving into instructional design, Dr. Wilson served more than a decade in various faculty leadership roles. In addition to his PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology, Dr. Wilson holds an MS in Journalism from Columbia University in the City of New York. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Wilson worked as a television news reporter in major markets including Dallas, Baltimore, Tulsa, and Washington, D.C. Read his full biography here.

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Master of Science in Nursing: Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)

Shanti Chang, DNP, FNP-BC

Dr. Shanti Chang is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, and the Family Nurse Practitioner and Adult-Gerontology DNP Program Director. Chang’s interests are pediatrics and underserved populations. Chang is responsible for developing a free vaccine program at the Fairfax County Public School Mason and Partners (MAP) Clinic that provided 1,000 immunizations to uninsured children registering during its first year. Now, she continues to support multiple immunization clinics and is the Prince William CSB and Homeless Shelter- MAP Clinic telehealth provider. Before coming to Mason, Chang worked full-time in pediatric private practice. Read her full biography here.

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Master of Public Health

Dr. MB (Marybeth) Mitcham

Dr. MB (Marybeth) Mitcham is an assistant professor and the director of the online MPH program in the Department of Global and Community Health. Mitcham’s research interests include the effect of intergenerational learning opportunities on healthy behavior patterns, rural gender identity, the intersection of plant-rich diets and rural populations, and effective public health education methods. Her work focuses on translating research into practice by promoting kinesthetic learning opportunities designed to reduce the barriers to achieving good health. Before coming to Mason, Mitcham worked as a nutrition and healthy living resource educator for Cornell University Cooperative Extension.

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Master of Social Work

Dr. Daphne King

Dr. Daphne King is the MSW Online Program Director in the College of Public Health. King’s research interests are self-esteem issues in teens and adolescents, mental health concerns and treatment modalities for women of color, specifically African-American women, and the impact engagement in Christianity or spiritual practices have on self-esteem. King is an expert in treating teens and adolescents with self-esteem issues and depression and has facilitated numerous clinical and psychoeducational groups on self-esteem issues for teens. Before coming to Mason, King was an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University and a school social worker with Loudoun County Public Schools. Read her full biography here.

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Master of Education in Special Education and Graduate Certificates

Dr. Jodi M. Duke

Dr. Duke is an Associate Professor in the Division of Special Education and Disability Research. She is also the Academic Program Coordinator of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Graduate Program.

Dr. Duke received a B.S. in Elementary Education from University of Michigan, a M.S. in Special Education from Johns Hopkins University, and an Ed.D. in Special Education from Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on postsecondary transition and college supports for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other disabilities. Read her full biography here.

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MHA Health Systems Management

Dr. Brenda Helen Sheingold

Dr. Brenda Helen Sheingold is the Director for the Master of Healthcare Administration at the Department of Health Administration and Policy. She was awarded a dual-titled PhD from George Mason University in Public Policy and Nursing, a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Leadership and Change Management. Her research to identify and measure social capital in the healthcare workforce has been replicated by scholars globally and recognized by the Royal College of Nursing. She was founding faculty for George Washington University’s School of Nursing where she served as the Director of the Healthcare Quality Master’s and Doctoral programs. Read her full biography here.

Watch the Virtual Q&A with Maria Uriyo, Assistant Professor and MHA Online Coordinator.

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MS Computer Science

Dr. Robert Pettit

Dr. Robert Pettit is the Program Director and Professor of Practice for the online Master of Science in Computer Science. Additionally, he serves as the Director of New Graduate Programs, where he is responsible for coordinating efforts associated with the new online offerings as well as the advancement of our Bachelor’s-Accelerated-Master’s (BAM) program and retention across the M.S. CS and SWE programs. Pettit’s research and practical interests include real-time embedded software; software modeling and design; model-based engineering; software performance analysis; and mission assurance for critical software systems. Read his full biography here.

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SUSAN NAGER: Welcome. Thank you for joining us. My name is Susan. I’m an admissions rep on behalf of George Mason. And I’m joined with the MBA program director, Dr. Bellows, and thanks for joining us.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: Thank you, Susan. Hi. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining this, this information, this information session. My name is Janice bellows, I’m an associate professor of information systems and operations management at the School of Business here at George Mason University. I am also the MBA program director. As Susan mentioned, I joined George Mason in 2012. And since then, one of my favorite parts of my job has been teaching, connecting and learning from MBA students. In my capacity as MBA faculty, I have designed and taught courses in a variety of modalities and formats, whether face to face hybrid online, and so on. So I do look forward to sharing my perspective with you and answering any questions you have this evening. So let’s move to the next slide. And let’s start talking about the MBA program. Our MBA comprises 48 credits, that is 1010 core courses, five elective courses and one global requirement, which you can meet by choosing between an international residency which involves travel, traveling and or a traditional course with an international emphasis. Students can take courses in person or asynchronously online, it’s in person course takes place once per week in our Fairfax or Arlington campuses during the evening from 720 to 10. But regardless of whether you’re taking a course in person or online, each course takes place over eight weeks. You have the flexibility to do the program fully in person fully online or mixed modalities. You can start in fall, spring or summer, and you set your own your own pace. Specifically, you can complete the program in 16, one six to 33 months, during or even before deciding to join the MBA program. You can also choose to pursue a Certificate in Business Analytics. We will elaborate on all of these in the following slides. I should not forget to brag about to brag about a couple of things here. First of all, our online and in person MBA programs are in the top 100 programs, most recently the 2023 US News World. US News and World Report ranked us number 65 In the best part time MBA category nationally, and number 40 among public institutions. Our online program has been ranked number 51 among public, public universities, and number three in the DC metro area. Most notably, our students enjoy a two to one return on investment on the admissions side. Our MBA program is test optional. However, if you like to submit a test score with your application application, we invite you to do so the next slide captures a snapshot of our MBA student population. The average age of our students is 333 years old with an average work experience of nine years. The split between male versus female students is around 5248. And over the years we have seen these getting closer and closer to 5050. We have a diverse student body this diversity is reflected in the different countries of origin of our students the race that in their undergraduate majors. For instance, our students have majored in fields such as theater, low English fashion engineering, economics estimation, if you will the only point I want to emphasize here this is to emphasize that you do not need prior to training in business to do an MBA. The next slide captures a snapshot of our career outcomes. The top three industries or our graduates find themselves in our government and government contracting, consulting and financial services. They impressive ROI that I mentioned earlier is in part driven by the fact that upon graduation our students report an average salary of one 101 or 4k, and 94% employment rate, with the overwhelming majority of the of them employed in a role related to their career goals. Of course, it’s not uncommon for our students to receive promotions and new job offers while you’re going through the program. On this slide, you can also see a list of companies where our program has a large alumni footprint. Something however, that is not mentioned on this slide is that we just survey are first year students, and 90% of them indicated that they are already confident that MBA degree will pay off. The next slide provides a high level overview of the different paces of the different available paces that you can pursue. Taking two courses per each eight week module will allow you to graduate in 16, one six months. This is ideal for students who want to maximize their GI Bill benefits or those who are simply interested in finishing finishing the program as quickly as possible. Taking one or two courses per each eight week module will bring you will bring your graduation timeline between 22 and 24 months, which may be the preferred pace for those who want to ease into the program offerings and are going to have greater flexibility throughout. If you have a very demanding or unpredictable schedule, taking one course per module may be better. And we bring your your timeline between 30 to 32 to 48 months. In the next slide, you can see some of the places that our MBA students have visited through global residency. Last summer, some of our students travel. Last summer our students traveled to Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, and South Africa. I was actually part of the group that visited Denmark and Sweden you can see me on the very back of of this photo on the bottom on the bottom left. This summer. Our destinations are Japan, Greece, South Africa, and Dubai. During during Global residency, our students spent a week abroad and as you can tell from the photos, they spent that week visiting and starting companies as well as participating in cultural activities. The feedback that we consistently received from our students is global residency three, it is one of the most memorable and defining experiences of the program. Not only you’re able to visit a different country and understand its culture and business environment, but through this experience, you are able to fortify your connections with your peers and further expand your network. However, I should I should also note that as I mentioned earlier, if you’re an old a if you’re not able to travel if you if you cannot travel, you can still take a more traditional course with international focus. Let’s move on to the next slide. There you can see a list of courses a sample of our courses. Overall, our program will equip you with a holistic understanding of business and give you the opportunity to improve both your analytical and leadership skills. We do that through our core and elective courses. Again, here you can on this slide, you can see a sample of these courses. As you can as you can notice, all academic in all academic discipline disciplines and business functions represented in our curriculum. In addition, if you’re interested, you can take up to six credit hours outside the MBA program. In the next slide on of our offerings that I would like to draw your attention to is our Certificate in Business Analytics. This is a 12 credits certificate that requires four courses. Data mining for Business Analytics is the core the core requirement and three more electives. And three more elective courses for all that you can you can choose from the lease on on the right, as will emphasize that students can pursue this certificate as part of the MBA program or as a standalone option without even having been admitted to the program. They can use this certificate as a pathway to the MBA program or not. That is if you join the MBA program, you can use the certificate credits towards the 48 credits that I mentioned earlier. In the overall in terms of course expectations, you should expect to learn a lot and also have fun. Now, no two courses are the same. Our instructors bring their own unique approaches and teaching philosophies. But overall, our courses are interactive. And the instructors facilitate active learning, which can take the form of case discussions, debates, hands on activity, simulations, and so on. All our in person. Classes are evening classes taking place from 720 to 10pm. And our all our online courses are asynchronous. Now, asynchronous does not mean that you teach yourself. Our instructors have created pre recorded content and also offers students the opportunity to connect with them through optional live sessions. For each week’s topic, you will have an individual or group deliverable to work on. And in terms of workload. The expected time per week is six to eight hours per course. But that also varies based based on your education and professional background. Overall, you will learn not only from your instructors but also from your peers. 85% of our first year students recently indicated that they have already been able to use the knowledge and skills they gained from their MBA courses in their careers. The next video offers you a preview of our online courses and how we deliver content to our students.

VIDEO VOICEOVER: Welcome to the George Mason University Online MBA program. You’ve taken the first steps in beginning your graduate degree. And we’re excited to support you through this journey. Like many students, you might have some questions about what it’s like to take classes online. So we’ve put together this video to show you what it’s like to be an online student. Let’s start with a quick tour of Blackboard. All of your important information can be found by using the navigation on the left hand side of your screen. Here you’ll find a link to Course Announcements, your course syllabus assignments in the library. at George Mason, we believe strongly in providing you with opportunities to test your knowledge and receive feedback in real time. The only difference is that we’ll also add today’s costs. Faculty have curated and created custom videos and tutorials to provide you the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the content and build a broad network of peers who will enhance your perspectives and challenge your thinking through rich discussions and a variety of group work. Remember, your student success coach will be here to support you every step of the way. Because at George Mason University student success is our number one goal.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: Now I would like to wrap up by talking about the biggest asset of our program, and that is our students. As I mentioned earlier, our students diverse academic and work experience backgrounds. No matter what your background, the NBA team, faculty and staff are here to work with you. And keep in mind that in my experience commitment is the greatest predictor of student success. Speaking of student success earlier I also mentioned that it is not uncommon for our students to receive promotions or new job offers while going through the program. The next video spotlights on one of our more one of our reasons your then success stories, but you can find more stories of these on our website. And I believe Suzanne can put in the chat box a recent after after we go to the next video we Suzanne can put in the chat box the link to one of our articles that highlights more success stories. Yep,

SUSAN NAGER: it’s posted right there. And let’s listen to the one that we have on hand.

SAMANTHA CREUTZINGER: My name is Samantha Creutzinger. I am a graduate of George Mason with my MBA I grew up in a very poor background. I just knew that if I stayed where I was in Tennessee, I wasn’t going to grow any further. So I had to figure out how to make like better, I moved up to the Washington DC area and met people who held jobs like I have now, I’ve networked around. And so why can’t I do that. And then I realized the only differences, I’m not making it happen. I knew the only way to get there was through going to college. The MBA program I was in was a cohort, I was with most of these people. The whole time in my MBA, we all worked really well together and helped each other out. coming from my background, I tried to bring a different perspective into leadership. And I’ve been fortunate that my companies that I’ve worked for, have recognized the drive that I have, and the desire, I want to be good at what I do, and they promoted me along the way. And, and I’ve made it to the director level, I was giving someone advice, don’t kid yourself. If you want it, then you’re gonna go for it, and you’re gonna get it. But motivation isn’t really what you need. It’s discipline. When you look back on it, and you think, man, how did I do that? No one ever says, I’m sad that I got an MBA everyone says that they’re proud of themselves. It’s worth it in the long run.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: So I still emphasize that box Amantha and Bailey, they did an MBA only online.

SUSAN NAGER: Yeah. And so I posted Bally’s. And I encourage y’all to take a look at it. It’s fantastic. So now we’re talking about the application process. But before we do, Dr. Bellows, what makes so I love the fact that students can be from a diverse background. One of the majors on there was theater. So I mean, that’s very strong in the arts. So are there any particular prerequisite courses that are needed for this program?

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: There is no prereq courses, per se, we do. We do ask students, I mean to have like, as this slide mentioned, here, now I say yes, to provide evidence on successful prior completion of calculus algebra, or a stats class. This is recommended prior to enrolling in the MBA program. But we do we are fully aware of the fact that and we do want to accommodate and support in diversity of backgrounds. So even if you know quant, or algebra or math was not, you know, your favorite subject topic at college, we have curated a list of resources, that after you’re admitted to the program, you can go, you can go through, and we help you hit the ground running. Again, the only recommendation that we make to our students is that to have completed a calculus algebra or statistics class, that’s a compare that’s recommended prior to enrolling in the MBA program. But we’re here to fully support them. Wonderful.

SUSAN NAGER: Now, Alfredo is asking do you have to be far in the degree to be able to take the global residency so when does that occur in the program, but

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: awfully roughly you will need to be done with your core courses. And that’s, that’s intentional in the sense that we want you to have been exposed to all the core coursework that 10 different courses, right. But roughly depending on when you enter, maybe you may have to be exposed only to nine courses. But ideally, we want you to have been exposed to all the core different disciplines and business functions. So when you travel, and when you visit the companies and interact with them, you’re able to put everything together. So you’re able to integrate, integrate all the different knowledge from the different business functions. Fantastic. So that’s roughly, you have to roughly be done with nine to 10 courses.

SUSAN NAGER: Okay. Now, I love the flexibility of this program. It can’t be more flexible. So 16 months is the quickest that you can finish it. The traditional route is 33 months. And then if need be, we give you up to six years to complete this degree. And the fact that you have the online option if you want to take some campus courses and have a hybrid option or do it on campus you can so that’s fantastic. Is there Any tutoring available.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: So, the tutoring varies depending so if you take if you take the NBA 633, which is our statistics course, if you take that in person you do have access to in person tutor. If you do not take if you do not take that in person, there are so many interactive tutorials that the instructor have put together and they make themselves available once and twice per week for live sessions that, that, that you can choose, it’s those are optional to join if you’re not if you want, okay, but now that the program is fully asynchronous, and it can be completed without, we do not require you to participate in any live sessions unless you want to do so. Perfect. You call the instructor most of your instructors do have standing Office Hours live live via zoom, or other or similar or Microsoft Teams, that it’s up to you whether it’s up to the students. That’s

SUSAN NAGER: wonderful. And in terms of class size, what is it typically range for the online?

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: It varies? Our electives can be from 10 to 20. Our core courses, it can go from 25 up to 45. Maybe 50 Depending on the intake.

SUSAN NAGER: Yeah. Okay. And so you mentioned that you can take six credits outside the MBA program. Does that mean like in lieu of some

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: you do not. So we have let’s say we have 10 core courses, one global requirement and five electives. You can do three MBA electives and two electives outside of the MBA program.

SUSAN NAGER: It doesn’t have to be like in finance or accounting, I mean, could it be in all I mean, I’m just throwing

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: it can be we have I mean, I it can be in public policy, let’s say for it can be from a different unit automation or it can be in, in other units. I mean, this is subject to my approval as director approval. But he said if I if I see that the elective that the student wants fit within their aspirations or profile, it has an element of you know, managerial responsibilities or provide some basic, some elements of managerial training, I approve that and then we coordinate with the other program the other unit, so our students can take it. We have got students who recently I approved a couple of requests for students of ours to take courses graduate graduate level electives in public policy.

SUSAN NAGER: Fantastic. That’s amazing. And the program accepts six transfer credits as long as it’s from an accredited ace CCSP.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: probably wrong. I don’t have the exact number. I don’t remember the exact time but we approved more than that.

SUSAN NAGER: Oh, wonderful. Okay, good to know, good to know. Yeah,

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: we are approved more than that. So, in this is something that that we will have to exchange information, we will we will ask the students to provide us more additional information on past syllabi and so on so forth. But we do approve a considerable number of credits from other programs, past institutions, other institutions and so on so forth. Okay.

SUSAN NAGER: Yeah. So with respect to so you either go a week abroad, or you do the global

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: right, it’s the week abroad is part of it, it is part of the course it is part of a course. So if you if you decide if you decide that okay, I do want to travel, then what’s going to happen is still the course will take place over eight weeks. You’re gonna spend the first you know, few weeks in the classroom or online. You know, getting prepared about the trip, learning about the country stuff. It is studying relevant case studies, then you travel abroad, you spend one week in the country. And then when you come back, you do have one or two sessions to do to do the debrief, talk, some group project presentations and so on, so forth. Now, if you do not if you if you do not want or you cannot travel, many times our students, sometimes our students cannot travel because of you know, work family responsibilities, then you can still take a more traditional course, a course, an eight week course, still an eight week course, but with no travel component. And you you can choose among some options, there are some options that are courses with international emphasis, like international marketing, international strategy or international finance. So, now, there is a focus on international and global elements aspects, but there is no travel required.

SUSAN NAGER: Fantastic. Now, are both choices, are they synchronous? Meaning you have to if you’re doing it online, you have to log on at a certain time.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: So, for the for the courses that do not require travel, those are asynchronous, asynchronous courses, but the courses that do require travel for if you choose to participate in the global residency that that’s going to be synchronous.

SUSAN NAGER: The entire eight weeks, yes. Okay. Meaning you just have to log in at a certain time, you don’t have to show up to campus. That

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: is correct. That’s going to be like this. All right, we are going via zoom or themes.

SUSAN NAGER: Perfect, perfect. And I want to stress to y’all that once accepted into the program, in addition to your faculty, you’ll have a student success coach, okay, who you’ll work very closely with and communicate with to set up an individualized course plan. So that’s wonderful.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: And every time that you need to make any change that your student success coach will be there wanting your students success goals, typically is one text away. You text, you coordinate a call and you adjust your plan accordingly. Absolutely.

SUSAN NAGER: So don’t be shy. Do y’all have any questions? We have Dr. Bella’s, here to answer all your questions about the program.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: Wonderful question that I usually get is what if we choose to do the program full completely online? Well, that’s on our degree will that sound the diploma? No, there is no distinction between, you will still get an end, regardless of whether you do it fully online fully in person or mix modalities. The you will be getting an MBA from George Mason University. That’s, that’s

SUSAN NAGER: absolutely and you can walk to in the graduation.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: And we know that this is not just for the online MBA program here at Mason. But most we know that most online poker for most online MBA programs, the students, the online students are within a certain 50 mile radius within the campus. So we invite you in in person events, speakers, social events, networking, happy hours, of course.

SUSAN NAGER: Now that’s great, because best of both worlds here. So you know, you don’t have to fight traffic, you don’t have to find a parking spot or fight inclement weather, you can access your education in the comfort of your own home. However, if you’re a hop, skip and a jump from campus, and you want to stop on over to set up a study group or you can so to me, that’s the best of both worlds. If we don’t have any other questions, we can talk about the application process. So I work as a part of, of a team. So if you don’t have an admissions representative that you’re working with, on the next slide, I will provide you with our contact information and I urge you to reach out to my team and either myself or one of my colleagues will be happy to assist you. Now the application process is very simple. Okay. We will prove we’ll tell you all about the online program. Again, when you call back in and to apply. We need a bachelor’s transcripts. And the great thing about it is is that Mason will you Use unofficial transcripts if you have one lying around. Now, if not, as a courtesy, we will attempt to order those on your behalf. Okay, a resume. Okay? Now, one of the hard prerequisites for this program, though is two years work experience. Is that correct? No. Okay. Now, okay, unless you’re a non traditional student and and correct me if I’m wrong, Dr. Bella. So say for example, I’ve been in the military and working in the military for 10 years, and I go back to get my degree. And, you know, I’ve been maybe working, you know, while I’m in school a little bit. The military experience will qualify, yes, wrongly,

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: we strongly encourage you to reach out to us and apply or reach out to us if you you have nontraditional work experience. If let’s say you have you have professional experience, even though you that most of the professional experience may have happened before you getting your undergraduate degree, you reach out to us we have a process, we have a process for that. So post baccalaureate, it’s it’s not the post mortem report here should not encourage you, we look at your application holistically. And we if you have professional experience that may have happened, like military experience, right, or paranormal experience that may have happened before you officially getting an undergraduate degree, reach out to us we do have a process to accommodate this. Absolutely, you can potentially accommodate this. Absolutely.

SUSAN NAGER: And with respect to GPA, now, preferably a 3.0 or above but again, what Dr. Bellows just mentioned, we look at you holistically. So if you have tons of work experience and you graduated, you know, eons ago, they’re going to take that into consideration. Correct. Okay.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: Maybe you majored in a degree in in a field that later on, you know, you majored in, in one field, but then later on, you pivoted and you build a successful career on a different field. So, again, we will never flat out deny your application because of some numerical value, we will, we will look at your application holistically. Yeah,

SUSAN NAGER: that’s great. You’re not just a number defined by your GPA. There is a personal or goal statement. It’s like 500 to 750 words. And we’ll provide the little prompts to answer it, why you want to do it, why Mason, your career goals, and so forth. So very easy to complete. two letters of recommendation, this is very easy. All you have to do is input their names and emails into the application portal, they will receive an email with a link that takes them to a questionnaire literally takes them about 10 minutes to complete. So very easy. And we already mentioned the work experience, but then, you know, again, there’s non traditional applicants as well, such as military students. And let me go to the next slide. Okay, so what you see here is the main number, okay, our email, and then the link to apply. Okay, so it’s very easy. And my name is Susan. And again, I work with a team of excellent professionals that our job is just to be your personal assistant through the application process. So it’s, you’re not wondering what to do it anytime we give you an application checklist and you follow that step by step. And then of course, you contact us if you have any questions. Okay. Any other questions since we have Dr. Bellows here. And I do encourage you to listen to Bailey’s testimonial. And I think you mentioned it is on the website. Is that correct? Yeah, good stuff. We’re an accredited program. Top notch, top notch faculties. We’re also a tier one research university. We’re the largest research institution in Virginia. So that means your curriculum is going to be backed by the latest research based evidence. Plus, a lot of alumni don’t even know this. But Mason is actually ranked seventh in the entire nation as a value rated school. So meaning you’re gonna get a go Rate bang for your buck.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: In the NBA, the ROI for the MBA program is two to one, and based on the evidence at the heart numbers that we listed in the in the presentation. So what

SUSAN NAGER: you mean is that you’re going to earn back double what you paid in is.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: We have another it’s another it’s starting another solid and graduation at 104,000. Yes, amazing. Yes. If you do the maths are the total tuition is 52,000 or something like that?

SUSAN NAGER: Yeah. Wonderful. So I thought of one other question that I have. Students often ask, does the department have relationships with local organizations? You mentioned job fairs. How about is there any opportunities for internships,

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: we have two fantastic novel innovative industry leading centers, not just George Mason University with Dean house in the School of Business. We do have the Baroni center for government contracting, they do phenomenal work in the space of government contracting, and we know how big the space is in the DMV area. And we also have the center of innovation and entrepreneurship. We have very close ties with both centers. The director of the Barone center for government contracting helps us find speakers. He teaches an in person course on government contracting, which is a unique course. To my, to my knowledge, no other programs, MBA programs have a similar course within the area. So yeah, so the answer is, yes, we do have connections with industry. And we’re very proud of two great assets. Especially those two centers, and something that I’m not sure whether we talked about probably not you as school of business graduates, you do get you do get lifelong career services. Oh, yes, exactly graduation.

SUSAN NAGER: And big time heavy hitter, companies seek out our MBA grads such as Booz Allen, Deloitte. The list is quite extensive. So again, you know, reach out to the admissions wrap, we can help you apply. Right now we have a January a start. And so like I said, the application process is really easy. And we’re here to help. Dr. Bellows, thank you so much for your time.

DR. IOANNIS BELLOS: Thank you for coordinating this design. And everyone as I always like to say when in doubt, reach out. You will be surprised by how responsive we we are to emails and inquiries. So I do appreciate you taking the time to join this information session. And I do look forward to connecting connecting with you.

SUSAN NAGER: Thank you so much. And thank you so much for joining us this evening, everybody. I hope you have a lovely night.

George Mason Online Admissions: We are, live. James Baldo: Alright! George Mason Online Admissions: And I’ll share screen. George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll give people a few minutes to sign in. George Mason Online Admissions: Gonna start in a minute or . George Mason Online Admissions: Give it one more minute. See if we have any more participants joining us, and then we’ll go ahead and get started. Thank you. Everyone for your patience. George Mason Online Admissions: Tim. I think we’re gonna go ahead and get started. Since we’re min into . George Mason Online Admissions: thank you. Everyone for joining us. This is our master of science and data analytics, engineering Virtual open house we have Mr. Jim Baldo here. He’ll be hosting this with me. We’ll be going over the program. I did want to go over a few housekeeping items, so I will go over the agenda with you guys we’ll have a few things that I wanted to touch base with you with, and then I’ll go ahead and pass it over to James Baldo, and he’ll go ahead and speak on the program. George Mason Online Admissions: So what we’re gonna do is I’ll introduce you to Jim Baldo. There’ll be some things we’ll talk about with driving forces. We’ll discuss. Why, choose George George Mason Online Admissions: George Mason with the data analytics engineering program. George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll go over the curriculum, the online classroom format. I’ll discuss the admissions, requirements, and then there’s going to be a Q&A that. We’ll go over at the end you’ll go ahead and utilize your Q. And a option versus the chat option, and then we’ll go over the questions George Mason Online Admissions: just to give you an idea how it’ll work in order for you guys to participate. You have the chat instructions. You can raise your hand if you have a question, if possible. If you can wait till the end. That way, we can get through the all of the program information, and then we’ll answer all the questions George Mason Online Admissions: you can click on the Q&A in your webinar controls to get access to see the Q&A. Window, and then I’ll go ahead and ask the questions, and Mr. James Balda will go ahead and answer those. George Mason Online Admissions: So I’ll go ahead and introduce you to the associate professor and Director of our master of science in data, analytics, and engineering program. Mr. James Baldo. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. James Baldo: Thank you. Thank you, Denise. So welcome. And I thank all of you for showing interest in our data analytics engineering program here at George Mason University. The program. Just to give you an idea, it’s an online program. The degree is the good thing about James Baldo: the online program. The data like data analytics engineering program is that the degree that you get here is not in James Baldo: like an online school or anything like that? It is the same degree that you would be issued if you were taking the course on campus. So that is a very, very nice James Baldo: dimension to this program here. So my assistant director? professor Schmidt was unable to to make it tonight he is teaching class. So on Tuesday nights in the fall he. He has a class that he teaches on campus. James Baldo: so a little, just a little bit about myself. I’m a still practicing a data analytics engineer. I’ve have years of experience in industry and academia. I took over the program as director in the fall of . James Baldo: And I also at that point. In time I was given the responsibility of bringing the program adding an online version of the program. And we worked very close with our partner here, and I am very proud of the program we have a lot to offer in this online program. James Baldo: The courses are set up to be asynchronous. So I have again have a lot of experience in industry. I’ve worked for companies like Oracle and north of Grumman. James Baldo: I spent years at Oracle and I spent about years at James Baldo: at north of Grumman, and I’ve spent about years at Ffrdc’s Federally Funded Research and Development corporations here in the Washington DC. Area. I’ve just returned from a year sabbatical over at the Department of Homeland Security. I worked in their Science and technology group. And I was in their data analytics engineering Tech Center. James Baldo: And there I practiced for years. For months I was a I worked with the director of that center, and I was practicing every day. So that is one of the nice things. Professor Schmidt also comes from industry. James Baldo: And so I think we bring the depth and knowledge of how data analytics, engineers practice in industry and in government. So I think that’s really important. A nice thing that your faculty is also engaged in practicing. So next slide, please, Denise. James Baldo: okay, so the program James Baldo: is a very interesting program. The Dean of. So we. We are hosted in the college and George Mason University. James Baldo: in the College of Engineering and Computing James Baldo: and the College of Engineering and Computing spans, schools. There’s the College of Engineering. James Baldo: and then the school of Engineering. And then there is the school of computing. James Baldo: And this program James Baldo: is multidisciplinary. So it cuts across both schools. James Baldo: it also, and Dr. Kenneth Ball, who is the Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing James Baldo: did not want it to belong, did not want this program to be part of any department. James Baldo: So we have lots of departments across the schools James Baldo: and he wanted it to be James Baldo: independent of any sort of specific engineering domain or computing domain James Baldo: across those schools. And also he wanted the program to stretch out James Baldo: across other colleges and schools in the university. So in our our offerings we do offer courses that are outside of the College of Engineering and computing some from the the business school James Baldo: and James Baldo: and we’re expanding those on a on a regular basis. As we were able to get those courses James Baldo: asynchronously online. James Baldo: So that is one of the very, very nice things about this program is that it it the type of data analytics, engineers that we produce while they’re taking courses. They can specialize in some particular area that they have interest in. But they also will get this very, very broad education here. James Baldo: so that was a little bit of the background, and also gave us gives you a little bit of idea of why it was created but a little bit more on. Why it was created was that data analytics? And if you, you can look at lots of different programs that are offered, and they’re and they’re good. There’s no question about it. James Baldo: A lot of data analytics today, when you find at the universities, there might be a specialization like, for example, in business or finance or in the sciences, like in chemistry or mathematics, statistics? James Baldo: social sciences to to do a lot of analytics as well as psychology, departments and whatnot, and we get students. James Baldo: undergraduate degrees from every single one of those domains or disciplines that I just mentioned. So analytics is is a fabric that goes across just about every James Baldo: discipline you can think of. James Baldo: But we wanted to make a program that was unique in the sense that it was general. James Baldo: And when the program the program celebrated its , th it’s 10th year, it’s so. It’s it’s year anniversary this this fall. James Baldo: And James Baldo: the idea was to make this unique program. And and as of today, I mean, I don’t know of any program James Baldo: in in the Us that has this general curriculum like we have. James Baldo: So this allows our graduates, our alums, to go off and to have some, quite a, a breadth of areas that they can go off and practice so they could, they could easily fit into a team. That’s doing finance. They can easily fit into a team James Baldo: that is doing product marketing. There’s there’s just no domain that or discipline that our folks can’t go in and work on as a project product, and they are in in high demand because of their of their skill sets. James Baldo: So I’ll talk a little bit more about the industry trends in the in the next couple of slides. James Baldo: But the reason this program is so important is that James Baldo: in the past. James Baldo: and I’ll I’ll say this. It started almost years ago, but in the especially in the last years there has been this notion of of James Baldo: info economics and a lot of people, a lot of C-level, you know, Ceos, cios Ctos. And now you know the the chief data analytics or chief data analytics officers. James Baldo: All of these decision makers, key decision makers are struggling with how they can manage the vast amounts of data that they have in their their organizations James Baldo: as well as how can they generate value from it? And I’m not saying this just values that they’re going to generate wealth. In many cases their survival depends upon it. And it’s not only in terms of dollars, it’s also in terms of in the Federal government, or like in the military or something like that. It’s the ability to find signals that value that’s in that data James Baldo: to effectively go forward and be successful from a business perspective or from a mission perspective law. Enforcement is critical with all the data that’s out there. James Baldo: And and if you just think just a little bit about all the massive amount of information that’s coming from what we call the edge, where we have all these various Internet of things, and you don’t have to really know how to fly a drone, or you don’t have to know how these sensors actually work. James Baldo: But you do need to deal with all that data that’s that’s coming in from those various edge devices that are out there today. And it’s real. So some of it is, you know, a lot of it. Mostly is unstructured data that’s coming in and learning how to deal with that unstructured data like live video streams or imagery that’s coming in is becoming is crucial. James Baldo: Okay, it’s it’s crucial. James Baldo: So James Baldo: we focus not only on the analytics, but we also focus on the data. And I must admit James Baldo: that the data has always been a challenge for James Baldo: any discipline that is dealing with analytics. James Baldo: So James Baldo: I would like to talk a little bit about. Just briefly about James Baldo: what we’re doing with the program new things that we’re seeing. Because cause technology. And I’ve been around like, I said, like years in industry. James Baldo: I have never seen technology move this fast in the last years that I’ve been practicing. James Baldo: It’s just absolutely amazing. I’m a lifelong learner, and I struggle with trying to just keep up with all the technologies. So James Baldo: There’s tons of papers that get published. And how do you wade through all that? Well, I think one of the things that you need is to have a foundation of knowledge to get through those papers so you can get through them quickly. Understand the technologies that are being tested out there. And then James Baldo: you’re gonna be the innovator. You know, you’re gonna be the engineer on this particular team that might say, Hey, we might be able to try this. You know. Here’s a new way to sort of James Baldo: okay. James Baldo: process our data. You know a data pipeline. So why don’t we go to the next slide? Denise? James Baldo: Okay, so James Baldo: one of the clients that I have right now. So so, even though I’m full time at the University. James Baldo: Dean Ball has said, you know, when I came on board I said, I can’t leave the type of work that I’m doing, otherwise I will not be valuable to my students or my program. James Baldo: so they agree to allow me to practice in a limited way. And so I have clients. James Baldo: And one of the things I’m helping my clients with today is this notion of what’s called a data product James Baldo: and James Baldo: data products have changed the way we think about data. James Baldo: because James Baldo: previously we we were forming in the last years, we’ve been dealing with this notion of the data lakes. James Baldo: And so they they were really, really slick. They’re still there today. They allow us to cheaply store this massive amount of data that we’re that we’re pulling in and started talking about things like data, lake houses, and then James Baldo: and then all this stuff is is great. It’s helping out. There’s various types of ecosystems for data. James Baldo: But what’s come about in the last couple of years is that we’ve finally now said, Hey, we need a data layer. James Baldo: Okay? Even though we’ve talked about James Baldo: A, you know, we moved away from the the application centric James Baldo: approach where the applications own this data. And when I was at Oracle, that’s what we did all the time, and we had a relational database, and we surrounded it with a lot of applications, and that relational database had a schema in it, and it provided data for the applications. But as the data started to grow, those sorts of databases are very. They’re very difficult to scale, and they’re very expensive to scale. James Baldo: So James Baldo: a lot of the the ecosystem like with Apache and and and some of the major companies like Amazon and Google. James Baldo: they had to figure out a better way to do things. And so we saw all this we saw hadoop come about, and we saw in in a lot of hadoop. It’s still there today, but it’s buried underneath the the landscape, so to speak. James Baldo: So what I have seen come about is this notion of the data product where James Baldo: we can’t just expect the data scientist, or the or the or the analytics, or the or the analysts to come in and and go to the data lake and and try to find something. This is literally impossible. I mean very few data lakes are really James Baldo: indexed or cataloged where you can go off and search them. And then, even when you find something. James Baldo: you have to process the data. Okay? So the trend right now is what we’re seeing is this thing called a data product. And data products are sort of interesting in the sense is that somebody takes responsibility to build that product. Maybe that’s of you that are out here listening tonight. James Baldo: and you’ll be building these products. They’ll be accessible in a self service tier James Baldo: they’ll also have governance around them as to how they can be used. And if you notice, like some of the attributes like there’s there’ll be a data contract. James Baldo: Oh, this contract for the data, a data specification. James Baldo: There’ll be ways to pull things out of them. And at the same time, through various technologies, that data product James Baldo: may most likely will also be updatable. So that as new data comes in, it’ll be accessible. James Baldo: And it’ll be specific. It’ll be leveraged now by a particular set of data product consumers. Okay, so James Baldo: I’ve seen a lot of trends in my days. I think this one is a pretty strong one. And if we can just go to the next slide James Baldo: where this fits right now, there’s there’s a there’s a abstraction concept called the data mess architecture. James Baldo: And how you implement. This varies because it’s an abstraction. James Baldo: But it has some interesting aspects to it, and some of the key reusable pieces are the architecture for data mesh. If you notice that top level, there is federated governance, and it’s actually called James Baldo: computational federated governance. And there James Baldo: the impact of how you use this data, like, for example, policy. James Baldo: If if you notice what’s going on in Europe right now with various types of policies that are coming about. It is causing some real concerns with it. Companies that are embedded there with, you know, probably trillions of dollars worth of business James Baldo: over short periods of time. And then all of a sudden new policy comes into effect, and it has to be enforceable, so somehow that that policy gets turned into particular enforcement mechanisms. And so that’s what the governance and governance is really, really important here. And we’re trying to move James Baldo: our program to make our students aware of this particular trend that’s coming about the data product sort of sits in the center of all this. And if you in that, in that oblong or that a shaped yellow thing that you see there, you see this thing called domain. James Baldo: And what the data mesh has done is that it allows James Baldo: industry James Baldo: or government. They’re already producing James Baldo: data James Baldo: in these particular day domains. So take, for example, a regular company. They have what they have an Hr. Department. They have a finance department. They may have a business development department travel James Baldo: quite a few, and and they all have their own. It systems. And what data mesh tries to do from a practical perspective. It says you still own James Baldo: the data. James Baldo: but it’s going to be exposed as these data products. And you’re gonna build the data products. James Baldo: And so that ownership capability and that synergy of doing all this is coming about. It does take strong leadership. There’s no question about that. So a lot of this. There’s a lot of room for all different sorts of skills and talents to do this James Baldo: on that bottom tier is what’s called a self service data platform. That’s where this analyst will come in and they’ll be looking for particular types of products that they need to do their job. And this facilitates that, and it accelerates their ability to perform analytics doing a lot of discovery. Experimentation with the with the data to find to find value with it. And then that other tier over there. These are enabling teams, and this might be a James Baldo: one of you might be in one of those enabling teams as well. So our program allows you to be to be on an analytics team. When you’re doing, you’re working with the data and you’re doing analytics. It also allows you to do infrastructure type things like with respect to building data products as well on having that understanding. James Baldo: So I just wanted to give you a little bit of a taste. Because the the and I know that you probably have a lot of questions is these technologies are moving fast. James Baldo: We haven’t touched on or talked about the large language models, all the associated methodologies and techniques that are being used there. And and that is impacting analytics, how we how we do analytics. James Baldo: I, I feel. And a lot of people talk about the replacement of James Baldo: people like myself. And I’ve I’ve been through these waves before. And what happens is is it enables us it allows us to be more productive. It allows us to do more things, to acquire more insight, more value, and it accelerates economies when you’re able to do that. So I look at these as accelerators. James Baldo: Yes, certainly. It changes the way we have to practice. We need new skills. But you know, in this program here, we set the foundation. James Baldo: and then James Baldo: you never stop learning. Okay, things always change. And one of the things we’re doing in the program right now, we’ve been interviewing our alumni. I got a research project going on with one of my students James Baldo: that we’re we’re research. We’re analyt. We’re interviewing our alumni. We’re getting feedback from them on. You know. What the program helped them when it enabled them to do is they went out and got their jobs. James Baldo: What things we fell short with and what things they need today. James Baldo: And we’re trying to make this pro our alumni. We have lots of alumni, and our alumni are extremely valuable because they provide this feedback into the program to make. James Baldo: you know the next generation of people that would graduate more successful? James Baldo: Okay, Denise, can we go to the next slide here. James Baldo: Okay, the program is moving up the Us News and World report. I was in a meeting today where I’ve had to. These are very painful things to do. We we were given a we have to fill out a very, very lengthy James Baldo: report, and each year we have to turn it in. We are, we’ll be submitting this, I think, in like the November timeframe for for next year’s rankings and whatnot. But we’re doing quite well. James Baldo: I think. James Baldo: The James Baldo: other thing that the program does allow you to do is that we have within the college of engineering and computing across the schools. We have a lot of of great world class researchers, and they contribute to the the courses that we teach here. James Baldo: And so they have an impact by the work that they’re doing to get James Baldo: to to keep our courses on the leading edge. So that is a really blessing. And it’s it’s it’s very, very nice. They’re contributing to to our our courses. James Baldo: And then there’s there’s folks here who are James Baldo: faculty and like me that are also out there practicing in industry. So when I took my Sabbatical for years, I went into Federal government. But I was practicing as a data analytics engineer. James Baldo: My James Baldo: my assistant director, also comes from industry. James Baldo: and we have a a large set of adjuncts who are also industry based. Now the one part of our program that I did not James Baldo: talk about. But I think I’ll wait for the next slide. But we do offer this thing called an online. It’s it’s in a graduate certificate. Okay, it is the same graduate certificate that you would get on the on campus. But it’s offered online, which is really really nice. James Baldo: And James Baldo: this certificate. James Baldo: many of our students decide that when they take our foundation courses which everybody in the program has to take. James Baldo: Whether you’re on campus or online. It’s the same program you are entitled to get that certificate. James Baldo: And some people use that in a sense that they’re they. They’re in the program. James Baldo: They’ve acquired a a foundation by taking the foundation courses that is extremely valuable in the current James Baldo: job that they’re in the current work that they’re doing or they they have their their career path. They want to move into something different. James Baldo: And this certificate is something that it goes. It’s it’s from George Mason University. This program is accredited. And that goes on to your resume. Okay, but and that’s valuable. Okay, so that is a valuable option. James Baldo: I still I I look at this a little in a little different light. Is that yeah, the certificates great. James Baldo: But the minute you get interviewed. They’re gonna know, because of the courses that you’ve taken, they’re they’re gonna know that you have James Baldo: the right James Baldo: components, the right chemistry to do the type of analytics. So that certificate allows you to. It’s it’s a in some people, just you know. They’ll go on for the certificate, and they think well that you know, and they feel that that’s all they need. But James Baldo: the majority of our folks go on to finish off the the Ms. Now I have a Phd and I can. I can tell you from James Baldo: my experience in industry. What I’m seeing today. James Baldo: and because they’ve been around a long time, a lot of Phds today will go off. James Baldo: Get involved with startups. James Baldo: Also, people with Ms’s as well are getting involved with startups. They get a startup going James Baldo: it does some really great things that might be purchased. Or it might just, you know. James Baldo: it depends. You know it’s it’s it’s it fills a niche. James Baldo: It’s completed, and they go off and work on another startup. It’s a very, very exciting place to be. James Baldo: but the masters, the Ms, that is really the degree James Baldo: that bumps up your salary. James Baldo: and it is James Baldo: something that when you go to apply for a job. James Baldo: or you’re going to get involved with a startup that Ms degree, James Baldo: is a real star. I mean, people look at that and James Baldo: that will usually get you into the door for the interview, and to to talk and and and find out if you’re if you’re a good fit. James Baldo: So this combination with having that certificate which is still extremely valuable, and then having the Ms. Degree James Baldo: and it and it and it does. It’s an Ms degree that comes out of an engineering college is extremely, extremely valuable. James Baldo: So let’s go to the next slide, Denise. James Baldo: Okay, so just a little bit here about the courses, core courses, and I’ll talk. I’ll talk about those for the certificate first.st James Baldo: So there’s the ait. is, the is a foundational course that tries that that James Baldo: begins to address the essentials of data, and I say, begins to address James Baldo: it, provides you with what I would call the essential knowledge foundational knowledge that you need to deal with data James Baldo: data in and of itself is huge. Okay? And it is only getting getting bigger. So that course touches on all the right things. James Baldo: Okay? But if you if you’re gonna go into depth, there are other ait courses that you can take to expand your knowledge of working with data. James Baldo: The Cs , course deals with data management and mining. I teach this course, I was in the computer science. I was an adjunct here before I became the director of the program. And I was in the computer science department. James Baldo: So I I taught this course, and they allowed they asked me to put it online for them. James Baldo: So this course deals with the management aspect will be your things like your relational databases, your no SQL databases your vector databases. James Baldo: and it James Baldo: goes over those essentials. It it touches upon some of the relational theory it talks about. You know. Go into hadoop a little bit, because that’s an important thing to understand that underlying foundation. And then in the in the data mining aspect of it, it goes through a lot of the pattern matching. James Baldo: it’ll talk about the base, the the basis of of things like with the base, the underlying theoretical foundations for data warehousing. James Baldo: so it covers a lot of the algorithmic aspects of of doing data, mining and and machine learning. That is really important to know? James Baldo: So it’s course. And again it it touches on on the essential. So you’ll get a good taste for that as well as working with. One of the things that we just got James Baldo: that just has been offered to us in the program, and for the school is like in Cs , , you will use an aws, you get an aws account, and so we’ll go over things like dynamo. dB, you get a chance to use an S. bucket. James Baldo: aws sagemaker and and we’ll probably touch on redshift is doing a little bit of of that. So those sort of things are all valuable. If you haven’t been exposed to that in the past. If you have that’s fine. James Baldo: and then the or operations research, deals with modeling. James Baldo: And when analytics, we build lots of models. Okay? So they go through this at the James Baldo: basic modeling concepts, which are very, very important to to make sure that you understand those sort of things. So there’s some you know, low, level mathematics that they go through. And then some conceptual things about about how to build a model. Very important modeling spans across all engineering, all science. So you can’t get enough of a course like that. The stats James Baldo: is applied statistics. James Baldo: It does have some statistics that would be relevant for things like machine learning. James Baldo: And it does have a nice emphasis on visualization techniques. James Baldo: So James Baldo: that is a great course in and of itself it lays down that statistical foundation. James Baldo: And James Baldo: so we do require that people come in with a basic understanding of statistics from an undergraduate perspective. And then this course sort of James Baldo: if you know. And and of course the instructors are pretty good about this. If there is some James Baldo: things that you forget, and I know I forget a lot of stuff. I’ve been around a long time. You know, they have paths to review things and whatnot while you’re taking that course. James Baldo: Okay, those are the foundation courses that provide that James Baldo: working. What I consider to be that applied working James Baldo: knowledge James Baldo: for you the last course that you have to take, which is usually the last when I say last quarter is usually the last course that you take. So you take those foundation courses. James Baldo: then you’ll take your electives. James Baldo: is the DAN. . This is the capstone course, and there. James Baldo: you will work on a project with a on a team James Baldo: with a industry partner. James Baldo: I mean, it could be a university partner that comes in that they have a problem we have. For example, James Baldo: we have a faculty member that does a lot of work with the F, the Faa. So he has lots and lots of projects that he brings to us that you get some exposure to doing. The one year we we were doing some work with explainable AI. He had a client out there that James Baldo: that was interested in explainable AI, so that that team was doing some analytics and trying to use the analytics to help to help explain some of the models that were being built. So it was sort of interesting. James Baldo: a difficult problem that was sort of interesting. James Baldo: but that’s what that course is all about. James Baldo: it’s it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth the investment, and you’ll you’ll find that James Baldo: you’ll be in with. You know, you’ll be doing it online. But you’ll also have a chance to see the other projects that are on campus. So this fall I have a section of James Baldo: DAN. , , the capstone course. James Baldo: I have projects and overall across all the sections. We have projects. James Baldo: So it is extremely interesting. I mean, you being just exposed to all these different teams that are doing things. It’s just it’s it’s really great. James Baldo: Okay, can we go to the next slide? Denise? James Baldo: Thank you. James Baldo: Okay. So James Baldo: we have James Baldo: quite a few electives that you can take from the this, I’ll just start with the the sea or electives. That’s our systems, engineering and operations research department. James Baldo: And we have put some of their courses asynchronously online. And and they’re they’re listed there. James Baldo: while James Baldo: And with all these courses, one of the things that we we James Baldo: do we do is that we? Clearly you want to work with a an advisor. James Baldo: Because these courses like your undergraduate courses or undergraduate courses that you’ve taken. Want to make sure that everybody understands the prerequisite for these courses, because the one thing we do not want you to do is to get into a course that James Baldo: you may not have all the prerequisites for, and then you go halfway through it and you find out, hey, this is just working for me, because I just can’t catch up, and it’s not your fault. To be quite frank with you. It’s really that you just. There’s some background missing there that May. You may need another, you know, a different course. And so some of these there are pathways, and how you take the courses. So that’s why it’s important to work with the advisor. James Baldo: The Ece is our electrical engineering courses. And right now we have focused on digital forensics the faculty member that runs. This is a former FBI agent. James Baldo: and he was doing a forensic while he was at the FBI. When he came over to George Mason he brought all that knowledge with him, and so I, he used to be. This is he used to be the actual, the former director of the data and data analytics engineering program before I took over and James Baldo: I asked him to come in to get these courses online. So these are these are these are popular courses, the doing the digital forensics and the network forensics. I think it’s it’s when I was over at Dhs. I was supporting some work going on over at Cisa, which is the Cyber security group. And and these things are spot on for analytics. The ist elective courses. These are the ones that are going to be dealing with James Baldo: data. You also notice there you’ll see some some applied applications there of machine learning. James Baldo: and so very, very practical. James Baldo: With respect to analytics and with respect to data, and then that cheap us at the bottom James Baldo: is courses. And this is where Dr. Kenneth ball, the the Dean of this, the of the James Baldo: of the College of Engineering, computing his vision of making sure that we open this program up. James Baldo: not only across the schools and all the departments within the College of Engineering computing. But those other schools I was mentioning earlier. So this is the business school. James Baldo: And and these courses here are asynchronous, and and they’re they’re often to folks who are interested in some business analytics. So those are open to you. James Baldo: The last course up in the upper left hand corner James Baldo: is an independent research course, and that’s what I mentioned. I have. I have students, this semester that I’m that I’m working with as a faculty member, doing some research with them. James Baldo: One of the ones that I mentioned was the student that I have working with doing some analytics, with surveying and interviewing our alumni. So James Baldo: that course usually. So that’s of the electives you can take and if you have some research interests James Baldo: or you talk to another faculty member, you, you might be looking at the the college of Engineering computing website. And you see some faculty member there that’s doing some interesting research. James Baldo: You know, you can reach out and contact them and say, Hey, I James Baldo: like, you know, I’m in the data analytics engineering program. James Baldo: Do you think you’d have a project that we could do one semester? And then, you know, I would approve that James Baldo: that work for you? James Baldo: so that that is that area where you can do some research. You know, you could take credit hours of of doing research there. James Baldo: Okay, Denise, can we go to the next slide? James Baldo: Okay, so here. James Baldo: that’s an old picture of me. When I 1st James Baldo: when I I 1st put the Cs , , , course online. James Baldo: but it was very, very interesting for me developing online courses, because and every faculty member that I have worked with. Because when we started James Baldo: when we started that when the data analytics engineering program started its online program, it was the 1st online program in the in the college. James Baldo: And so with our partner. James Baldo: Oh, we James Baldo: learned how to teach differently. So James Baldo: asynchronous learning James Baldo: is beautiful. It’s it’s really great for folks who are working full time, or or they just they want to work remotely, or they like our program. And they’re located, you know, someplace, else. They can’t commute, you know, a thousand miles a day. But putting together a course that’s asynchronous. James Baldo: is is a James Baldo: real real James Baldo: interesting exercise to go through, and most and all of our faculty learn more about the course when we try to put it into asynchronous. So you get some benefits James Baldo: from what we’ve learned in in trying to, because we have to really think about how we’re teaching James Baldo: on campus courses. We just put up a bunch of slides. We come into the theater. You know, we’re working with the students, asynchronous. We have to do a lot more thinking about how this is going to be presented James Baldo: different pathways that have to be there for for different different learners. And the other thing is. James Baldo: you are not by yourself just because you’re doing online. James Baldo: Okay. James Baldo: you will have access to a faculty member like myself. James Baldo: Some of our courses do have teaching assistance. Especially when they get a little bit larger. It it helps, you know, faculty member can James Baldo: handle such a volume. So we’ll have some teachings. We’ll have a teaching assistant to help out James Baldo: but for the most case our classes are usually fairly small. James Baldo: so you’ll have one faculty member. And we’re pretty good at James Baldo: you being online. You know, we get text message or an email. But we’re leaning more towards texting now, and we’re putting up private channels for the course on Ms teams that’s working quite well. James Baldo: And so we can, we can interact quickly. I know when I do. Cs , . It’s very common, like maybe , o’clock or o’clock at night. Somebody says, Hey, I’m doing the assignment. I’m having some trouble. James Baldo: So we just James Baldo: spin up an Ms teams or a zoom session James Baldo: and James Baldo: you know, share out a screen. Try to work out the problem. James Baldo: and then we’re done so cause my our belief is that you shouldn’t struggle with a problem James Baldo: too long, you know, if it’s taking James Baldo: min James Baldo: for min James Baldo: and you’re stuck. It’s highly likely you’re going to continue to be stuck. And then you’re going to get behind. So what we normally tell the students, do you get stuck James Baldo: reach out for help. James Baldo: And that is one of the advantages of online learning is that those faculty members have to be available for you. Now, now, granted. James Baldo: if you’re up o’clock in the morning we may not be available. But you know we’ll get to you as soon as we get online back online and see if we can work something out. James Baldo: okay, next slide, please. James Baldo: Okay, Deniselle. James Baldo: give it back to you. James Baldo: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, thank you. Everyone. 1st and foremost, this is how you can contact us for the online program. That’s the general email. That’s also the website to get to the application and a phone number to contact us. If you would like to put any Q. And as this is the time I will go over the admissions process. If you are interested, you can scan the code and apply today. George Mason Online Admissions: Again. Q. And A is available for you to start putting in your questions anything that you have. This is the perfect time. Since we do have George Mason Online Admissions: Mr. Baldo available to answer those, I will tell you that the admissions process is one. The minimum requirement is to have a bachelor’s degree with at least a minimum of a . Gpa. George Mason Online Admissions: There are some prerequisite courses that you do need to have. You need to have a calculus one. George Mason Online Admissions: a statistics class and a computer programming class. George Mason Online Admissions: You also need to have official transcripts, a professional resume George Mason Online Admissions: one letter of recommendation. The letter of recommendation is a questionnaire format, meaning. George Mason Online Admissions: while you’re doing your application, you’re going to upload your recommenders, name and email address, and we’ll go ahead and email them a list of questions pretty much for them to fill in. It’s a little bit different than the traditional written letter or recommendation. We do find that these are more effective. People are actually more willing to complete because they don’t have to carve this time out to write a letter. George Mason Online Admissions: And then a personal statement. That’s that’s your way in. That’s where you write your story. That’s that’s the meats and potatoes of your entire application. George Mason Online Admissions: Everything is looked at entirely. We, as enrollment counselors here, are here to assist you with any questions, any help that you need with your application process. George Mason Online Admissions: so that pretty much sums up George Mason Online Admissions: that I’ll go back to. George Mason Online Admissions: Sorry. George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll leave it nowhere to go. Sorry, guys. George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll bring this page back up for you guys. Here, you can go ahead and put in any Q. And a questions that you have. George Mason Online Admissions: I know that there was one question I had prior to. So I’ll go ahead and ask you that. If we have students currently enrolled in the prerequisite courses? Should we wait for them to complete those before submitting application? George Mason Online Admissions: Or should they submit application? And are they provided provisional George Mason Online Admissions: admit at George Mason Online Admissions: acceptance to the program George Mason Online Admissions: that was like a . Question. George Mason Online Admissions: . . Questions. James Baldo: Yeah, no great great question. Thank you, Denise. So I do all the admissions for the program. And we’re very, very large program as of this fall. James Baldo: including our online program, we have active students in this program. James Baldo: But when I do the admissions, when I get an application, so so it goes into George Mason. It gets James Baldo: the the registrar has to process it. There’s lots of things that they have to do that that I that we can’t do. James Baldo: And then when it comes to me. James Baldo: I James Baldo: I have. So if there is a prerequisite course that you’re in you, you need to finish it. James Baldo: Okay? And that’s you know, I’m just gonna be quite frank and honest with you. Finish the course and then apply because what I have to do is we. James Baldo: We used to do something along James Baldo: provisional. James Baldo: And and this only was for usually was for programming languages, because we get a lot of people that come in from cross from different domains like business and whatnot. So they may not have had a really, really strong James Baldo: background. James Baldo: In programming. So we had. We did have a provisional course, and that we feel right now that James Baldo: it is best just to have the the provisional prerequisites. So we’re like programming if you are actually doing some programming. But you didn’t have a a formal course. James Baldo: All those things that Denise had up on the previous slide, where she was talking about the the letter, the letter of recommendation, the the resumes and things like that. I look at those I have to read those things. James Baldo: and and I find those very interesting. And I normally can tell when when I look James Baldo: the sort of work that you’re doing? I can. I can. I can make that decision on the programming language and say, Okay. James Baldo: that’s fine. You’re you’re you have good work, experience. And and because I interview a lot of people as well for clients. James Baldo: But calculus and statistics. James Baldo: That’s thing that you have to have before you start the programming. And so, please, you know, if you’re taking a cal course, you’re taking a stats course or both. Please just finish. And then then apply. James Baldo: Okay. I hope that answers the question, Denise. So James Baldo: oh, you’re on mute, Denise. I can’t hear you. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Since we’re on the topic of the prerequisite courses George Mason Online Admissions: I know for a lot of programs. We accept the Linkedin learning for a foundational statistics course. Do you accept that as the prerequisite. James Baldo: Yeah, I’m not allowed to do that. I do believe that’s a good course. I don’t have anything against that. There’s some other online courses out there where you can actually sit, take the test and get it. James Baldo: But James Baldo: the university does require me to, because of the way we’re set up is that it it? The statistics and the calculus course has to come from an accredited James Baldo: university. James Baldo: And James Baldo: that’s just my hands are tied with respect to that. So I’m gonna be quite honest with you. I can’t. I can’t accept that for the for the stats. George Mason Online Admissions: Perfect. George Mason Online Admissions: I. There’s a few more questions that have come in. George Mason Online Admissions: Let’s take a look. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: what help do you offer graduates? After completing this program, for example. George Mason Online Admissions: internships, job shadowing career advising, etc. James Baldo: Great question, great question. James Baldo: So after you finish the program. James Baldo: or even while you’re in the program, so I don’t. Wanna, I don’t want to exclude anybody James Baldo: you don’t have to graduate James Baldo: for to talk to me or to talk to Professor Schmidt, or to talk to to Dr. Isaac gang who’s also another faculty member in the program James Baldo: or to our James Baldo: we have, James Baldo: we have a a career group here within the College of Engineering and computing James Baldo: and Gardner is our is our point of contact there. James Baldo: Normally, I like to work with students James Baldo: after they graduate or while they’re graduating, or while they’re in the program James Baldo: because, James Baldo: I wanna listen. What I normally do is I set up like a min James Baldo: talk James Baldo: virtual meeting James Baldo: and James Baldo: I try to understand what you’re looking for. Okay? And so I do know places in industry, because I work in industry some companies and whatnot that might be that that could be looking for when there’s lots of companies out there where you can go off and apply. But the important thing is, what is it that you want to do? James Baldo: Okay? And and I always say, What is it currently that you want to do? And where do you think you might want to go. James Baldo: and I’m I’m James Baldo: I don’t ask that question too much anymore where you want to go, and I’ll tell you why is because things are changing so fast, and you may. James Baldo: We think you know, everything’s exciting. Okay, and it gets more exciting as these. As things change. James Baldo: so James Baldo: the best thing to do is to look at currently where you you want to go. James Baldo: And then go there. I always listen James Baldo: to things like. James Baldo: you know. There’s some plot times people get into situations where they can’t move. So we look for particular types of alternatives of then their geographical area. James Baldo: But also there’s a lot of work that’s performed today. That can be done remotely. James Baldo: and that’s becoming James Baldo: more and more of a James Baldo: of an option for folks. James Baldo: So that you don’t have to travel. Everything is done virtually. James Baldo: and then excuse me. Analytics that works very, very well with the type of work that we do, because James Baldo: a lot of the work is cloud based today. James Baldo: And so you know, you get up in the morning. You go into your office and you start working, you know. And you have your, you know, we don’t use phones anymore. I mean, it’s everything is done via the the Internet and and via computer. But yes, I’m usually the one James Baldo: to talk to students about their their needs in terms of internships. We do have an internship program here. James Baldo: but normally the internships are done. James Baldo: they’re usually usually get an internship while you’re a student with us. And so the online program would have options for that. James Baldo: But then I I would send you to to our our point of contact, which would be Ann Gardner. James Baldo: and she would route you through. You know she would look. James Baldo: She would work with you directly. James Baldo: Let’s see what else was in that question, Denise. There wasn’t. There’s a something I’m missing here that that the person asked James Baldo: I. I covered that they could talk with me, and even after when you’re alum oh, so I’m sorry, Denise. Let me. I got my own question here James Baldo: when you become an alum. One of the things I’m trying to do right now is this thing that I mentioned lifelong learners. James Baldo: Oh, that’s what I am. James Baldo: and most people don’t want to come back and get another degree. I mean, it’s it may not be the degree they’re looking for, and and maybe all that they’re looking for is they they want to learn something. James Baldo: They need to become, expand their awareness and and and be able to apply a new particular type of technology or in a particular analytic, maybe an example. There’s this sort of mushrooming effect that’s coming on with Llms. James Baldo: Llms. Also come with a what I would call a ecosystem around them. There’s there’s rag, there’s there’s function calls. And and and soon to be. We’re going to be moving into a genic systems where these Llms will be buried under these agent based systems. James Baldo: So people might come back to us to say, Hey, I need to come up to speed on something like that. And that’s of the things we’re trying to do James Baldo: with the program is to sort of make things available to our alumni. Our alumni. Our students are valuable to us, certainly, but the largest population we have are our alumni after they graduate, and so we want to keep them. James Baldo: We don’t want to lose you. Okay. Of course, if you go off for another degree in a universe, another university, or something like that, we’ll give you a great reference, and what and whatnot, but for those of you who are out practicing. And even if you get a degree from another James Baldo: university. James Baldo: you’re part of us. You’re part of our community. You’re part of our family, so to speak. So we wanna we wanna keep you. And we wanna make sure that we’re doing things that are helping you out James Baldo: because you need to be a lifelong learner, not just in this field in any field. And and really, I’m trying to open up this program so that we can support James Baldo: those lifelong learners. James Baldo: It’s just starting. I got a new person just came within a higher just came on board. That’s working with me to get that going. So part of it, we’re we’re out there interviewing our alumni, seeing what they need. And then we’re gonna start to expand out on how offerings that we can we can make to them. So I hope I answered that question for you. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, I know you mentioned George Mason Online Admissions: that you are available in a faculty members. If someone needs something, if they’re stuck on a problem trying to solve something? Are there set office hours. James Baldo: Yeah, so it varies by faculty members. So some there. James Baldo: I don’t see with our faculty these days saying, Hey, I’m only I’m available. Maybe this happens every once in a while. Someone might say, I’m only available on Tuesday and Thursday from to . A lot of the faculty are now just saying, Hey, just you know I’m I’m available. Make an appointment, and we’ll we’ll get together. So James Baldo: I I believe that that’s a better approach. That’s how I I do things. I’m available by an appointment. Just let me know when when we need to James Baldo: to meet, because you got a particular problem. James Baldo: It’s sometimes challenging for the faculty member, but but I know that when I do. Cs, , , there are times like o’clock, you know. Sorry. , , or o’clock, somebody says, Hey, I’m stuck on this assignment. James Baldo: look, you know, and so it’s just easier for me and easier for the the person in the class for us just to come online like this. And we share open up a screen. We’re doing the problem in the cloud. I just have them share out their browser. James Baldo: and I try to help them James Baldo: with a particular problem. James Baldo: If it’s with James Baldo: like a quiz or something like that, or if it’s with a particular concept that’s fine, too. So James Baldo: so yeah, so so normally, it’s sort of like. James Baldo: almost like on demand. You try to get that faculty member, hey? Could could could we? Could we meet now? And you? You might hit the faculty member at the right time, and you can meet right now and get things things solved. James Baldo: On the other hand, it might, it might be the next day, you know, early the next day, when you get back with the faculty member. James Baldo: I hope that answers the question. I want to be totally honest and frank with you about that. But a lot of us really try to do it on demand, you know, if if we can. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: For the computer, the basic computer requirement. What other courses outside of college and work experience will satisfy that. James Baldo: So it’s a programming requirement. James Baldo: if James Baldo: and and so James Baldo: the most of the the currently, the courses that are being taught today are using python the statisticians use are, if you know either of those programming languages, you’re okay. The. James Baldo: I would say that if you have a programming language James Baldo: that is object oriented, based James Baldo: like Java. James Baldo: That’s good enough. You you can do, Py, if you know Java, you can do python James Baldo: But python’s the one that will help out there the python James Baldo: you know, if you have some work experience with it, or if I do see you’ve taken a coursera course or something like that in it. James Baldo: especially if you get a certificate. That’s pretty helpful to me. Because the thing is, I don’t want to like James Baldo: like the ait. course. James Baldo: Dr. Harry Fapo put that course together, he the 1st week he has a module James Baldo: just as a bit. Here’s the fundamentals of Python. James Baldo: And James Baldo: he he gives that to you. So it’s probably just enough. So you can do the homework problems in python. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna be a go out and get a job being a python. James Baldo: a programmer, we’re not setting you up to do that James Baldo: and and, by the way, a lot of the. We have that requirement now, because industry still requires people to do programming. But we’re beginning to see a lot of low code. No code type of of work that’s going on, especially with James Baldo: a lot of the the visual canvases that are coming up to to do development these days. James Baldo: So James Baldo: I think James Baldo: you know, taking James Baldo: you know, an an online course, and there are free ones out there that you can take. And python would be good James Baldo: are as adequate as well. James Baldo: But I would focus more on Python, for right now now there’s other ones out there like Roscoe selenium and things like that. Those are all James Baldo: valuable. They would, they would pass it well as well. But James Baldo: to to check the box, that’s really all I would look at. So if you have some work experience with James Baldo: with one of those that helps James Baldo: if you take so so I get a lot of times I’ll see when I’m looking at the applications. I’ll see the certificate from like coursera, or from one of the other online courses James Baldo: where they you know they the course was free, but they they they. They paid the or $ James Baldo: to sit for the exam and and test, and passed and got the certificate. James Baldo: That would that that would usually work with me. James Baldo: Go ahead, Denise. I hope not. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh. George Mason Online Admissions: sorry. The last question, because the other one I can answer is online. The program says it requires letters of recommendation. But I did state one. What is the corrected one? I think that may have recently changed since we did our last virtual open house. James Baldo: Okay. So I’ve been away for years. So maybe we’ll have to get back to this student. But I think Denise for the online program. I thought it was one. James Baldo: But I could be wrong. So I I don’t want to. I don’t want to cause any rework for somebody. So so maybe we’ll let Denise get the answer for that and get back. George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll table that one. Because I know in the past it’s been one. This is a new recent update like this term. So it may have been updated, but we’ll get the answer for that. And as far as they ask, What’s the process for transcripts we usually do? Parchment is, gonna depend on the school and what they utilize. George Mason Online Admissions: But there’s also an email that’s sent to you when you’re speaking to an enrollment counselor. And it states exactly how to request those transcripts. James Baldo: Good? Question, yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: That covers all the questions. Thank you so much. Everyone for attending. Jay, Balzo, if you have any last few words you want to give the students. James Baldo: Yeah, yeah, I would like just to say a a closing where 1st I’d like to thank everybody for coming on and and and list, you know, and and showing interest for our program. We truly are very interested in you. We are. James Baldo: you know, our objective and goal is to create the next generation of data analytics, engineers. James Baldo: and you folks are the future you’re and and we want you to shine when you go off after you graduate and whatnot. But we also want to keep you as part of the family. And you know this. We believe that the universities are changing, and that alumni stay with us. James Baldo: So thank you all, and and I hope to see applications from from all of you. Really looking forward to it. And I think our online program James Baldo: is a stellar program. I think it’s James Baldo: I think it provides that value. I I believe this is really the the James Baldo: future of learning, you know, doing things online like this. So anyways, thank you very much, folks. Thank you, Denise, for organizing this. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much for everything. Hope everyone has a great evening. If you guys have any questions, feel free to reach out the George Mason Online Admissions: email is there, and so is the number. We’ll be more than happy to assist with anything. James Baldo: Good night. Thank you. Folks.

George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, I just wanted to introduce you. We have a very special guest here today. Dr. Rita Cova. And she is actually the program director. George Mason Online Admissions: and she’s also a professor professor in the program and the chair of graduate studies. So we’ll go ahead and turn the presentation over to you, Dr. Vidakova? George Mason Online Admissions: Tonight’s agenda. Here, we’ll let you go over that, and then tell us a little bit about yourself, and just some of the things that you like about the program. Ioulia Rytikova: Well, well, first of all, welcome. I as an associate here, and as a professor I do. I have full of responsibilities in our department. I also work not only in our department, but I’m involved in many initiatives. Ioulia Rytikova: At the school level, at the college level, at the university level because I’ve been a church mason for quite some time. And if anybody asks me when is it in your job? I in general enjoy my job so much, and if you start taking my classes you will see it right away, because I’m so excited about every semester. I’m still excited for all those years that that’d be. Yeah. Ioulia Rytikova: But one of my favorite things to do is to give such presentations to meet with prospective students. Ioulia Rytikova: We often do it in person and in general in person, especially for graduate programs, is something that everybody is looking forward to. But since our program. This is an online program. And we get students we can there again, from Niger, we can get students from all over the world. We’re trying to to catch as many students as possible. And Ioulia Rytikova: and we, we have this presentations online. But I will be more than happy to follow up with you, to meet with you. I’m on campus quite, quite often. If a few words about myself. My name is Dr. Rezikova. I am the associate chair for graduate studies in our department. I’ve been at this department for many years, I and probably that’s a very good sign, because our faculty Ioulia Rytikova: with us. Oh, thank you. That’s my bio. Yes, in a, I received my Ms Bs and and Phd degrees. It’s all in engineering. And specifically, it’s related to data. It was related to data. Now, that’s why no surprise. Once big data became showed up on on the market, and people started saying, oh, there is a cool thing called big data. Ioulia Rytikova: Then I I very quite the transitions to all the new series of of it related to data processing big data. Now, it’s AI, it’s machine learning. And this is my research background. But my passion, if anybody asks, is in education, everything I learned all the tools that. And I just today. Ioulia Rytikova: before this presentation, I attended a Microsoft workshop about masters programs in AI artificial intelligence and lots of other faculty, because Ioulia Rytikova: across the country they joined, they joined that workshop and we had a lot of interesting discussions. So where everything I do. It’s applied to. That’s why one of the things is educational data, mining or cognitive and learning sciences. I really want to understand how people learn. You know what they do? And I’ve been working it. I’ve done it all. Ioulia Rytikova: I worked at the with undergraduate students, graduate students, Phd, students. I have a lot of experience developing new programs, masters, program certificates. Ioulia Rytikova: Major programs. I teach online, I teach in person, and in our department, as I will be talking about this in the in just a few moments. We’re also quite know for parent faculty, who are recognized at the at the university level as outstanding teachers or outstanding educators, outstanding researchers. Ioulia Rytikova: I’m I was very like it to be one of them. So I believe that’s that’s our department, and that’s what probably all my experience. And I also work with with others, with colleagues outside of the university. And this experience gives me the right, I guess, to say that we do have a great program. Ioulia Rytikova: Not only because our program was ranked as one of the top programs, especially this online program in cyber security, particularly Ioulia Rytikova: was ranked as one of the top programs in the in the nation. But in general mics, from from the experience I have, it’s it’s quite easy to see. When you work with collars from other institutions, if they have strong programs, if they if they deliver what’s expected for students, and how they do that. So I can assure you that if you decide to join our department Ioulia Rytikova: and I will be more than happy to answer any questions, because it’s confusing. There are so many options out there. I will be happy to answer specific questions about that program. But nevertheless, without just trying to say that we do have a great program if you’re interested in developing skills so that will help you either. be. I either get further with your career. Ioulia Rytikova: Or if you’re interested in just learning more about cutting edge technologies, and applications of those technologies just because you’re interested and you think it might help you in the on the current current job market. Then our program is one of the one of the programs that welcomes Ioulia Rytikova: every student, every applicant. That’s probably the first thing I’d like to say, say, one of the most common questions that I get. Students say, what if I don’t have a strong background in computer science or or mathematics? Ioulia Rytikova: Is it still a good idea for me to come to you. Absolutely. That’s that’s one of those major differences between the computer Science Department and us. Ioulia Rytikova: Even though. and Stephanie. By the way, I know that I get distracted from, and sometimes I don’t follow the the presentation precisely, but if you move forward I will kind of Ioulia Rytikova: join the the path of your go. So why choose George Mixin in particular our program? That’s what I’m talking about. So please feel free to kind of move forward what I’m trying to again go back to what I hear often from students. They asked about the difference between Cs and our department A, our program ait. My answer is always, I’m not trying to convince students to come to our program. Ioulia Rytikova: I understand that my job is to bring as many people as possible, but I don’t see it this way. My job, the way I say it is to help students find a good match. That’s what’s important. You don’t want to take the receiving. My, we already have a basic degree. You are not. You don’t need anything just for fun, even though in some cases it might be fun. But but still you want to select the program that fits your needs. Ioulia Rytikova: that feeds your future career goals that fits even your life. That’s something that will also talk about in just a moment, because our program is extremely flexible. We we will. I will show you how we work with students and how we help students succeed. Nevertheless, whether they have strong background in Cs or not, or if they have a large family, and they don’t have much time, and they work Ioulia Rytikova: full time. So we are very flexible, and we have students to get through that. But the difference between the computer Science Department and us is that we focus mostly on applications. This in general, it’s not just that they see department in our school. But in general computer science departments, they focus more on the theoretical side of anything that you see on the screen. Ioulia Rytikova: Those beautiful areas like cyber security data, science machine learning. AI, and all these areas approach. I approach from the fundamental theoretical perspective. If you go to the Cs department in our department will also cover the theory. But our main goal is to help students learn like hands on. We have lots of project based courses. Ioulia Rytikova: We ask students, we have labs, we have assignments where students have to collaborate. That’s out of which day everybody has to collaborate and and we try to. And and this is the reason why we Ioulia Rytikova: we welcome every student because we built our program. So that if a student needs extra help or extra preparation. We have some so called prep classes of courses. The students can take to help them succeed in our program. I hear a lot of stories from not only students who just receive their Bsd Ioulia Rytikova: and they want to continue without even, you know, taking a break, but also student or students or applicants who are at their mid career level. And they would like either to get promoted or just to change entirely their course. And that’s what they say. Well, I received my B as degree a long time ago, and I don’t really remember, should I? What should I do, and it again and again I keep saying that Ioulia Rytikova: we will support you will help you. We have lot of tools to help students. We are not new. We’re we’ve been around for over wide bit of 25 years or so. So we’re a mature department. Ioulia Rytikova: We are. Maybe we can move to the next slide. Probably. So so think, oh, here we go. Yes, that’s what I was just going to talk about. We are not. It’s all I always I find it to be kind of to me. It’s kind of funny. When Covid happened. Then everybody converted to online learning, and and that right after Covid people were saying, well, we teach online. Ioulia Rytikova: And it feels like everyone now can teach online, which is true to some extent. What separates us from everybody from many other institutions is that before Covid, for 10 years Ioulia Rytikova: we’ve been teaching online, our department has multiple programs we teach in person. We teach, not here, if this program is entirely 100 online. But we also offer program in in person, we have hybrid classes. We have synchronous online classes. We have asynchronous online classes, though here these are asynchronous classes. But we still support students. So that will again Ioulia Rytikova: talk about this in just a moment, tremendously, so that students don’t feel like they are alone. And they don’t have any connection. We create great environment for students. We connect those students, our students to to the professor, to Gtas. So we we know how to work with that. We know how to help students achieve their goals in each class, and then at the end of their the end of their education here with us. Ioulia Rytikova: their career goals, because we have a lot of experience. We are experts on that. We and I will just repeat these words, that’s we have a director director for online education for our college Professor Garrison, and he once said, and I have it written down because I always repeat this. He once said that our department not only Ioulia Rytikova: was the first department that developed the entire program online many, many, many years ago, but more importantly, we developed best practices and procedures that’s now other departments are following. Well, it’s been over 10 years, because again, we’ve been on this market for for very, very long time Ioulia Rytikova: with our online education. But we are experts. I’m not trying to brag. But that’s the fact which is recognized again mentioning it. And we are doing a great job on teaching online. Ioulia Rytikova: That’s what this, this beautiful squares that we we have. So media reach a collaborative learning environment world class education within reach and different tracks. Ioulia Rytikova: That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Our department by nature is very dynamic information sciences and the rich and technology in general changes every you wake up in the morning, get something happened in it. Oh, I need to learn something else. Ioulia Rytikova: That’s why we develop new courses, new concentrations every semester, not even every year. But I’m proud to say it’s every semester. For instance, last year we developed the machine learning engineering concentration which became very popular right away. I I have to say that. And I’m proud to say that’s the point where I’m bragging. That all concentrations are quite successful Ioulia Rytikova: as cyber security was always, probably number one on the market. Then we came up with the data 96 concentration. That’s where big data is. And all this again. Fun stuff we’ve got more students there. Last year we opened the machine learning engineering concentration, the first semester we only had like a few students, and then we got 10 times more like exponentially in the next in the following year. Ioulia Rytikova: So this year, for instance, in our in on ground program, we develop the human centered interaction concentration. So we we come up with new courses and concentrations every year every semester and that makes up it. It. Ioulia Rytikova: That’s what I again in our field. If you if you don’t, if you don’t update your courses your curriculum on a regular basis. Then you fall behind that. So that’s something that I’m quite proud of. We have very active faculty. And in maybe we can go to the next slide. Ioulia Rytikova: well, I will talk about this in just a moment. But before I forget about I I really would like to say a few words about the faculty. We have fantastic faculty who teach this course, and again, not to brag. But I have some facts. Ioulia Rytikova: In our university. It’s difficult to receive outstanding awards. These are given again at the top level. That’s university awards. There are very few. It were literally very few awards. We have, over 2,000 faculty, just full time faculty. Ioulia Rytikova: And there, we have very few outstanding teaching awards per year there. We will. Even a couple of years ago there was only one online outstanding teaching award which we got. Our department received it so so what I’m trying to say is that several faculty members in our department, not just one or 2, but several received outstanding Ioulia Rytikova: teaching awards. And that means a lot. I wish I could explain what it is, but it’s difficult to receive those awards. This screening process is is quite, quite tough. The portfolio that that faculty prepare. It’s over 100 pages. So that’s that’s how impressive it is. And you really have to be very innovative. You have to use a new technologist and education Ioulia Rytikova: have to use news math and news methods. If I will give you an example, for instance, in our classes, we actively engage students. It’s not only discussions we have project based inquiry based we use active learning, even though this program is 100 online. What we everyone in our program. We Ioulia Rytikova: offer what’s called optional class meetings, because we cannot require students to come to meetings again. It’s a 100 asynchronous. Ioulia Rytikova: nevertheless. And I teach by the way, classes in this program, too. And nevertheless, we do offer those optional class meetings every week, so that students could come and meet with the Professor or also on a separate day, they meet with the Gc. Or teaching assistant, and that that’s how we help students stay connected. We check on on their progress. We talk to students. We meet with them Ioulia Rytikova: like what we’re doing right now. So again, going back to our fantastic faculty. We have those outstanding teaching award recipients. We also have several faculty members who received the research research Award outstanding research award also, in the past 2 years 2 faculty in our department, 3 only in the last 2 2 years. So we’re consistently receiving these awards. Ioulia Rytikova: The reason why I always talk about research, even though it might feel that. Well, I just want to get my degree. And why would I need to even think about research. Well, we don’t have time for this today, but once you get to my classes, I will talk about it that I’m also involved in lots of research about the educational research and the laws of reports and research studies. They show that incorporating Ioulia Rytikova: research in classes helps students not only to do better in their classes, in graduate or undergraduate programs, but it also prepares them much better for their future jobs. Ioulia Rytikova: That’s why, every time when we have, when, when when we offer classes and we have our top researchers who teach this classes, they come back. So they bring their research continues research back to their classes. They work with students. We also offer what? I, we I again, it depends on how much you’re interested in. Maybe in the Phd program we’re just in Ioulia Rytikova: in this area in general. But we do involve students in or in research projects. If anybody is interested in developing some 80 search portfolio, then we also offer that Ioulia Rytikova: and so forth. So that’s why, again, faculty would teach. These classes are very experienced. They’re recognized experts, and they are great. They’re great experts in their field of study. This is probably one of my favorite slides. I like numbers in general, but when I see numbers for salaries that that that makes me feel even better. As you can see pretty much all the numbers there. Ioulia Rytikova: Consistent they are. They look impressive, and they get bigger as we speak. Well, I can say, because in our days Ioulia Rytikova: again, I’ve just attend attended a workshop with Microsoft today, and they showed some numbers. Today I would say that a lot of a lot of there is a lot of conversations in the AI field. But again, don’t be confused about AI. It’s a very big umbrella. And under this umbrella there are multiple areas, multiple fields. Ioulia Rytikova: For instance, the machine learning engineering concentration is also part of that. So if you go in that direction, you will be on the right track. Ioulia Rytikova: yeah. And what I recommend students to do if if you’re interested, if you are looking for a job, or at least you’re thinking, oh, maybe at some point I will need to do this. In our days of I feel it’s better not to look for specific titles, but to search for specific skills. That’s how we are expected to develop new programs Ioulia Rytikova: when we submit a new program to to chef to top to the top organization. So at the at the at the state level. Then we have to provide specific skills. And because there is, there is such a variety in in in titles Ioulia Rytikova: that for the machine learning engineering title, you can get 10 more that look kind of the same, but they will have different words, maybe AI engineering or AI learning or something else. So you really need to be more open minded and base, you search on skills, not specific titles. And these are just a few examples that we wanted to share with you. If we look at the next slide Ioulia Rytikova: then this is our program. Just a quick summary in, just so that you know about about about your your expectations. So, or our expectations. We have only 10 courses in this. Well, we have lots of courses, but it’s required to complete 10 courses only. It’s 30 credits the first Ioulia Rytikova: for our poor courses. We recommend seriously recommend to start with core courses. And after that you select one of the concentrations and you follow through each concentration until we finish that Ioulia Rytikova: what separates. Ioulia Rytikova: Now, this program from many other programs. Again, when we developed this program was heavily based on research studies. And we did this, we did this. Ioulia Rytikova: We not just our department, but we also, we work together with the other instit other units in our institution to make sure that we meet all the quality checks for online programs. And and the what’s what’s important is to say that this program asks students to complete each course within 8 weeks. Ioulia Rytikova: It’s different from a traditional program when students take multiple courses during 15 weeks. And they kind of take again multiple courses every every week they go to different classes. Here students focus on one course. During 8 weeks they finish that, and then they move on to the next one, and they continue. We offer classes in spring of spring, full and summer. Ioulia Rytikova: Usually our students take 2 classes per semester, which means that students can complete this degree within 2 years. Ioulia Rytikova: well, that’s pretty much. Probably it that here, that’s all I wanted to say. I don’t think if there are any specific questions. We can come back to this. Ioulia Rytikova: and I believe, we have just a few slides left, though. Maybe so here. If we can. If we have time, and if you anybody’s interested, that will be happy to show a specific example so far of courses. But that’s pretty much what you see on this screen, we have lots of videos each course. It has videos developed by the faculty videos, by developed by top experts. Ioulia Rytikova: We are our University. We have partnership with Linkedin. And that means that we have access to all the resources they provide. So we also incorporate that. You cannot read that. But on the left side we have the 8 modules, one module per week all the assignments. That’s what’s good about this program is that it’s very consistent. So students don’t have to. Ioulia Rytikova: Don’t have to kind of adjust every time they start a new course, and it looks completely different here. It’s all the same, you open any course, you will see the same colors, the same banner, the same structure of the course. You can find everything in the same place. So students don’t lose time by learning how to get to the assignments they need. And all this stuff. During this semester professors Ioulia Rytikova: actively my student. My students always say that I send so many emails that sometimes it’s so Ioulia Rytikova: it’s difficult to keep up with all of them. Which is fine. I I understand we’re all very busy, but we communicate with students, not just every week. With some of us. Every day we meet with students weekly. We also ask teaching assistance to meet meet with students. Weekly. We, we provide assignments, their individual collaborative assignments. We have different types of assignments. Ioulia Rytikova: Again, what we try to do. It’s not just. Take the exam and then read this book and take the exam. That’s that old style that that you know Ioulia Rytikova: 100 years ago, people were following. Now we have assignments in addition to obviously exams, but we also have, which is also all offered online. We have. We have discussion boards. We have, quizzes that you can re repeat as many times as you want to, because it’s a learning tool, and you want? You. You see all the answers. And since you really love that Ioulia Rytikova: you have practice problems where you can discuss with your with other students and come up with solutions collaboratively. But again, everybody will have to submit their own solution. So we have lots of fun stuff in our classes and in general students. Or also, it’s very flexible, because we know that students have might have a different background in my classes. For instance, I say. Ioulia Rytikova: well, there are 10. I will give an example. 10 pro pro problems for this week, for instance. And then I say, if you have no experience with my field, then you completely I recommend to complete all 10. But if you already know the subject some extent, and you feel that oh, I know this area. That’s the problem in our, not the problem. But it’s kind of problem in our days that students learn which is good Ioulia Rytikova: good on their own, which is very good, but when they come to our classes it’s very uneven, we and it’s and I always give a survey in the beginning of each semester to understand if I have students who are very new to it a couple of times. I have like experts on on what I do, literally experts. They say I have 20 years of experience in in this field, and it was always fun to work with them because they could Ioulia Rytikova: it. They could also help with students. And they. It’s interesting to have this mix of students in the class. So but back to the assignments, and we say, but if you’re an expert and you can complete only 50% of this program. So they will still get full grade. So we’re trying to be even more flexible. We allow submissions that are a bit late and and we’re trying to again to support students. Ioulia Rytikova: Many graduate students in our program. They work they have families, and and especially after Covid which is a different discussion. But the way students and professors approach learning has changed. Ioulia Rytikova: So that’s something that we, our research team is also working on lots of interesting discussions about that alright and the next slide. Ioulia Rytikova: Oh, and well, then, that’s probably it. So thank you very much for listening. I really appreciate this. If there are questions I will be because I could not hear. I could not see any questions. But if there are questions I will be more than happy to discuss as much as you want to. Today I have no place to go, so I can stay as long as needed. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, thank you so much, Dr. Ridicova. Very thorough. It sounds like this, truly is tailored learning, you know, taking into account that the students are working. They have families, and that people are in different places and their education. So it sounds very collaborative. A mix of individual and Co and collaborative work and a lot of interaction with the instructors. So thank you for that. So, as Dr. Ridicova just mentioned. George Mason Online Admissions: this is interactive. We’re here for you. We would love to hear your questions. I see that one question has already popped into the chat which I’ll read. George Mason Online Admissions: but for those of you who joined late. I know a few more people trickled in down at the bottom of your screen. You should see the question and answer. Section. Please feel free to type your questions, and we’ll be glad to go over those for you. George Mason Online Admissions: So we do have a few questions to start, and I do believe you touched upon this a little bit. Is this Master’s degree a good path for the Phd. Program that we offer at Mason. Ioulia Rytikova: Excellent question. Absolutely. You can start here. Ioulia Rytikova: even even. Well, now a professor speaks so Ioulia Rytikova: E even? Well, though what I would recommend to do. Well, I’m a perfectionist, so please listen carefully what I say, and it doesn’t mean that I’m right, because again, I’m I always Ioulia Rytikova: aim very high. What? I wanna when students come to me and ask about the any Phd program, that’s what I tell them. Ioulia Rytikova: Think about the area that you’re interested in. That’s just even if you don’t know. But you already have that feeling. Hmm! I’m interested in this, or maybe that, or I I’d like to study this particular field. Once you identify kind of what you’re interested in, you don’t have to be precise. Then start searching for if Mason is your place to come, which I hope you will slide, because Ioulia Rytikova: this is a great place. Then search through professors portfolios to see if there is a good match. Ioulia Rytikova: After that I recommend to ask that professors that you selected to meet with them. And again, it doesn’t have to. Doesn’t have to take a lot of time. But Phd. Is really important. It will take at least 5 years of your life. Ioulia Rytikova: and that’s a lot of work, and it’s something that that that might define your entire life. So I I would not take it lightly, so I would need to be, maybe a few professors to discuss what what they are interested, what what with their research, to see. If there is a good match. Ioulia Rytikova: it’s very important to find not only your area, but also a professor who you will feel comfortable working with. And I know again it sounds like, Hmm, do I need to run? Yes, is also very important. For 5 years you will be working very closely with someone one, especially if it’s a cartonage research which is not easy, and and it just overall. Ioulia Rytikova: It requires some effort. And again, people are very busy. So once you see that connection, and once you see that good match, then I would ask there, those, professor, so that one professor which path they will recommend. Ioulia Rytikova: So so I would go. That’s why I know it’s a long answer. But yes, you can start with our program, and we have students who are going after that to to teach the program. But but if you really want to consider all options. Ioulia Rytikova: I would start the other way around. I will go the top down approach, and then I will see if this program feeds what you have in mind giving the professor and the field the the area that you are interested in? I hope that I answer this question. And again, any questions. So any follow up questions. Send me an email, because that’s a kind of long conversation. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much. That was a very thorough response. And just as a reminder, everyone please type those questions. We’re happy to answer them. But we do have another question that popped in here. So one of our students has already been admitted for fall of 2024. So congratulations on that, and they are asking how they can be selected for a Ga. Position because it would really help George Mason Online Admissions: financially in subsidizing the tuition. Now, I may need some clarification is this, are you referring to? Does this sound like more of a teaching assistant, or George Mason Online Admissions: Are you familiar with that Dr. Rita Cova. Ioulia Rytikova: Yes, of course, absolutely. George Mason Online Admissions: Sure. Ioulia Rytikova: Great question. I’m so glad you asked. I have some. Very good. Well. Ioulia Rytikova: I have news. Okay, maybe, and we’ll see some good news. But hmm well, bad news is that we as a department, we do not give those positions like we admit you. And then here we go. Here is a position. Then we will cover all the all the expenses for you. Ioulia Rytikova: Unfortunately, I wish we could do that, though I have to say that since it was mentioned before, we do support Phd students, new applicants when they come to us that we provide funding so. But that’s different. Ioulia Rytikova: But what many of our master students do. We are very like it because we have a huge very huge department. We have over 2,000 Bs students. Ioulia Rytikova: Which means that we have lots of classes at the undergraduate at the graduate program, which means we need a lot of Gta teaching assistance for those classes Ioulia Rytikova: in general. In our department we are. When we select Gt’s. We usually try to select first. The first preference would be, of course, our own students, which is Ms in ait. And then we consider students from other programs. But our students get get the first speak. I’m not saying it’s easy to get this position because they are Ioulia Rytikova: what competitive? We have a lot of very good, very strong students, a lot. But but still, if you have a good reason, if you have a very good Gp. Is very important. So Gp. Is your number one Ioulia Rytikova: skill, I would say so if it’s a good Gtp. If you get some in addition to that, some certificates, for instance, in cyber security particularly, there are some very helpful certificates then you will. You can definitely, you can definitely apply for these positions and be selected. So that’s number one, number 2. What we also sometimes do is we offer gra position Ioulia Rytikova: these id search assistant position. But I should say not we. But by we here I mean faculty. For instance, I just said a project on a on a grant, and one of the current master students was hired as a jury Ioulia Rytikova: for this semester. That was also possible. But it depends on again on the faculty Ioulia Rytikova: and the last one Ioulia Rytikova: so you need to be in contact with the faculty and the last option which which I I like very much. We are very successful, our department in getting what’s called do scholarships in cyber security. But that’s for cyber security to students. Only. Dod stands for Department of Defense. Ioulia Rytikova: They have a scholarship program where also very competitive, that’s nationally recognized. And it’s very difficult to get those scholarships. But we, our department, because of our research faculty and cyber security, were outstanding. We have a research center which is because of that we are very successful in Ioulia Rytikova: in in getting those scholarships every year, some way around the hmm, I would say. December, we send an email to all the students in related in this in the field related to cyber security. So they’re different. A, and then, students send their portfolios to us. We review, and we make recommendations based on those portfolios. Ioulia Rytikova: And again, that’s jb, is very important. And some competitions are very important and additional anything. In addition, extra curricular activities. They will be very helpful for for your consideration. George Mason Online Admissions: And so it sounds like for the Dod scholarships. That would be something the students that are in the cyber track would receive emails about, and as far as the graduate research assistant ships, would they contact their academic advisor within the department? Or is there a specific contact that you would recommend. Ioulia Rytikova: Well, usually we have some announcements. That’s the one of the first things that that happens Ioulia Rytikova: for Gt positions students can apply. We have a separate website for that. By the we, I mean, the entire university is called handshake but in terms of grace, that’s that’s a bit more challenging. You really need to work closely with the faculty. So you need to contact the faculty you need to kind of again to to students do Ioulia Rytikova: I often again also have that they contact us, and they say I will be willing to work as a volunteer, and then then we start to working with them. If we feel that students deliver good results, then we can offer them a jury position. But again, that’s something that people who are interested in research would usually Ioulia Rytikova: probably consider. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, wonderful. And do you ever have area employers contact the department looking for students in entry level positions or outside internships? Or would those students go through the career center in handshake. Ioulia Rytikova: Well, it? Yes, yes, and yes. We have a great Career Center office. I’ve heard so many wonderful things about about them, from from the students we have Job fair. So we do it all in addition to that. As an associate here. I receive once in a while I receive emails. We’re looking for this. So we’re looking for that Ioulia Rytikova: for that position for someone for a specific position. Could you please share it with other students. I will so often this save emails about again my small scholarships. That’s I wish I could say that is consistent in every year we do this, this and this, but every year we do the Dod scholarship, which is, and it covers everything. So it just literally everything is Ioulia Rytikova: that’s full right? But there are also some opportunities where industry our industry partners, they contact us. They either are looking for for you employees, or they want to provide some well, relatively small, less. It depends some, some recognition, some scholarships of work. So we do that, too. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, thank you. And another question popped up, is there an option of admin? Ga. Ioulia Rytikova: Yes. Ioulia Rytikova: Oh, wow! Guys, you are amazing. You are like. Ioulia Rytikova: you’re, you’re just considering coming to us. Absolutely. Yes. Ioulia Rytikova: yeah. Because we are a very large department. And I actually, I never thought about this. But yes, in our departments, just on our department, we have 3. It’s called student workers. So that’s what I think it means. Ioulia Rytikova: So we have student workers who are supporting our department from the administrative perspective, and the students often leave because they either can get the job or they get an internship, or they want to move on or something else. So we’re very lucky. We have wonderful students but now they’re living because of somewhere. So we also yes, there is an opportunity to work Ioulia Rytikova: in the Admin office for students. George Mason Online Admissions: And should those students go through handshake for that in the career center. Ioulia Rytikova: I would say. Handshake. That would be the number one place to go. That’s where usually all the departments they post their announcements and so forth. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, and it catchy. We can send you that. I’ll send you that information, the link to the career center because they do some wonderful events. It looks like they even have clearance workshops, job fairs, and and all kinds of different things. So I don’t see any more questions trickling in. But I am going to ask just a couple to give everyone a chance to type any last minute questions that they may have. So one question that I frequently George Mason Online Admissions: receive from students is if they’re looking to be an AI to work in AI. I know that’s a huge buzz term right now. Would this track? Obviously, you talked about machine learning earlier, or would the computer science be a better degree. Ioulia Rytikova: Excellent question. Ioulia Rytikova: well, it’s if I could maybe provide a bit more information, because everybody is now so excited. 10 years ago it was the same excitement about big data, just the the same. I remember so clearly. And people were trying to figure out what to do with that. Now, okay, that’s just big data. Okay, we can do that. Now, it’s AI, which is fantastic. Ioulia Rytikova: So if we speak about departments, we have this Cs department and Us. IC department. So these are 2 separate departments. Ioulia Rytikova: What’s confusing for? And I I know, because I hear it. Even people are. Gonna so what’s confusing is what those departments offer, and what’s the difference in our days? Not only Cs and I see, but even other departments just recently. For instance, the electrical engineering departments. They offer the course in AI Ioulia Rytikova: so and that’s fine, because it’s very specific to to their field of study. What’s different. So everybody might have something related to AI in our days because it’s popular. What’s important is to understand whether you want to be a person who develops new new theories Ioulia Rytikova: and new tools. Ioulia Rytikova: new applications. Ioulia Rytikova: or, if you would like to understand it, the field enough so that you could successfully apply that to solve any complex problem and pretty much any field. So that’s what we do. Ioulia Rytikova: So the Cs department and these are our 2 departments are probably major feeders for for AI. But Cs approaches that from the theoretical fundamental perspective. So that again, the theory, a lot of math the Lord. So you have to be really a very strong in math. Ioulia Rytikova: You have to have I again in that workshop which I mentioned earlier today. It was a great workshop and the one of the universes was gardening a Mel. Ioulia Rytikova: and they say we do. If you don’t have a Cs background, then that’s it. Our AI program is not for you. So I in a nice way. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to, by the way, but in a nice way, but the the. So in the Cs department. Usually it’s assumed that you have a very strong Cs background, a lot of programming, math courses, statistics and so forth. Ioulia Rytikova: So with the IC department, we are applied, and that’s why we also go over the theory. But our goal is applications. AI has a lot of I’m I’m almost done with my answer. But this is a very large, is a big question to answer. So AI has many different fields and areas in, and people define it differently. One of them is machine learning Ioulia Rytikova: or machine learning engineering. So the the seas Department also offers something related in Ioulia Rytikova: to that field. I don’t know exactly where what their programs are. I know in general, but because I know that they certainly have it. But but the the the choice between the 2 is Ioulia Rytikova: your background. And what what kind of job you want to do in the future? So that would be the difference between our machine learning, for instance, and Cs machine learning. Ioulia Rytikova: I’m not sure if I if it was a good clarification but I hope that I covered at least a few questions. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, yes, and it looks like our questions have come to a halt here. I’ve scanned them all, and we all had some some great questions that you all had for us today. And so, Dr. Vitakova, would you like me to go over the admissions process now, in our upcoming start date. Ioulia Rytikova: Thank you. Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, good news for everyone here. We are still accepting applications for the August 20, sixth start date. That is our fall term. And so. Yes, you still have time to apply. Now, what we’re looking for is for students to fill out the application George Mason Online Admissions: and then upload a copy of your Transcript that has the school name all of the grades and the degree conferral date. I know a lot of people use unofficial transcripts, but just make sure that it has those 3 components, and then we’ll we’ll try to order your official transcripts for you once you’ve done that, and then we need your resume. Of course, a work resume is fine, and we will email you the instructions for the personal statement essay. George Mason Online Admissions: and then for the recommendations, we do need 2 professional recommendations. So please know family or friends there, you know, we have a form to fill out. So all you need to do is list the People’s email addresses in the application that will trigger our system to send a short questionnaire to your references. And then they can type on it and click submit online. So it’s pretty quick and painless there. George Mason Online Admissions: Normally, people try to finish up their admissions files within a week or 2. Sometimes it takes a little longer waiting for those recommendations. Usually the decision can be turned around within one to 3 weeks. Sometimes it does take a little longer, depending on the time of year. George Mason Online Admissions: But that puts you in good shape to apply for the August 20 sixth start date. We would like the files ideally complete George Mason Online Admissions: by July first, if possible. The official deadline is August first, but we do have a lot of files in the fall, so it’s rolling admissions. The sooner you complete your file, the sooner you’ll have your decision, and that will benefit you. So you can start getting ready for a class, and we will send you out all of these materials. We see the attendees here. So we’ll email that to you. And if you have questions at any point, you are welcome to give us a call. George Mason Online Admissions: We work with you throughout the application process, and I’ve got all of the information there. You can scan the QR code or call 703-48-5006 or email online, 2@gmu.edu, and we’ll be happy to help you throughout the admissions process. George Mason Online Admissions: So I just wanna thank Dr. Ridicova for joining us. You provided a wealth of information. I can see your passion really shine through for the program, and I know the students really enjoy the program. So thank you again for joining us. Do you have anything that you’d like to add. Ioulia Rytikova: Well, again, I was so happy to be here. Thank you very much for inviting me for me. That’s an incredible opportunity to talk more about our wonderful program. All I can say is that I hope that all students who are here today and those who will watch this presentation. Later they will find the program they they love. They will get admitted, and they will have a beautiful journey of their Ms. Degree. Good luck. Everyone. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, and thank you for joining us tonight. Everyone have a great night. Ioulia Rytikova: Goodbye. Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: But bye.

George Mason Online Admissions: Well, hello, everyone for those of you who have just joined us. Welcome to the Open House, Webinar, for George Mason, University’s Master of arts in economics. We’ll get started in just a few minutes. But this is an interactive webinar. So, you will have a chance to type your questions for our program director, Dr. Coyne. George Mason Online Admissions: and we can answer those for you at the end of the presentation. So just to make sure everyone’s audio is working, and that you can hear me if you can. Please do me a quick favor and look for the chat button. George Mason Online Admissions: It should be in that black bar across your screen at the top or bottom, and if you could just type your 1st name and where you’re located, and if you feel comfortable, maybe even share a couple of words about why you’re interested in the Master of Arts in Economics, and then we’ll get started at 7 Pm. As scheduled. Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: Welcome, Noah from North Carolina. George Mason Online Admissions: We’re glad that you chose to join us this evening. George Mason Online Admissions: And wow! We have a couple of different locations tonight, John, all the way from Reno, Nevada. George Mason Online Admissions: so welcome. We’re glad to have you here, and I’m glad the audio is working well. George Mason Online Admissions: and would anyone feel comfortable sharing a couple of words about what prompted them to join the webinar tonight, what they’re hoping to learn or do with this degree. George Mason Online Admissions: I see that a few more people have just joined us tonight for the Webinar for the Master of Arts in Economics offered by George Mason University. We’ll be getting started here in just a moment, but I see a few more people just trickled in. So, I was just asking if you have a chance to use the Comments section. There’s a little button in the black George Mason Online Admissions: bar at the top or bottom of your screen. If you feel comfortable, just type your 1st name, and where you’re located, and if anyone feels comfortable. Just why they’re interested in the program and we will get started here in just a moment. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, great. So, someone is saying, they’re curious to learn more about the curriculum and different career opportunities in the field George Mason Online Admissions: and looking to make a career change. Well, you’re in the right place, because we’ll certainly address the curriculum as well as career opportunities. George Mason Online Admissions: and for those of you who just joined us, you will have an opportunity to type in your questions during the presentation, and at the end we’ll read them aloud for Dr. Coyne, our online program director, and we’ll answer all of those for you. So, we’re glad to have you tonight. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, well, it is 7 o’clock on the.so we will get started here. George Mason Online Admissions: My name is Stephanie Racine. I may have spoken with a few of you all about the program. I’m an admissions representative. But tonight, we’re in for a very special treat because we are being joined by our online program director and a professor in the program, Dr. Christopher Coyne. Thank you for joining us tonight. Dr. Coyne. Chris Coyne: Oh, thank you, and thank you to everyone who’s with us, and for taking the time out of your day to be here, I appreciate it. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. So just taking a look at tonight’s agenda. George Mason Online Admissions: We are going to learn a little bit more about Dr. Coyne. George Mason Online Admissions: We’re going to learn about the Mason Masonomics tradition. We will learn about the value of economics. We will learn about the curriculum details, the faculty, how the online classroom works, the admissions, requirements, and then, of course, we will answer all of those questions, and, as I mentioned before, you are welcome to participate, so just use that chat feature along the black bar at the top or bottom of your screen to type in your questions. George Mason Online Admissions: So, with Oh! And one more housekeeping thing, I just wanted to let you know that we are still accepting applications for the January 13th start date. We’ll tell you how to apply at the end of the program. If you’re interested and you’re right on time, you do still have time to apply. So you can start the year off fresh working on your Master’s degree if you are interested, but at this point I will turn the presentation over to Dr. Coyne. George Mason Online Admissions: where he’ll tell you some of his favorite things about the program, and then we will start to answer all of those questions at the end of the program. So thank you again, Dr. Coyne, I’ll turn this over to you. Chris Coyne: All right. Thank you very much for the introduction. Let me just say a few words about myself to introduce myself. The Chris Coyne: online Ma program is part of our graduate portfolio. Here at George Mason University, we offer a economics undergraduate Degree Master’s degree, and that master’s degree takes on 2 modalities. One is online, which is what we’re discussing this evening. The other is on the ground. And then we have a Phd program in economics as well, which is on the ground and in person. Chris Coyne: The online Chris Coyne: ma is the equivalent of the on the ground, ma in terms of a professional degree, meaning you would receive a master’s in economics from George Mason University, and it would be on your transcript as receiving an Ma. It would not, does not demarcate it in any way on your transcript, on the diploma Chris Coyne: or any other way that it was online. So this is not distinct from the in-person on the ground degree, in terms of the quality and integrity of the degree. The only difference is the modality, and I’ll say more about that later. Chris Coyne: But before I turn to that. Let me say a few words about myself. I gave that introduction to motivate something that’s near and dear to my heart, which is, I am a Gmu patriot. Through and through, I actually went to undergraduate in New York City. I got introduced to economics my junior year as an undergraduate and fell in love with it. And then, after I worked in finance for 2 years, I decided to pursue a master’s and Chris Coyne: PhD. And there is only one school I applied to which is George Mason University. This would have been in Chris Coyne: 2001, and I started in Fall 2001 in the in the joint master’s PhD. Program here, and I finished my degree in 2005. Chris Coyne: I chose to come to GMU because it was the only institution that offered the specific, unique fields of study which I’ll talk more about in a moment, that I was passionate and interested in studying in great detail. I graduated in 2,005. I held 2 other academic jobs after I graduated, and then I returned as a part of the faculty here in 2010, Chris Coyne: and since returning I have been involved in overseeing teaching in and working with students in those various graduate programs that I mentioned earlier master’s Phd. And so on. Chris Coyne: Now, my role is overseeing this program, the Ma online, which brings me to talk with you this evening. And so I know George Mason University’s economics program, inside and out, both as a student and now as a faculty member. And so I feel comfortable, providing you with a honest overview of what the program entails. Chris Coyne: trying my best to address common questions along the way, and then, of course, as was mentioned, I’ll leave time at the end to open it up and feel free to ask me anything you want. I’ll be honest with you. One of my kind of personal operating principles is that I think Chris Coyne: education in general is a joint product, meaning that we as faculty are educators. But the students are key. You can’t have a program without students who are willing to learn. Chris Coyne: and so crucial to that joint product is a mutual interest and excitement in learning. And so it’s really important at the graduate level master’s Phd. And so on, to make sure that you’re a fit for the program. And the program is a fit for you and so feel free to ask any question you’d like. I’ll do my best to answer, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll tell you that as well, and so let us dive right into the material. So next slide, please. Chris Coyne: So I mentioned that Gmu is is very unique in what we do in economics. And and there’s something we refer to here as the Masonomics tradition, and it’s really grounded in the work of 3 Nobel Laureate economists. Chris Coyne: FA. Hayek who won the Nobel Prize in 1974 was a major influence on this program, which is relatively young. The Department of Economics Chris Coyne: started in the late seventies, and Hayek and his work in market process theory was influential in how our program both got started, but also in the content and style of economics that we do here at George Mason. Chris Coyne: the second key figure here in the history of the department is James Buchanan. James Buchanan won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1986, and Buchanan is the founder of a field known as public choice economics, public choice economics takes the tools of economics and applies them to non-market decision, making Chris Coyne: so things like politics, things like nonprofit activity, and so on. So it’s highly interdisciplinary in nature. Buchanan is considered the founder of that field and won the Nobel Prize for it while he was a faculty member here at George Mason. Chris Coyne: The 3rd figure, I’ll highlight is Vernon Smith. Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in 2,002. Again, while he was a faculty member here at George Mason. Chris Coyne: he is considered one of the founding fathers of the field known as experimental economics, experimental economics, attempts to take various theories and propositions in economics, and subject them to experimental methods, to illuminate the operation of those theories of the validity of those theories, and so on. Chris Coyne: These 3 thinkers. These 3 Nobel Prize winners serve as the backbone of the intellectual tradition that underpins George Mason University’s department of economics. Chris Coyne: And as I move on to the curriculum momentarily, you’re going to see elective courses in each of these areas, market process theory in public choice, in public finance and in experimental economics. And so I raise this both to give you a very brief abridged history of the department, but also to highlight what I consider to be the unique Chris Coyne: aspects of the department, and also to foreshadow what some of our electives are, so that when you see them you can tie them back to that history, and so I’ll stop there at the historical aspect and move on. But I’m more than happy to talk further about it to answer any questions or anything else on your mind when we come to that portion of our program this evening. Chris Coyne: The other really unique aspect of George Mason University Chris Coyne: in the Department of Economics. Here is that we place an emphasis. By we I mean our department on really 4 sets of activities related to economics. So there’s the scholarly component. That’s the academic research academic scholarship. There’s a policy component. And I’m going to provide you a concrete example of this. In a few moments Chris Coyne: there is public communication and outreach. So many of my colleagues in the department of economics, write OP-eds, blog on a regular basis, have podcasts, and so on in addition to their scholarship and policy work. And then we take teaching quite seriously as well, we view it as critical to our role as economists, not just to do research, even though that’s quite important, not just to think about policy Chris Coyne: and contribute to policy, not just public outreach, but also communicating with students, working with students and offering students an opportunity to learn the tools of economics, both at a theoretical level and at an applied level. Chris Coyne: Next slide, please. Chris Coyne: So here’s the the curriculum that I mentioned. So the the way I think about this is really 2 buckets. There’s core classes, and then there’s electives, and the core classes are standard Chris Coyne: core economic classes. If you looked at most Chris Coyne: master’s degrees in economics, you would see something equivalent to this, either exactly parallel to it, or very similar to it, with maybe one or 2 marginal adjustments. And so you have math, Econ. You have 2, micro one. Pardon me 2 micro theory courses, micro one and micro 2, Chris Coyne: one macro theory course and one applied econometrics course. All students in the program take these core classes. They are 3 credits each. So that’s 15 credits worth of classes. Chris Coyne: The Master’s degree is 30 credits total. So the core classes constitute half of that degree. 15 of the 30 credits. That is the same exact structure as the on the ground program. So our on the ground students also take those same core classes. Chris Coyne: Then you turn to your electives and let me work here in reverse order, meaning, let me start at the end of the program and then back into the electives, and what I mean by that is the other required class is a capstone course. That’s the bottom line. There in the bottom portion of the table. The capstone course is the last course you’ll take. Everyone takes it. Chris Coyne: and it is a summation of everything you’ve learned in the program, and it’s meant to tie everything together. And this is the one Chris Coyne: difference in the curriculum between the online program and the on the ground program. And I raise this because sometimes people look at our website and they’re looking at the on the ground program, and they see similarities all the way down until this point, and then they get a little bit confused, so I wanted to to raise it for the purpose of clarity Chris Coyne: our on the ground students take an exam. They take an exam called the Comprehensive exam that tests them on the knowledge of the micro and macro theory in the core. So they take that at the end of their 1st year Chris Coyne: for the online Chris Coyne: students, for the online program, the program that you and I are discussing this evening. We replace that exam with a capstone course. And so there is no comprehensive exam for the online Ma students, but they are required to take this course to demonstrate their knowledge of what they’ve learned in the course, both theoretical and applied, and I won’t say more about that for now, but I’m happy to do so during the Q. And a. Chris Coyne: So if we have 5 Chris Coyne: core classes, one required capstone, that’s 6 classes out of 10, which leaves 4 electives, those 4 electives. And all these classes are 3 credits each. That’s uniform across all ma classes. Chris Coyne: The Chris Coyne: electives are your choice, and so you need 4 of them, and you can choose from. 6. 1 is causal inference. Causal inference is a statistics course. So for those of you who are interested in developing, honing, ramping up your statistics skills, you might choose to select that course, you would have had applied econometrics, Econ. 535 as part of the core, and then you also might Chris Coyne: choose the causal inference class as well. Chris Coyne: Others might choose comparative economic systems which covers topics like development institutions, and so on. Chris Coyne: Experimental economics. I mentioned, when I was going over the Masonomics tradition that relates to issues of understanding experiments both at a theoretical and an applied level. Chris Coyne: Gender economics explores the various aspects of gender through the lens of economics, and I should mention that the economist, Claudia Golden, won the Nobel Prize just a year ago or 2 years ago. Pardon me for her work in gender economics. And so this topic is a growing one in economics, and if it’s something that interests you, there would be the opportunity to pursue that Chris Coyne: market process. Economics is another option. That’s what I mentioned earlier, when I was discussing Fa. Hayek that focuses on things like the nature of markets. It contrasts different economic systems, capitalism, socialism, the mixed economy, and so on. It discusses things like entrepreneurship, the nature of capital and production, and so on. Chris Coyne: And then the final option for electives is public economics and public choice. And that’s getting at the issues that were related to my discussion of James Buchanan on the prior slide issues of using the tools of economics to critically analyze decision making in non-market settings, including politics and so on. Chris Coyne: And so there is an opportunity for you to take different courses depending on your interests. And so the way to think about this Chris Coyne: is that you’re getting a core in micro and macroeconomic theory. You’re getting a core class in applied econometrics, and then from there you can design your path if you will, to best meet your needs and goals. Chris Coyne: The other thing I should just mention, or 2 things I should mention in terms of the structure of the core. The math Econ class is the 1st class you will take. Once you’re in the program, there is a a online math camp Chris Coyne: that you will have access to the materials when you register for classes. If you need to brush up on your math, and then you take Math Econ 1st and then transition into micro one. And the 1st micro one course is largely focused on a baseline understanding of microeconomic theory. Chris Coyne: Then, when you move into micro 2 micro theory 2, it combines aspects of the math class and the micro one class. So you have the math, the theory, and micro one micro 2 combines those together in order to provide you a comprehensive integration of both of those aspects. Chris Coyne: and then you’d be taking macro and econometrics as well to round out the core. Chris Coyne: Now, one of the most common questions I get is the level of math that is required for these classes, rather than go through each of the classes and run down various math and statistical concepts that are related. What I have done is put together a Chris Coyne: a short overview for each of the core classes, and under each of the headings it lists what the main concepts are that you would need to know whether it’s math or statistics in the case of econometrics in order to succeed. And so if you are interested in that. Chris Coyne: you should email me and I can send it to you. And I shall quickly put my email, which I’ll also say out loud for people that are listening to a recording of this later Ccoin 3 at Gmuedu is my email. And if you email me and just say, Hey, I wanted to follow up and ask for the overview that you mentioned during the orientation. I’ll remember instantaneously what you’re talking about, and gladly share that with you, and then you’ll have everything in one place. Chris Coyne: Next slide, please. Chris Coyne: I mentioned earlier Chris Coyne: those 4 quadrants about what we do here. We have our scholarship. We have our policy work, we have our communication, we have our teaching. I just wanted to give you a few examples, and this is a very small sample, but it’s an illustrative sample, which is why I want to highlight these features. And again, if people have other questions, or you might be familiar with some of my colleagues from following them on online. And you want to talk about any of it. Just raise it during the Q. And a. And I’ll gladly do so. Chris Coyne: My colleagues, Tyler Cowan and Alex Tabrack, run the blog marginal revolution. Chris Coyne: and they also run marginal revolution University, which is an online economics curriculum. Marginal revolution is one of the most, if not the most popular economics. Blog that there is, and if you don’t follow it, I suggest that you take a look at it, and perhaps follow it on a regular basis. Chris Coyne: Tyler and Alex are masters at presenting economic concepts in a distilled and accessible form by commenting on current events. Chris Coyne: by distilling down recent research in economics and in other fields, I should mention. And it’s it’s it’s a nice way to to get exposed to a wide range of topics concepts, and to see how economics can apply to a range of current events. Chris Coyne: To the right of the marginal Revolution header is a book that was written by my colleague, Peter Betke, with 2 co-authors, and it’s called Public Governance in the classical liberal perspective. Chris Coyne: and Pete and I should mention Pete designed the comparative economics class that is in the curriculum for this program. I highlight this book because it’s highly interdisciplinary. It’s an economics book. Chris Coyne: But it is really on public administration, on political science. But it’s using the lens of economics. Chris Coyne: And so for people in the program that are interested in things like public administration, and so on. My colleagues are well versed in those issues. And again, the way we think about things here at Gmu as a faculty is highly interdisciplinary. Nothing is off limits. We don’t view economics as a narrow field that only a few specialists can Chris Coyne: understand and access. We don’t narrowly focus on theory to the point that there’s no application at all. We also don’t focus purely on application to the extent that there’s no theoretical framework for you to understand the world. We try to strike the right balance between between theory and applied work. Chris Coyne: The final example I want to give you, which is towards the the bottom of of the slide you’re looking at right now is by my colleague, Thomas Stratman. Chris Coyne: Thomas Stratman, designed the causal Inference class and the public finance, public economics, public choice class I mentioned earlier. Chris Coyne: and he has done significant work in the area of what is called certificate of need laws, and if you don’t know what certificate of need laws are, they are laws that require approval in order to open healthcare facilities. Chris Coyne: and one of the basic but extremely important insights of economics is that when you raise the cost of Chris Coyne: opening new facilities, establishing new organizations, whether they are private businesses, public businesses, healthcare businesses, and so on on the margin. You’ll get fewer of them. Chris Coyne: Thomas Stratman has taken this academic research and has used it to engage policymakers. This. This header I pulled is from a short piece that summarized testimony he gave Chris Coyne: to the members of Georgia’s House of Representatives. Chris Coyne: And so you can see how there’s this interplay I was talking about earlier. Pardon me, there’s the academic research, but also that academic research which is applied in this case has implications for the real world well-being of our fellow human beings in this case, with access to healthcare Chris Coyne: and Thomas has been able to do the academic scholarship. But then take that in transition and leverage it into policy discussions to inform those discussions. And so it’s a nice example, I think, of the point I was trying to make earlier about not just those 4 quadrants standing individually, but also the interplay between them. Chris Coyne: Next slide, please. Chris Coyne: So let me say a little bit about the the classes themselves, because this is some of the common questions I get. Chris Coyne: and and let me. That’s me. There in the in the upper corner, my colleague, Joanna Mullerstrom, in the in the bottom corner, and I’ll say more about those specific classes in a moment. Chris Coyne: But but let me step back and say, You know, kind of a bird’s eyed view of the program itself. Chris Coyne: And I mentioned that Chris Coyne: the online Ma and the on the ground are similar in terms of their structure. I mentioned one of the key differences which is on the ground comprehensive exam online economic capstone. Chris Coyne: There’s 1 other big difference which I’d like to mention to you Chris Coyne: which is modality, modality being the mechanism of delivery of the educational content to the students. And Chris Coyne: the on the ground program is synchronous. It is face to face. It is Chris Coyne: class meetings. It is a regimented, fixed schedule. So you’re you’re on campus for a certain number of hours. The benefit is you get that face-to-face interaction and the delivery in the traditional classroom setting Chris Coyne: the downside of that for some students is that you lose flexibility. You lose the ability to shape and control your schedule, whether it is for professional reasons, whether it’s for personal reasons or other obligations which constrain your availability with that fixed class time. Chris Coyne: The online program is is known as is what is known as or delivered through a mechanism known as asynchronous education. Asynchronous means that it is not face-to-face. Chris Coyne: meaning that there’s not a set time. It’s not like there’s a class every Tuesday from 7 to 10 Pm. That’s when our on the ground. Classes are offered Chris Coyne: 7 to 10 Pm. For core classes. For instance, there’s nothing like that. There are modules, and those modules for each week contain the relevant information. There’s deadlines. It’s not that you can do anything anytime you want, but there’s flexibility built in. Chris Coyne: There’s flexibility built in to meet the needs of students to customize their schedule. Chris Coyne: There’s instructors. So there are instructors for the courses. Those instructors are available to you, whether by email, by zoom. Chris Coyne: some of them hold optional office hours, meaning that they’ll set fixed hours on zoom. Others do it by appointment. It varies from instructor to instructor. Chris Coyne: but there is no fixed obligation where you have to be online every single week at a point in time. And one of the reasons many people select into this program, and this modality is precisely because it offers them that flexibility with everything else they have going on in their life. So for some people it’s a geographic constraint. They can’t move to Northern Virginia, which is where we’re based in person. At George Mason University. Chris Coyne: They have professional obligations, personal obligations. Chris Coyne: time, zone issues all different kinds of of various constraints I’ve experienced with with students in this program who appreciate the fact that we have that flexibility built in Chris Coyne: the material is interactive. It is a mix of videos of reading, of discussion, groups of group projects in some cases whereby you and your colleagues in the program have an opportunity to engage with digest and process the information, and also to demonstrate your mastery of it. And that’s the general structure of the program. And so the Chris Coyne: top. 2 images on the top row are from the market process theory class. I designed that class as well as the micro one micro theory. One class I designed, and it gives you a sense of of kind of the look of the of the class. Chris Coyne: The bottom 2 images are from the Chris Coyne: applied econometrics class that my colleague, Joanna Mullerstrom, designed. She also designed the gender economics class as well, and we’ve gotten very positive feedback from from students in both of of her classes in terms of the content, the workflow and just the material covered. Chris Coyne: And so the classes Chris Coyne: are offered through Chris Coyne: canvas. George Mason University was using blackboard, and we’re transitioning to canvas now. So starting in the spring canvas will be the platform. So once you register for courses and you’re an official. Gmu student. You get access to canvas, and then your courses are offered through there and then, as I mentioned, you’re able to reach out to the instructor as needed Chris Coyne: for assistance and discussion. But canvas is your primary platform. The content of each of the individual classes varies greatly, both in terms of the material which makes sense, given the different topics covered, but also in terms of assessment. Chris Coyne: And so for some classes, there’s quizzes and exams for other classes. There’s those, maybe some mix of those things, but also discussion forums where you are assessed, based on your contributions to the group discussion. In other cases there are recorded short recorded presentations that you will do so. There’s a mix Chris Coyne: of of materials, both in terms of the content itself, but assessment materials, the quizzes and exams are taken through canvas. So they’re taken through the online platform. And there’s something called Chris Coyne: the browser lockdown. All right. Radius, I believe the name of it is. And again. You log into it, and it syncs up with, use your Gmu credentials and it syncs up with canvas. Chris Coyne: and it basically locks down your browser and limits the ability to cheat to access outside materials. And that is the way that the exams and other assessment requirements that require things like exam formats, how they’re taken and proctored. Chris Coyne: And so that’s the the structure of that. Chris Coyne: Trying to think of anything else I wanted to cover. I’ll stop there and answer any questions you have as we go along next slide, please. Chris Coyne: So here’s the admissions process. But you know there’s 1 thing that occurred to me that before I say this that just popped into my mind that I should have mentioned earlier. You know I said to you all that when you’re in this program you are considered a George Mason University University student. You are in pursuit of an official Gmu Master’s degree, and with that comes all privileges of being a student. So, of course, presumably, if you’re online, you’re not going to be here in person. Chris Coyne: But you still have access to Gmu services. So what do I mean by that you have access to the Gmu library, and of course, as you all know now, there’s a physical library here, but even for those of us who are physically sitting here. We access almost everything online. I rarely leave my office to access books, journal articles, and so on. They’re all available online. Chris Coyne: And you, too, will have the same privileges. You will have access to career services. Now you’ll have to do it remotely, of course, unless you’re in the area by chance, but you will have access to those services as well. And so I wanted to mention that to again make clear to you that this program is viewed as being equal to and part of, the Gmu community. You are part of the broader university community. You’re part of the department community, and you are treated as such. Chris Coyne: Again, the defining feature of the program being that you’re not here physically, in person. And so to the extent there are constraints. That’s what they are Chris Coyne: now. You can see the the general kind of timeline here, if you will, or so, or steps, perhaps, is the better word I should use to to apply to the program. Chris Coyne: And let me just say a couple things about things that kind of common questions. I get related to this. And again. I’m happy to answer any. I don’t answer here that you want to discuss or further clarify things I do say to you, and I want to focus on nodes 3 and 4 before moving down to those suggested courses. Node number 3 is 2 letters of recommendation. And so one of the most common questions I get is, well, who should I get to recommend me? Chris Coyne: People might say things like, and and I understand fully. Our our student body is extremely diverse, they might say. I’ve been out of school for 5, 1015, sometimes 20 years. I don’t have contact with my Chris Coyne: undergraduate professors, so what do I do, and don’t be concerned about this. My general advice is to select people who can recommend you, who can speak to your skill, set your capabilities, your drive your ambition, your aspirations to succeed in graduate school Chris Coyne: that can be colleagues. That can be someone from your community. As long as you know. It’s a legitimate person that can speak to the things I just mentioned. Chris Coyne: I’ve seen a whole variety of different letter writers, and what we’re looking for here is indications of your ability to succeed and fit for the program. We want you to be happy. We don’t want you to join the program. If you’re not going to flourish and succeed. And so that’s how you should think about that and understand it. Same thing with the statement of purpose. Chris Coyne: Think about the statement of purpose which is usually a page to 2 pages typed. Chris Coyne: Think of it as your opportunity to to talk with us. So imagine you were having a conversation with me, and I said something to you like. Chris Coyne: why do you want to come to this program? How will the program benefit you? Chris Coyne: And how will you benefit from the program. Chris Coyne: And you had to answer that. What would you say? So you could talk about your skills, your interest in our program. Why are you interested in particular things. So we have a lot of students come in that have some pre-existing interest in one of the fields I talked about earlier. Others are just interested in economics in general, and that’s all fine and good. Chris Coyne: and then talk about your your aspirations. What you hope to do in your career, what you hope to achieve with the degree, and so on. Chris Coyne: and so use that as an opportunity to to have that conversation to, to just lay out what it your your trajectory? Chris Coyne: Another related question. I get on this, so I’ll mention it now Chris Coyne: is we’ve had people come in who have very low undergraduate Gpas. Chris Coyne: and my advice always is to face that head on to discuss it. In your statement of purpose Chris Coyne: I have reviewed Chris Coyne: and worked with hundreds, if not thousands of graduate students over my. Chris Coyne: what is it now? 20 years of teaching, as I mentioned, for over a decade I oversaw both our master’s and our Phd. Program. I was at a school of a Phd. Program prior to that. So I’ve seen, I imagine, not everything you can see, but but almost everything you can see as it pertains to graduate students. Chris Coyne: I have seen many students with a poor undergraduate background, meaning performance. Wise that flourish in graduate school. Why? Not? Because they struggle in school, but because they were Chris Coyne: goofy undergraduates at a point in time. Chris Coyne: They didn’t take school seriously, or perhaps more seriously, they had some personal crisis in their life as an undergraduate that affected their performance, and that’s not on them. It was out of their control that can be personal, professional, or a whole host of other issues. Chris Coyne: And and I’m not asking you to to go into great personal detail if that’s your situation, but rather to explain it and say, like, Look, because we’re going to see your transcript so you can’t hide it. So you say, here’s what happened. Here’s where I went wrong. And more importantly, here’s what’s different. Chris Coyne: So I’ve seen a lot of students say, Oh, if you look at my transcript, you’re going to see freshman and sophomore year. My, my Gpa. Was a 2, Chris Coyne: and I look, I just wasn’t a serious student. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had trouble adjusting to college, whatever whatever their circumstances were. But they say, then, you see, my junior and senior year, and look at my economics courses when I became passionate about economics, and I started to flourish, or Chris Coyne: I have been a professional after graduating for X amount of years. Chris Coyne: and I’ve matured, and I know what I want now, and I have a track record beyond my undergraduate transcripts, which speaks to my capabilities to succeed Chris Coyne: to my way of thinking, these are extremely powerful statements of purpose, because a it demonstrates that a person shows self-awareness, accepts responsibility, but also says, Look, I have a a pathway and a strategy to succeed and flourish in life. Chris Coyne: and I say this both as a piece of advice for writing the statement of purpose, but also as a word of encouragement to those of you who, for whatever reason, might have a relatively low undergraduate Gpa. It is not in and of itself going to disqualify you from applying. Chris Coyne: Now the final thing I just want to mention to you those 4 bullet points at the bottom. Now read carefully, not required, but recommended. So these are not requirements. They are suggested courses intermediate, micro and macro, one semester of calculus, one semester of statistics. You can succeed without those Chris Coyne: you might struggle with those. It depends on the person. As I mentioned, I’ve put together an overview of more specific math and statistic concepts in the classes. So if you email me at the email address in the chat. I’ll send it to you, Ccoin. 3 at Gmuedu. But I wanted to mention that Chris Coyne: the final thing I’m going to say to you before I open it up for for Q. And a is this. Chris Coyne: our student body, as I mentioned, is highly diverse. It is diverse in terms of backgrounds. It is diverse in terms of people’s goals and aspirations. It is diverse in terms of where people are in their lives. Chris Coyne: We’ve had everyone from people that want to pursue a Phd. In economics to people that are in nonprofits to people that are in for-profits to people that work in international agencies Chris Coyne: to. We’ve had even one or 2 high school teachers who teach Ap. Economics and wanted to pursue a master’s degree to supplement their knowledge of the field that they teach in their high school where they’re employed. And so we have a extremely wide Chris Coyne: kind of sample or base, if you will, of student experiences, backgrounds, interests, and goals. There’s no single profile Chris Coyne: that also. Then maps into what people do with the degree after they’re done. There’s no 3 jobs I can give you. It is extremely diverse. I’ve seen people come into the program who are in a career that they love, but they want to move up and they feel that the masters will help them do so. So they’re working. And they’re geographically remote. And the masters Chris Coyne: program. The online modality fits them quite nicely. We’ve had others who want to switch careers, and they think that pursuing a master’s is a 1st step to that. Chris Coyne: And, as I mentioned earlier, we have others who perhaps didn’t do very well undergraduate, but want to pursue a more advanced degree, and are using the Ma. As a bridge between undergraduate and the pursuit of a Phd. Chris Coyne: None of these is a limiting strategy, or the only strategy or the right strategy for everyone. It really depends what you want, and if you have any questions related to that, I’ll do my best to answer them. But oftentimes my answers to these career questions are quite broad, precisely because economics degrees are quite powerful that way, but also because what path you want to pursue is quite specific to the person. Chris Coyne: And so with that, I don’t know if we I think that is the last Chris Coyne: slide. But if we could check Chris Coyne: yep, Q. And a. All right. So let me pause there and ask if you have any questions at all. It can be about the program. It can be mundane issues. It can be about Chris Coyne: the Department of Economics itself myself. Chris Coyne: the classes we offer, any economics, anything you want to talk about. I am here to do so. So you can type your questions in the chat. Chris Coyne: If you have any. George Mason Online Admissions: We’ve already had some come in, Dr. Coyne. Chris Coyne: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Would you like me to start reading those for you? Okay, the 1st one is, Do Tyler and Alex teach in the online program? Chris Coyne: Yes, great question. They currently do, not Chris Coyne: they? They do not. And they don’t teach. By the way, they don’t teach in the master’s program on the ground, either Chris Coyne: they teach. Let’s see, they teach principles. Chris Coyne: 2 freshmen Chris Coyne: and Phd. Level classes. That’s what both of them teach. And so currently they do not teach master’s classes. Chris Coyne: But you know, Tyler records conversations with Tyler, which is a wonderful podcast if you haven’t checked it out. I listen to it all the time, and Chris Coyne: it’s something you can check out. And, by the way, Alex and and Tyler also record these Mru marginal revolution, university little shorts, these videos on different topics which are really cool, to watch too. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? And we have another question that just came in. A student is a potential student is asking, is it possible to start as an online student, and then take some courses on campus. Chris Coyne: Yes, great question about the hybrid courses, unfortunately not at this time, and this has to do with accreditation. Chris Coyne: So when we got this program accredited. You have to pick one modality or the other, and so you enter with one, and you stay with one, either the Chris Coyne: on the ground or or in person, and so right now they are distinct, and there’s no plans to merge them, because we just can’t pull it off with what’s required at the by the accreditors of the degree. George Mason Online Admissions: And that brings us to our next question. Someone had typed, in what accreditation does the program have. Chris Coyne: It has full accreditation of George Mason University. So we are meaning that all the same accreditations that every degree has is for this Chris Coyne: master’s program. And so it’s a fully accred. Our university is fully accredited with all relevant accreditations. You will receive a master’s degree that has the same status as every other degree and undergraduate master’s. Phd. They’re all accredited. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, and just as a reminder, I can see questions are starting to roll in, but you can type them in the chat or Q&A section. But we do have a few more questions for you here. A potential student is asking. They would like to know who teaches each course ahead of time. But they’re not finding the information online. Is there a way that that can be shared. Chris Coyne: Yeah, the the reason you can’t find it online is because we move because it’s the 8 week modules. We’re constantly Chris Coyne: just in time putting faculty in. And so they’re not. They’re not. You’re you’re not going to find online what instructors you would have. Chris Coyne: So so I’ll say this, I can say this to you. Our classes are taught by a mix of faculty that are full-time faculty and adjuncts. Everyone has a Phd. That teaches in the course in the program. Pardon me. Chris Coyne: but the specific instructors are on a kind of on a rolling basis, meaning we just started fall session 2. So I had a couple weeks ago. So that’s finalized. Now, I’m just starting to finalize the professors who are going to teach for spring session one Chris Coyne: in January, and so I don’t have those available yet to share for spring yet, because I haven’t finalized them. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? And we have another question, how does this master of Arts in economics program compare to a master of science in applied economics? Chris Coyne: So how does our program compare to a master’s in applied economics? If I heard you correctly, Master. George Mason Online Admissions: Right and a master of science and applied economics. Chris Coyne: So typically, each program is unique in terms of what it offers. So I don’t want to speak to specifics. You have to look at the other programs. But typically masters of science and applied economics is heavily statistics based. So it’s very as the name imply applied indicates, it is multiple required statistics, courses, and that’s going to be the emphasis. And so, if that is what you are looking for very heavily applied work. Chris Coyne: then consider those other programs. As I mentioned, we have the Econometrics class, the causal inference class. The capstone class also offers you an opportunity to do applied work. That capstone class is the concluding course in the program of study. But the easiest thing to do is to pull up alternative programs. You might be considering applied programs. Just look at the Chris Coyne: course layout Chris Coyne: and what class they offered, and more often than not you’ll see multiple econometrics, courses, applied courses, and and that’s what makes it applied. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? And again, if anyone has questions, please start to type them in. George Mason Online Admissions: And I did have a couple of questions that came in from people that have called this week seeking information about the program. One of the questions was, What is the best way to look for scholarships? And are there any Mercatus Center scholarships. Chris Coyne: Yeah. The Mercatus center Chris Coyne: does not fund Chris Coyne: master’s students. They used to fund on the ground master’s students, but they no longer do so. They only fund Phd. Students going forward. Chris Coyne: There is a database that is maintained by George Mason, University Chris Coyne: of Scholarship opportunities. Chris Coyne: and I do not have the URL in front of me to share, and I don’t want to be typing while we are live, and to be rude to you. So if you are interested in that you can email me separately, and I will share it with you. And that Chris Coyne: kind of portal, if you will, includes all Chris Coyne: different scholarships through Gmu, that you can. You have to apply for them. So they’re not guaranteed. And of course there’s external scholarships as well. You’d have to look for those on your own. But I know some of our students have gotten external scholarships from a variety of different sources, and of course, those who work are working during their education. Sometimes their employer will pay for a portion, or all of their education. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes. And I also wanted to point out, if we look at the screen there underneath the Q. And A, you’ll see an email address online, too, at Gmuedu, we in online admissions support after you contact us, we do send you that link the link to all the different scholarships. So if you haven’t already done so, you know. Please reach out to us, express your interest. We’ll send you out all of the courses, the tuition, application materials, and the link to scholarships. Chris Coyne: Oh, wonderful! Thank you! George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, thank, you. Chris Coyne: Appreciate that. George Mason Online Admissions: And Andrea also has a question here. Are there options for elective courses other than the ones listed? Or is it possible to take electives from other fields, like public administration or the school of business. For example. Chris Coyne: Yeah, right now, these are the only electives we offer. And we don’t do cross Chris Coyne: program electives. Chris Coyne: And so there’s no Chris Coyne: intention right now to roll out additional electives in the Department of Economics, and and there is not a cross program. Elective opera option right now. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Well, does anyone have any additional questions here? You have Dr. Coyne here to give you all the ins and outs of the program. So if you have any additional questions, please type them now. And while we’re waiting for those questions, Dr. Coyne, is there anything that you would like to say in closing. Chris Coyne: I would like to just again thank you for taking the time. I know you’re all busy busy with your various obligations in life, and so I’m always Chris Coyne: flattered and grateful when people take the time out of their their lives to spend a little bit of time talking with me and going through this. As was mentioned, there’s opportunities to receive information. There’s materials online. You can reach out to us with any other questions. But I want to thank you for Chris Coyne: considering our program and for discussing the opportunity with me. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, yes, and I just wanted to remind everyone that we’re still accepting applications for the January 13th start date. I know a lot of us may remember applying for undergrad and thinking it would take weeks and weeks. But these days most things are handled electronically, including the transcripts. So it really is possible to complete your admissions. File on time. We are aiming to try to have those files complete by December first, st so that does give you plenty of time George Mason Online Admissions: to upload your transcripts and get the 2 recommendations and the other things that you would need. And on the screen is a phone number feel free to give us a call. Tomorrow we’ll be happy to answer your additional questions. The (703) 348-5006. George Mason Online Admissions: You can email any specific questions to online 2 at Gmuedu. And I know Dr. Coyne also posted his email address in the chat. And then, of course, you can see the QR. Code and the link to get information. So thank you all again for joining us, and thank you, Dr. Coyne, for taking time out of your busy schedule to help us out here. Chris Coyne: Thank you all, and take care. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Have a good night. Take care.

George Mason Online Admissions: Good evening, everybody. My name is Susan. I’m an online admissions rep on behalf of George Mason University, and we’re here tonight for the Spring Virtual Open House for the online Master’s of Health Informatics. While we’re waiting for the rest of the attendees to join us, if you can utilize the chat feature and just tell us where you’re joining us from and let us know if you can hear us okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much. Thank you, Charlie. Nice to have you. Hi, Nasala! Nice to have you. Thank you for taking the time out of your evening to join us. George Mason Online Admissions: Good evening again. My name is Susan. I’m an online admissions rep on behalf of George Mason, and I’m joined here tonight with Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator Dr. Hafeez and Tracy Shevlin, Department Manager of the Health Administration and Policy. So, we’re here tonight again to discuss the online Master’s of Health Informatics. George Mason Online Admissions: The agenda tonight is we’re going to meet the presenters and discuss why you should choose Mason for this degree. We’ll talk about the curriculum and the learning outcomes. At the end, as I mentioned, I’m an online admissions representative, so I can answer any of your questions regarding the application process. Please feel free to utilize the chat feature and put in your questions. We can answer them throughout the session or toward the end. Abdul Hafeez: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining today. I’m Dr. Abdul Hafeez, Assistant Professor in Health Administration and Policy. My research and expertise lie at the intersection of computer science and healthcare. I’m also the Program Coordinator for the Master’s of Health Informatics program. Along with Tracy Shevlin, our Department Operations Manager, we are here to ensure your success. Abdul Hafeez: We offer both tracks online as well as traditional. Our program is CAHIIM-accredited. We provide a competitive curriculum and flexible waterfall model that allows you to complete the program in as few as 22 months or stretch it to 28 months. Students can also waive certain courses, such as HAP 618 or GCH 500, based on prior qualifications. Our program introduces students to different healthcare projects, engages them in alumni panels, advisory boards, and conferences such as HIMSS and AMIA. Abdul Hafeez: We have two tracks: the Data Analytics track and the Health Informatics Management track. The Data Analytics track focuses on technical skills like data extraction, cleaning, harmonization, and analytics. The Health Informatics Management track bridges IT and healthcare management, emphasizing privacy, security, and organizational behavior. Each track offers specialized courses to prepare students for their careers. Tracy Shevlin: I want to highlight changes to the curriculum. For example, HAP 796 is the new capstone sequence number, and HAP 795 is the pre-capstone course. These adjustments ensure students are prepared for practical, hands-on projects in the industry. Abdul Hafeez: The capstone project is an opportunity to apply what you’ve learned in a real-world setting. Students work with industry preceptors and present their work in a poster format. Flexibility is offered, allowing students to complete projects remotely or at their workplace, provided they meet certain conditions. Tracy Shevlin: Students can also take advantage of mentorship programs through our HIMSS affiliation, providing networking opportunities and insights from industry professionals. We encourage participation in events and live sessions to enhance the learning experience. George Mason Online Admissions: Mason offers lifetime career services and is one of the few CAHIIM-accredited programs in the nation. This accreditation also makes you eligible to sit for the RHIA board exam upon completion. George Mason Online Admissions: With respect to the application process, you need a bachelor’s degree with ideally a 3.0 GPA or higher. Unofficial transcripts, a resume, two professional letters of reference, a personal statement, and an experience statement are required. We’re here to assist you throughout the application process. Tracy Shevlin: For students without a technical background, we offer a free, self-paced bridge course to help you get up to speed with Python, SQL, and statistics. Additional resources like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and W3Schools are also available. Abdul Hafeez: Health informatics is a growing field with expanding career opportunities. Graduates can pursue roles like healthcare data analyst, data scientist, data engineer, and more. These positions are in high demand across various sectors, including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and tech firms. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for joining us tonight. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out. Have a great evening!

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes. Okay. Good evening. Everyone. Welcome to our virtual open house for online masters of science in learning design and technology program, we are very excited to get started. But let’s just wait a few minutes for everyone to log on and get situated while we’re waiting. If you would. All would not mind practicing with the chat question feature box that would be greatly appreciated. Dr. Doug Wilson: Alright, everybody once again welcome! I’m glad you’re here. Thanks for your patience, and I’m going to work through these slides and guide us through the brief presentation. Dr. Doug Wilson: and I do want to finish on time. So if it seems like I’m moving fast, I probably am. But don’t worry. We’ll save time at the end for you to ask Dr. Deba to ask Dr. Giakumo, or to ask me or our admissions representative any questions. And so, 1st of all, we’re going to introduce ourselves on one of the slides. Then we’re gonna talk about the demand for our graduates in the program. Dr. Doug Wilson: and then we’ll talk a little bit about career opportunities, and then we’ll give you some reasons why you should choose Mason’s learning design and technology program. And then Dr. Doug Wilson: we have a slide that introduces our curriculum. So you get a chance to see some of the courses that we offer most of the courses that we offer, and then we also are going to talk a little bit about admissions, requirements, and then leave time for QA. At the end. And that’s what we have on tap for you. Dr. Doug Wilson: So our program is about you, the students and we do research, and we write papers. But we also are very much about teaching and learning. So this is a recent picture of some of our program graduates, and all of those smiles are real. Dr. Doug Wilson: and folks are, of course, happy that they’re graduating. But there’s something else happening in this picture. And what you’re seeing is relationships. Dr. Doug Wilson: So you can see who the faculty members are. We have on the kind of funny round hats. The students are wearing green. But these relationships that get developed over the course of years in most cases extend not only within the university confines itself, but also outside the university. And so Dr. Giacomo and Dr. Debas stay in touch with graduates. We like to know what our graduates are doing. And so we have a very strong alumni network. And I think one of the pieces I want to share with you about that, just briefly, is that once you come into our program and you become a patriot. Dr. Doug Wilson: that relationship is going to be full of possibilities for you. When you apply for a job. It’s not unusual at all for our students to apply for a job and have the person that’s interviewing them for a potential position to be an alum of our program. And so that’s how tight knit a group we are. Dr. Doug Wilson: Next slide, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: So here we are. I’ve talked a little bit already. I’m Dr. Doug Wilson, and I do a lot of the introductory coursework, and so if you come to our program, I hope you will, you will get me for a lot of your intro courses. Dr. Debas, who you’ve already heard from this evening, is a noted scholar in the field of learning technologies and learning design and technology. And so if you, Google, Dr. Debas name. Dr. Doug Wilson: you’re gonna get a bunch of hits that would include peer reviewed papers that she’s written research that she’s done white papers, that she’s done, books that she’s written. Dr. Doug Wilson: and so she’s a heavy hitter in our field, and so just wanted to share that with you about her background. And then also, we have another heavy hitter in the field. Dr. Lisa Giacomo, who is just joining us as an associate professor, our newest professor in the program. And right now, she’s teaching a a course in user experience design, which is a a big thing that we do here. And and so Dr. Giacomo is going to be on our team when you come to us and take our classes and graduate, and she’s also very well connected in the industry with employers and others. To provide expert guidance on helping you land that 1st job if you’re not already working in the business. And so we have a whole team of adjunct faculty. Dr. Doug Wilson: One of them represented here from that group is Dr. Holly Fake. That’s the name she goes by. She’s also a user experience expert. She is not here this evening, but you could expect to see her when you enroll in our program, too, next slide, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so it talked a little bit already about jobs. So you see some pretty big names in corporate America on this screen here SAIC. National Geographic Society, Booz, Allen Hamilton Smithsonian. There’s a bunch that are not represented here. But this picture basically shows the graduate on the right and the employer on the left, and those 2 meet. Dr. Doug Wilson: and we have success all around for our graduates. And so you can also expect to make really good salaries working for any one of these organizations, or perhaps maybe a a school district local to Northern Virginia, or maybe somewhere else. Dr. Doug Wilson: Next slide, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so along the lines of career opportunities. Dr. Doug Wilson: The field is evolving so quickly that there’s probably jobs that you would be eligible to Dr. Doug Wilson: apply for credential to apply for that aren’t on this screen. But here are some of them instructional designer that one probably sounds familiar learning developer, ux designer under the designer developers category and then coming down to consultants. Some of our students Dr. Doug Wilson: go to work in their own consulting firms, or they work for one of the big consulting firms. That’s out there like booz, Allen Hamilton, so you could be a learning strategy, consultant, a performance strategist or corporate trainer or a curriculum software consultant. Dr. Doug Wilson: and then ultimately many of our graduates rise in the ranks of the place where they’re working and they become managers. And that’s where some leadership skills come into play and also higher salaries. So director of Learning and Development director of training and Performance, e-learning program manager and project manager of instructional technology. So just kind of an umbrella. Look Dr. Doug Wilson: at some of the positions that you’ll be qualified to to land. Once you leave our program with the training and skill set needed to take on one of these roles Dr. Doug Wilson: next, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: So this is a really important slide. And it’s about the dollars and cents of learning design and technology field. And so coming to us, you would be you know, spending a a good chunk of change to get this degree, or to get this certificate. And so we just want you to see that Dr. Doug Wilson: there are significant employment opportunities out there in the field. Dr. Doug Wilson: This field is expected to grow 12% over the next 10 years, roughly, between 2023 and 2033 Dr. Doug Wilson: also as a George Mason, University student, and as an alum you get lifetime access to George Mason’s career services, and then Dr. Doug Wilson: we touched on briefly some of the job that you could take on with your Ms. Or with your e-learning certificate. But here’s some of them 5 of them on the screen and how much they pay. So training and development manager. As I was saying, that’s a leadership role, probably managing a group of instructional designers or other technology specialists under 25,000 Dr. Doug Wilson: dollars a year and change ux designer. That’s a really hot field right now. Dr. Doug Wilson: about $93,000 a year, instructional designer. Dr. Doug Wilson: $74,000 a year. Dr. Doug Wilson: and then e-learning specialists and training and development Dr. Doug Wilson: specialists rounding out Dr. Doug Wilson: the jobs that you can take on and hope to earn salaries like this. And that’s quite a range between 64, and 125,000. But the training and development specialist might be more of an entry level role. And then the top person on the list, with a few years more than a few years of experience would be the Training and development manager coming in at 125,000. This is all from the Us. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Training and Development Specialist. Nada Dabbagh: Yeah. And I want to add something here, Dr. Wilson, that we also have a listserv, as Dr. Wilson mentioned, we’re a very tight knit group. And our students and alums Nada Dabbagh: are, you know, connect with each other. We have a great network. We also have an It Listserv, we call it it for instructional technology sort of an older name. But we are very well known in the, in the, in the field so that we get Nada Dabbagh: job opportunities sent to us the faculty all the time, and we funnel them to you through this Listserv. So you know, in case you are looking to change jobs or to move jobs into higher levels. We have this really cool system where we Nada Dabbagh: when you get accepted into the program, then you join our listserv. We also have a Linkedin alumni group, and we have lots of networking opportunities where you can be informed about those jobs in the field in case you would like to apply. So I just wanted to add that. Dr. Doug Wilson: Great. Thank you, Dr. Debas. Dr. Doug Wilson: Next slide, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: So what makes our program unique? So Dr. Deba just shared something that makes us unique. We’re a tight knit group. Dr. Doug Wilson: We share job opportunities with each other, research with each other. In fact, we encourage our students to collaborate in their courses with each other. So you don’t have to do this alone. But what else makes us unique? Well, you can earn the E-learning graduate certificate which is built into the program. And what that simply means is your 1st 15 credit hours of George Basin, Ldt. Automatically rolls over, applies to the Master’s degree. Should you Dr. Doug Wilson: come in as a certificate student, and then choose to earn the Master’s degree. And if you come in as a Master’s degree student. Dr. Doug Wilson: then the 1st 15 credit hours will earn you the graduate certificate in e-learning. It’s a part-time online format. So there’s flexibility. A lot of our students are in relationships. They’re married. They’re working. They have children. They have other pursuits in life in addition to grad school. And so we’re flexible. Dr. Doug Wilson: And you can, because 100% online Dr. Doug Wilson: balance. Find that balance between. You know your personal life and your professional life, and it’s challenging. Dr. Doug Wilson: but you can do it, and our students do it all the time, and they do it actually, very well. We’re ranked number 67 out of 456 colleges of education by Us. News and world report. So that’s a big something. And then we also have a competitive tuition that makes our top rated education available to more students Dr. Doug Wilson: next slide, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so here’s where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. These are the courses on the left. Dr. Doug Wilson: 4 courses, and you see them listed edit. 702, 704, 7 0. 5, 706 on down the list. And then we have some of these other options. Edit. 5, 26, 5, 7, 5, edit. 7, 10, and 7, 7, 2. Those are actually courses that you would all be taking Dr. Doug Wilson: and then the program options on the right, in the Yellow Box, Ms in learning, design and technology, and then Ms in learning, design and technology with learning technology, certificate, concentration, e-learning, and then learning technologies, certificate. And so I think Dr. Doug Wilson: to summarize this slide. And again, I’m moving kind of fast here. Because I want to make sure we have time to answer your questions. Dr. Doug Wilson: This is where you get the skill set that you need to advance in the career. And so what do I mean by skill set? So this is not a program. That is all Dr. Doug Wilson: book based learning, reading books and writing papers. You do that. But the focus. Dr. Doug Wilson: The central piece, in addition to human centered design that we have is that you’re working in a project based or inquiry based learning environment. That means you’re reading the books you’re reading the literature, but you’re applying it. And you’re making things. An e-learning course. For example, I’m teaching edit 6 11 right now. And so students are building a 30 min training module. That is gonna work that they are going to be able to show in their portfolio in the user experience. Course. Dr. Doug Wilson: you’re gonna look at researching user experience and how you ask those qualitative questions and other types of questions. Quantitative questions, too. To figure out whether or not this design that you’ve come up with is actually meaningful, and does what you think or hope that would do in terms of learning outcomes and goals when you set it up. So Dr. Doug Wilson: that’s a quick overview of the courses. We could spend a lot of time on this. And so if you have any specific questions about any of these courses, then our faculty here will be able to answer those when we get done, it looks like we’re doing okay on time, too. Nada Dabbagh: As Dr. Wilson mentioned all of these courses that you see on this slide. Nada Dabbagh: our masters of science in learning, design, and technology is 30 credits. Nada Dabbagh: In the 1st year, when I say year, I mean Nada Dabbagh: 2 semesters and a summer for you all. If you would like to start this spring of 2025 Nada Dabbagh: you would. Your 1st year would be spring, 2025, summer, 2025, and then fall 2025. So in December of 2025, you will automatically graduate or earn the e-learning certificate as Dr. Wilson mentioned, because you would have completed 15 credits. So the sequence of the courses is really important. Nada Dabbagh: This is a graduate program. It’s a masters of science. The courses need to be taken in a specific sequence. Nada Dabbagh: So you start with the introductory courses like, edit edit stands for educational, instructional technology. It’s just the course prefix. So you start with edit. 705, you know, followed by 706 and 611, which is not on this list. But the point is that, and then you’ll take the web, accessibility and design the 526 that you see at the bottom of this Nada Dabbagh: slide, which means the Udl universal design approach, and you’ll do an e-learning course for 2 credits, which is the articulate storyline, or whatever the latest Nada Dabbagh: E-learning development tool is in the market, and you also take a virtual worlds augmented reality course. So by December of 2025 you will earn your e-learning graduate certificate, and then it’ll take you another year Nada Dabbagh: from the spring of 2026, summer of 2026 Nada Dabbagh: to December of 2026 to earn your master’s of science degree. Why does it take 2 years? Because our program, as mentioned by Dr. Wilson, is 100% online, 100% asynchronous meaning you don’t have a specific class time. You can work at your own pace. Nada Dabbagh: Sometimes we have office hours. You can obviously every week come into office hours to ask questions with your faculty member, but our program again, is designed for part time, as mentioned, meaning. Nada Dabbagh: we advise you to take Nada Dabbagh: only 6 credits per semester, and in the summer. Usually you take 5 credits, but you get assigned an advisor and you work with your advisor on a program plan that sequences the courses for you in a way that is flexible for you, and of course, in keeping with the rigor of the courses and the, you know, starting with the intro courses and then Nada Dabbagh: moving to the advanced courses. The advanced courses would be the user experience design courses, which is big deal in our field. Now, the learning Analytics course, which is edit 751, the one you see on this screen, and the 710, which is the online teaching essentials as well as the Nada Dabbagh: 702 which is exploring trends and professional identity in the learning, design and technology field. Again, the program is intended to be completed on a part-time basis, because most of our students work full time like you guys Nada Dabbagh: and have families and have commitments. So the program is designed to be completed, based on 6 credits per semester, and to be completed in about 2 years, earning the E-learning certificate after completion of 15 credits the 1st year and then automatically earning the Masters of Science degree after completion of 30 credits. Now. Nada Dabbagh: if you are Nada Dabbagh: available to complete the course on a full-time basis, meaning you’re not working. Nada Dabbagh: and you’d like to try to complete it faster the Master’s Degree. Then we can work with you to do that. We’d have to shuffle things around a little bit, but we can find, if you’re willing to take more than 6 credits a semester like, you know, 12 credits a semester. Again. It’s not advisable for graduate programs. Nada Dabbagh: but we can work with you to do that. But again, we’ve designed the program in a way for it Nada Dabbagh: to be completed on a part-time basis. And I’ll just add 2 more things, one. Nada Dabbagh: every one of our courses is 8 weeks, that’s it. 8 weeks it does not span the entire semester of 15 weeks. You start with an 8 week course, and then you’re done with that 8 week course, and then you take another 8 week course Nada Dabbagh: just right after it. So in one semester you complete 6 credits back to back, so to speak, meaning you’re taking Nada Dabbagh: one course at a time, which is, has its advantages, I think, because you’re not taking 2 courses on top of each other. You’re just taking one course at a time, and because the courses are accelerated and they’re asynchronous. You know, you’ve got Nada Dabbagh: learning activities to complete every week during those 8 weeks. But, as Dr. Wilson mentioned, this is a graduate program that’s very applied. Learning sciences applied. Nada Dabbagh: We don’t have tests. Nada Dabbagh: This is not an undergraduate program. There’s no midterms. There’s no finals. It’s all project based Nada Dabbagh: in every class that you take. You have a design project because you are going to be, or you are, instructional designers. Learning designers. Design is what bridges all of our courses together. You design a project either individually or working with a team in every one of our courses, and because those courses are 100% online. Nada Dabbagh: You have obviously opportunities, like Nada Dabbagh: engaging in an online discussion, posting a blog about the readings that you are assigned. Or, you know, doing some learning activity that involves you know, discourse or posting things online. And we use the canvas learning management system Nada Dabbagh: going forward to support all of our courses. We are currently using blackboard, but we are shifting to canvas to support our courses. Again. All of our courses are project based. Nada Dabbagh: All of our courses are 8 weeks at a time, and they are 100% online. And they are asynchronous. And they are all project based in meaning. You design something in in every course, and you can earn the certificate in the 1st year, and then the Master’s degree in the second year. Okay. Dr. Doug Wilson: Thank you, Dr. Devot. That’s a great summary. Keep in mind for the question period which is coming up. Authentic learning experiences. This is real world stuff that we do next slide, please, and you’ll be doing it, too. Dr. Doug Wilson: all right. So what does the admissions process look like? What is that trajectory. So bachelor’s degree Dr. Doug Wilson: work experience is preferable. Dr. Doug Wilson: Transcripts Dr. Doug Wilson: resume Dr. Doug Wilson: personal goal statement. And if I might digress here just briefly, this is for me, anyway, and I think the other faculty members as well a critical piece of the application process, because it is here that you make your case about why you want to do this based on what you’ve learned here tonight and other things that you know about the field. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so that’s really important document in the applications package Dr. Doug Wilson: and the reason it is is because that’s the that’s the part of the process where you sell yourself Dr. Doug Wilson: and your vision for what you want to do in the field Dr. Doug Wilson: as you move forward, so make sure that that’s shipshape when you apply. And then 2 letters of professional recommendation, and no gre is required, and that’s all you need to apply to the program. Nada Dabbagh: And your application fees will be waived because you attended this virtual open house. Dr. Doug Wilson: Thank you. Dr. Doban. Nada Dabbagh: Yeah, I’m assuming this was already communicated. I’m not sure but my understanding is that your application fees will be waived. Dr. Doug Wilson: All right, coming up on the next to the last slide, or maybe the last slide next, please. Dr. Doug Wilson: All right, it’s the last slide Dr. Doug Wilson: apply today. Dr. Doug Wilson: There’s a QR code. Dr. Doug Wilson: Pull out your iphone or your android device and Dr. Doug Wilson: go ahead and scan that. And then that’s on the right side on the left side. Of course, we have a traditional voice line where you can talk Dr. Doug Wilson: to us or an admissions representative. And then we also have Dr. Doug Wilson: an email address online, 2@gmu.edu. And then you can, of course, go to the URL Link Dr. Doug Wilson: masonline.gmu.edu to maybe fill in any details that we didn’t touch on tonight. And so Dr. Doug Wilson: that’s the presentation. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so now I want to turn it over to you Dr. Doug Wilson: potential students Dr. Doug Wilson: to ask us, the faculty questions we teach all of these courses. Dr. Doug Wilson: We write about them, we develop research. And so I don’t think there’s a question between the 3 of us that we can’t answer Dr. Doug Wilson: Dr. Giacomo, Dr. Debas, and myself, and then we have the admissions folks here with us. So Dr. Doug Wilson: I’m gonna turn it back to our producer, who’s been monitoring the chat and ask if we have any questions. Dr. Doug Wilson: I heard a hand go up. I can’t see it, because the slide deck is on the screen. But Dr. Doug Wilson: I’m going to ask our producer to go ahead and read that one aloud. George Mason Online Admissions: Sure. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, so we have. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, first, st we have a comment. Geeta said, Thank you for making the application process very simple. George Mason Online Admissions: And George Mason Online Admissions: also from Geeta Raj, she said, do the application requirements also apply for the Phd. Program. Nada Dabbagh: No, the Phd program is a totally different system in the College of Education. So 1st of all, you need to have a Master’s degree to apply for the Phd. Program. That is a prerequisite in the College of Education Human Development Nada Dabbagh: at George Mason University. We only have one Phd. In education program with several specializations. So Nada Dabbagh: like, we don’t have a Phd program specifically in learning, design and technology. However, we have a specialization in learning technologies, design research. There is an information session for the Phd. Program on December 9.th If you are interested in attending that, it’s separate from this program, our program here, the one we’re describing is to earn a master’s of science degree. So you need to have a master’s degree first, st Nada Dabbagh: not necessarily in learning, design, and technology. So if you already have a Master’s degree, and you want to apply directly to the Phd program with a specialization of learning technologies, design research. Nada Dabbagh: then you should attend the information session for the Phd. Program, which is on December 9.th You can. I can find the link and try to put it in the chat. But the application program for the Phd. You need to get your gres for sure, and you need to have a Master’s degree. And there’s a different, you know, timeline for the admissions process. Dr. Doug Wilson: Tyler. Dr. Doug Wilson: you have a question. Tyler Girvan: Yes, I do. Hi! May I just chat away? It’s probably easier than typing it out. Dr. Doug Wilson: Go ahead! Tyler Girvan: Yeah, as a prospective student who’s already applied. Tyler Girvan: I was Tyler Girvan: one thing that I was still curious about in terms of the actual courses is what software programs were being taught and utilized across the masters. Dr. Doug Wilson: So there’s quite a bit of software. So the 1st thing and so Dr. Doug Wilson: tools are everywhere. There are new ones coming out all the time. So I’m going to mention just a few, and then quickly pass to Dr. Giakumo and Dr. Deba. George Mason University has a list of approved softwares that runs from A to Z. Dr. Doug Wilson: And if you go on that list, you’re gonna find the usual software tools, the Microsoft 365, which does a lot, teams some other pieces of the puzzle there also. Students oftentimes most of the time on their projects have opportunity to pick the tool that they want to use. So what I mean by what do I mean by that? So a student who might be working at the Defense department or at the Federal Emergency Management Agency may have Dr. Doug Wilson: way, more tools available to him or to her than are available free to students at George Mason University. And so we encourage that. Bring that tool in. If that’s what you want to use. Just make sure that when you submit it Dr. Doug Wilson: we don’t Dr. Doug Wilson: end up having to need a flash reader, or or some unusual type of Dr. Doug Wilson: software to to view your work. And so that’s what I want to say about software. And I’m going to turn it to Dr. Giacomo and Dr. Deba to add what Dr. Doug Wilson: points they would like to add, if any. Nada Dabbagh: Yeah, I’ll just mention quickly, Tyler, I’m not sure about your question. If it is related to. Do we teach you software? We don’t. This program is not about Nada Dabbagh: not about tools or technology. It’s about design. So Nada Dabbagh: in every course that we teach. Nada Dabbagh: we use the university’s learning management system, as I mentioned, and as Dr. Doug Wilson mentioned, we Nada Dabbagh: we Nada Dabbagh: of course, if you’re gonna you know, write a paper for the course, or you’re going to Nada Dabbagh: submit a deliverable like a design document or something. If you’re working in a team, you might be using Google docs, you might be using onedrive which is available to all students. You might be using teams to communicate with your team members. However, if you prefer as a team to communicate using Nada Dabbagh: Whatsapp, I have a group right now who is communicating on Whatsapp. So I mean, the only technologies learning technologies that we teach Nada Dabbagh: are the articulate storyline currently, which is in the 2 credit course, edit. 575. Because we believe that articulate storyline is a hot Nada Dabbagh: learning technology that is in demand. So if you end up working for corporate government, which is what most of our students do in the Dmv area or beyond, they want you to. So you can put on your resume that I know how to use articulate storyline or adobe captivate. In Dr. Wilson’s, you know, virtual reality, course, extended reality, mixed reality. You might be using Nada Dabbagh: different platforms that support 3D immersive learning. So you learn a little bit about that. But it’s not like Nada Dabbagh: the program, you know, teaches. Like Nada Dabbagh: all kinds of tools, I mean, you learn them as you go, and I’ll turn it over to Dr. Giacomo. Because, for example, in the user experience design courses that she’s teaching right now. She’s using mural right as a as an option for teams to collaborate and to do your prototypes. So you want to comment on that. Dr. Giacomo. Lisa Giacumo: Sure. Lisa Giacumo: Yeah. So what we do is we provide the space Lisa Giacumo: for you to choose different tools, as Dr. Wilson had said, and as Dr. Debach has said, we also require some tools to be learned at some points in time, and the reason why we require some tools and give other tools. Flexibility is so that you have the flexibility to meet your learning goals and your professional development goals as well as everybody Lisa Giacumo: else. So if you were to choose. For example, learn to use mural, we do. We can easily provide you with links and tutorials on how to use mural. But what I find is mostly people just want to go in the tool and try it out and have something to produce with it and learn through trying by doing. Lisa Giacumo: But there are tools, tutorials available, and I’m happy to provide those links to you. But if you’re looking for someone to get with you on Zoom and say, okay, first, st click here and now click there. And what happened? That’s not necessarily the way that we Lisa Giacumo: organize the course. We teach you the design so that you can make the tool work for you appropriately. Nada Dabbagh: And you don’t have to pay for the tools at all Nada Dabbagh: for articulate storyline. Some of our students may have access to the professional version at work. But if you don’t, that’s okay, because we use the trial version for the course. You know Nada Dabbagh: the the trial version, so you don’t have to pay for any tools. Dr. Doug Wilson: Tyler was that helpful. Tyler Girvan: Yes, very much. So. I mean, my understanding was that we’d be bringing a lot of our own kind of software related experience into the program. But I did want to hear what specific tools might be incorporated. Tyler Girvan: through the learning experience. So thank you. Nada Dabbagh: Great, and and it looks like you’re already accepted into the program. Tyler. Congratulations! I hope you have been assigned an advisor. You’ll meet with an advisor soon. And yes, you you mentioned something really important, like. Nada Dabbagh: you know, this is a graduate program. So in your goal statement for those of you. That plan to apply, you know. Do mention what technologies you’re very familiar with and just, you know. Mention any experience with the use of tools in your goal statement, and as Dr. Wilson mentioned, Nada Dabbagh: you you know we have. You will have access as a George Mason University student to a lot of, you know, tools for free like onedrive and like teams. And you know, and we use a lot of these Nada Dabbagh: available tools to us Nada Dabbagh: in in the courses that we teach in addition to the to the Lms. Of course. Nada Dabbagh: Brianna, were you keeping. Lisa Giacumo: Can I share one more thing? Lisa Giacumo: May I please share one more thing about learning tools? As a George Mason student, I’m pretty sure. And Dr. Debeck and Wilson will correct me if I’m wrong. But we give you access to Linkedin, learning Lisa Giacumo: where there are. Nada Dabbagh: Right. Lisa Giacumo: Also tutorials. Lisa Giacumo: for learning how to use mural figma, articulate camtasia, captivate you, name it any tool that we use. It’s all that’s at your fingertips as well. Nada Dabbagh: Thank you. Dr. G. This is this is really, really a great Nada Dabbagh: point that thank you for for saying that. Yes, that’s amazing that you get access to Linkedin learning? Yep. Nada Dabbagh: for free. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? So we have one question. George Mason Online Admissions: you know, some students. They have a lot of fears with online education overall. How is faculty going to maintain communication with students? George Mason Online Admissions: What does that look like. Dr. Doug Wilson: I’m happy to to hit on that one. But I’ve been talking a lot already. Okay, so the way it works is that you have a 1 on one conversation with your faculty member Dr. Doug Wilson: typically in office hours, but also in an advising session. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so that picture that we showed at the beginning of that group of Dr. Doug Wilson: smiling graduates. Dr. Doug Wilson: I I personally think that one of the reasons they’re smiling is yeah. Of course they earn their degree or their certificate. But the other thing is is that Dr. Doug Wilson: they became part of a community. They became part of something at George Mason. You know our tagline is altogether different. Dr. Doug Wilson: And we are. And so some of those students that you saw in that picture there Dr. Doug Wilson: they were able to achieve great things like developing Dr. Doug Wilson: e-learning training modules for the largest organ tissue transplant bank in South Carolina. Dr. Doug Wilson: and they did that in our classes we got other students who work for the foreign service who develop training about Dr. Doug Wilson: how, Dr. Doug Wilson: diplomatic security personnel Dr. Doug Wilson: can work with their foreign counterparts in a different language to detect dangerous. You know, boxes around embassies, and those conversations that that which I am describing for you, they don’t necessarily happen when you’re reading a textbook Dr. Doug Wilson: or or writing a paper. All those are. Those are very important. Dr. Doug Wilson: usually because we have an authentic learning program where it’s real world. Dr. Doug Wilson: it’s up to the faculty member like Dr. Debas or Dr. Giakumo, or to me, to kind of fill that void about what’s important Dr. Doug Wilson: in what it is you’re studying and why you are doing it right. There’s no shortage of problems in the world Dr. Doug Wilson: out there. And so Dr. Doug Wilson: it’s incumbent upon us as faculty members Dr. Doug Wilson: to guide you. And those conversations typically happen in one on ones or in Dr. Doug Wilson: online office hours. After this session, I’m doing online office hours with my class Dr. Doug Wilson: at at 8, 30 at night. Dr. Doug Wilson: And so I guarantee you that after this session I’m not gonna be pulling out the syllabus and talking about. I might do that right. But it’s gonna be a 1 on one where I’m saying, well, this is what you should do, and this is how it can work. And Dr. Doug Wilson: so so Dr. Doug Wilson: we’re human centered. And all of this Ldt stuff begins with you, and that’s kind of why that slide of the students was at the beginning. We’re about you. Dr. Doug Wilson: and we have those one on one conversations, because in order to teach you well. Dr. Doug Wilson: we need to know you. So so we make a point of getting to know you beyond what’s in the syllabus. Dr. Doug Wilson: I hope that makes sense. Anybody else want to weigh in on that. Lisa Giacumo: Dr. Devma, would you like to weigh in. Nada Dabbagh: I’m good. I’m good. You go ahead. Lisa Giacumo: Okay, so as Dr. Wilson mentioned, some of the ways that I interact with students inside of my course is after this is after the advisement. Right? So you’re going to apply. Lisa Giacumo: You’re going to get hopefully admitted. We’ll meet with you in an advisement session on a 1 on one. We’ll get you a program plan and then you’ll get introduced into coursework. Once you get into the coursework you’ll have opportunities to join optional synchronous meetings, you’ll have opportunities to join optional, one-on-one phone calls and or video chats. Lisa Giacumo: You’ll have options to send emails and get email responses to your faculty. You’ll have options to engage inside of the Lms. With other students as well as your faculty members through postings in open discussion boards as well as private communications in your grade book. You’ll also have opportunities to meet with other students Lisa Giacumo: students synchronously over the phone. And in video, you’ll have opportunities to email other students Lisa Giacumo: as well and meet up with them in one on one canvas, actually has a unique feature that allows you to see who’s online in your course at any specific time, so you can have impromptu hangout sessions with your colleagues inside your course. That’s really cool about canvas. I’m excited for canvas. Lisa Giacumo: And what else? Lisa Giacumo: I think that’s it. Nada Dabbagh: Yeah, I mean, I, I miss the in-person classes. But this is a 100% online program, because that’s what you all or most of the Nada Dabbagh: graduate students and programs like, because, you know, they don’t want to travel to campus. You know where we have a array of students that live in all over the country. And so, yeah, I mean, that’s a great question, because it’s Nada Dabbagh: it’s it’s difficult to Nada Dabbagh: feel the online presence, the cognitive presence and the social presence and the community. But we do that. We do that. Well, I mean, we’ve been teaching online for a very long time, and the fact that our courses are compact 8 weeks and you get to know. And and there’s a specific sequence. So you start out, let’s say, with a course with a group of students, and then you move to the next course. Nada Dabbagh: Kind of almost all of you will be in the in the same courses as you go through the program, you know, depending on your advising or program plans. So you’ll get to know each other as well. Like. Right now, I’m teaching a doctoral level class Nada Dabbagh: where Nada Dabbagh: there are 3 students working on a group that they’re all taking another doctoral class at the same time, you know, with another faculty member. So they already know each other, and they’ve been working with each other. So they decided to keep the same team in the course that I’m teaching and that’s really working well for them. Now, the one the doctoral program is not fully 100% online. So we do meet every Nada Dabbagh: month, you know, face face to face in person on campus. But for this program, as Dr. Giacomo mentioned, there are so many opportunities to engage Nada Dabbagh: with with the with the with the online, you know tools and Nada Dabbagh: the Lms and all that. And you you’ll get to know each other as students as well as you move as you move through your courses. And and if you feel comfortable working with a specific group of people, you can continue doing that across the courses, as you progress, you know, towards earning your degree, and we are always available. We have office hours, as Dr. Wilson mentioned Nada Dabbagh: every week. Now, tonight, for example, I had office hours before this virtual open house. Nada Dabbagh: Only 2 students showed up. I made it because it’s optional. I mean, we are required to make it optional. We can’t make it required because Nada Dabbagh: our program is a hundred percent asynchronous. And we’ve had. You know, students don’t want to be Nada Dabbagh: tied down to a specific Nada Dabbagh: time that they have to attend. Nada Dabbagh: even though I tell them my office hours are always going to be on Tuesdays at, you know, 4 30. So they know that in advance. Nada Dabbagh: But we we do, we, you know we do a lot of efforts to to help you engage and feel connected to us as faculty as well as your to your fellow students. Lisa Giacumo: May I add one more point? Just so. You know, in addition to these office hours, that I offer as well scheduled Thursday nights are my office hours. I also make if somebody doesn’t. If that time doesn’t work for them or something can’t wait until Thursday, I’m willing to schedule meeting times that are mutually convenient for the both of us. I, Lisa Giacumo: always respond either in the Lms or to your email outreach within 24 to 48 h, and actually did meet a couple of students face to face this semester because they optionally chose to come to campus to a conference, and I have met students at conferences, national conferences in the past when we’ve collaborated on projects and presented together. So that’s another optional Lisa Giacumo: opportunity that you have to meet us in person as well. Nada Dabbagh: If you, if you live in the area. Yep. Lisa Giacumo: Or you wanna fly to the conference. Yeah. Nada Dabbagh: Well. Nada Dabbagh: all right, I’m gonna go because it’s already 8 o’clock. Sorry for the late start. I think Brianna is gonna work with you over some details. If you want to apply. However, I want to say that if you have any additional questions or would like to send me an email meet with me, you know, for 1015 min over. Zoom, if you have additional questions about the program, I’d be happy to Nada Dabbagh: to do that. You can ask for my email from Brianna, and she can give you give you my email. And I really sincerely hope that you will apply Nada Dabbagh: for a spring start. And again. Sorry for the late start tonight, and yeah, hope hope to see you soon. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Nada Dabbagh: Thanks. Dr. Doug Wilson: All right. So Dr. Doug Wilson: we are Dr. Doug Wilson: up against our timeline. And so I just want to say, Thank you for being here. Dr. Doug Wilson: And also you can reach out to me Dwilso 31 at Gmuedu, or just call that number Dr. Doug Wilson: and folks will get you in touch with me, and of course, I have a bio online. You could just Google, me. Dr. Doug Wilson: and I’ll pop up. Dr. Doug Wilson: So, thanks for being here. Everybody. Dr. Doug Wilson: Thanks, Lisa. Lisa Giacumo: Thank you. Where was that all the questions, or were there any more? Just curious. George Mason Online Admissions: That was all the questions. Lisa Giacumo: Awesome. Yeah, you can find me online. I’m super easy to find. You just put in my name to Google, and they will show you 5 different ways to get in touch with me. George Mason Online Admissions: well, I just want to say thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to attend our live session today. We hope you were able to gather important and valuable information as you embark on your journey back to school. I also want to thank our faculty members for their time, and helping all of us learn more about the online program and department, and, as always, please feel free to reach out to them. George Mason Online Admissions: reach out at the number on the screen to get started today. My number is (703) 348-5006. George Mason Online Admissions: I do recommend applying early application. Deadline is officially December first, st George Mason Online Admissions: but the earlier you get your application information in the earlier you’re able to get a decision. George Mason Online Admissions: Alright. Well, have a good night, everyone. I’ll go ahead and and stop the recording. Now George Mason Online Admissions: take care. Dr. Doug Wilson: Bye, bye, everybody! Lisa Giacumo: Bye, have a good night. George Mason Online Admissions: Take care! Sara Snyder: You too. Take care!

Shanti Chang: Hello, everybody! Thank you so much. Shanti Chang: Joining. George Mason Online Admissions: Hello! We have people hopping on. Good evening to everyone and welcome to our virtual open house for online masters of nursing family nurse practitioner program here at George Mason. We’re very excited to get started. However, I do want to give everyone a chance to get logged on and get situated. George Mason Online Admissions: And while we’re waiting, if you wouldn’t mind just putting in the chat you know where you’re from. Put your 1st name and where you’re from, and we’re excited to to have you here. We’re gonna give everybody just a minute or 2 to log on George Mason Online Admissions: and let me know if you can hear us. Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: right. Shanti Chang: Oh, awesome Mason alumni in the room. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, I love it! I love it wonderful! George Mason Online Admissions: Well, great. George Mason Online Admissions: right exactly. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Shanti Chang: For a different number. George Mason Online Admissions: All right. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful. Thank you for letting me know everybody you can hear and see. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful! George Mason Online Admissions: Some people from Fairfax. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful! Wonderful! Alright! George Mason Online Admissions: Well, we are already at 7 0, 6. I know everybody’s time is precious this evening. So if it’s okay with everybody, we’ll go ahead and get started. Are you ready? Dr. J. Shanti Chang: I am. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful wonderful. George Mason Online Admissions: Alright. So just a quick overview of the agenda tonight. We’re gonna meet our presenter George Mason Online Admissions: and go over that. What makes this program unique. Curriculum details, career outcomes. George Mason Online Admissions: And you know, just it’s it’s a great time to get to know a little bit more about the program from our director, Dr. Shanti Chang. She’s going to tell us about herself and her role and touch a little bit on the program career outcomes what the online format looks like. And then I’ll go over in brief detail admission requirements. And then at the end we will have a question and answer. George Mason Online Admissions: So I encourage you to put any questions that you have in the question and answer box that should be on your screen. A lot of them might be answered as Dr. Chang goes through her information, but feel free. This is, you know, this is for for you to get to know a little bit more. We’re just so glad that you’re here with us this evening. George Mason Online Admissions: And so before we jump in just a little bit of housekeeping. There is a questions box and a chat box on your screen. So I kind of George Mason Online Admissions: did that a little preemptively there, but feel free to use the questions box, to ask those questions, and we will cover those at the end George Mason Online Admissions: alright. And let’s go ahead and get started by hearing a little bit more from our director, Dr. Chang, are you are you ready to share a little bit about yourself? Shanti Chang: I would be very excited to do that. Thank you. Yeah. Like you said. My name is Dr. Shanti Chang. I do have my doctor and nursing practice in Shanti Chang: for initial concentration of Fnp. And I actually just did my postmaster’s psychiatric mental health nurse, practitioner as well. So I am an active nurse practitioner in family practice and in psych practice, currently as well as an associate professor in the division director at School of nursing. I’ve been at Mason, maybe, like Shanti Chang: maybe my 7th year as faculty. So but I did do my Dnp. At Mason, as you can see on this list here. So I love it. I’ve been around for a while. Shanti Chang: you know. I I think that we’ve got a lot of interesting and unique opportunities. We set our graduates up for success and really impactful work in the communities that they serve. And yeah, I can’t speak highly enough about it. You can go to the next slide. I think that maybe even I get to brag a little bit more just about the program and kind of how we’ve Shanti Chang: I guess, demonstrated some of how how good we are. Right like we were just rated the number 10 best master’s program in the country, and that was out of public and private universities. I think the score was even a little bit higher if you were just to look at public universities. So we are very aware that most of you all are juggling lots of things with careers family, you know. Shanti Chang: Just maybe some tension of stress of trying to get back to school. You know, finances plays into that a lot. So I think we have a really kind of Shanti Chang: creative and flexible curriculum that allows, for, you know, hopefully, a balance there. As well as some financial aid programs, some scholarship opportunities, you know, for you guys to to come our way. If that’s something that you decide to do. Every single faculty in the program is a practicing nurse practitioner. And I think that that is Shanti Chang: really important. Because then you’re learning from people that still have their hands in the mix and are and are are Shanti Chang: doing the work, you know. Not to say that you know there isn’t value in having a kind of clinical career and then going into teaching. But, as we all know, medicine and evidence and research changes quickly. So it’s really nice that everybody on the faculty has a lot of experience in current experience. We also have Shanti Chang: some kind of like homegrown clinics called the map clinics, and and those of you that are familiar with Mason or the area might be familiar with that. I’m happy to talk more about that. But they’re free clinics that the students will work in and the faculty work alongside them. So it’s just a real win win Shanti Chang: that the students get hands on experience, and then the faculty get to work with you guys and I love it. So. We are accredited by Ccne. We just had our site visit in March. And that’s good for the next 10 years, and we had. We met all standards with no compliance concerns. So there’s no concern about any of our accreditation standards. Our curriculum is founded on Ipec, and just. Shanti Chang: I think, really really interested in embedding the essentials of nursing education to all of our nursing students. So. George Mason Online Admissions: That is awesome. That is wonderful. George Mason Online Admissions: right? Shanti Chang: So just yeah, thank you. A little bit more. I kind of was already talking a little bit about some of what makes our program unique that the map clinics like I mentioned are an example. Just one example of a community focused evidence-based curriculum. Once you get to your clinical semesters, it’s really nice to have that opportunity to get clinical hours Shanti Chang: and work with persons in a vulnerable setting. And if you’re not physically in the Northern Virginia area. That’s fine. We’ve got evening telehealth opportunities. And we actually post up in a lot of the homeless shelters in the Northern Virginia area Shanti Chang: to increase access to healthcare through that. So it’s completely free for the patients. It’s interprofessional on the students end. So it’s, you know, in the community, lots of public and population, health focused, concepts integrated, and throughout both your direct clinical experiences. And then the curriculum to kind of prepare you for that. So Shanti Chang: we are a school of nursing embedded in a college of public health, and we’re the only school of nursing in a College of Public health in the State which is really unique and cool. I think. Shanti Chang: the flexible online format designed to accommodate busy working students is is like, I said before, strategically designed to keep in mind that you guys are more than likely juggling Shanti Chang: more than just school when you’re in this program. So we do for the most part offer the classes in 8 week chunks. So you’re just able to take one class at a time. Once you get to the end of the road and you’re in clinical. It gets a little bit more layered than that. But but especially when you’re trying to dip your toe back into the school environment and work on this. It’s definitely Shanti Chang: laid out. So you can just focus on one class at a time. And I will say we don’t have any kind of rules that say, like, you know, life happened. I need to take a break for a semester. Can I pause for a minute, you know, and then jump back in the next semester. We have plenty of students do that. I think Shanti Chang: we had a baby boom this past summer. I think there was like 20 people, or something that stopped to have babies and then jump back in in the fall. So we have a very, very high term to term retention rate usually. But if we don’t, it’s because something lifewise has happened like that, and a person just needs to take a little break and then wants to jump back in, which is totally fine. We get it. And Shanti Chang: we like to celebrate you guys and want you to enjoy important times in your life, too. Again, the direct contact with the practicing faculty is, I think, impactful, not just in those direct clinical experiences in the map clinic with each other, but just learning from them, even in like theory and ethics and patho and farm, you know, they’re just so knowledgeable at the at what they do, and and really come to you guys with Shanti Chang: a real world sense of kind of what’s necessary and what’s needed. And then, as I mentioned the CC. And the accreditation is just something that we worked really hard on this year, and we did really well. So Shanti Chang: fingers crossed, for when it happens again in 10 years, but I think we’ll be fine. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful! That is wonderful, and I love the baby. Boom. Shanti Chang: Right. George Mason Online Admissions: Alright! Shanti Chang: So this is a little bit more of a snapshot of the curriculum. It is a 49 credit program. Shanti Chang: The classes are for the most part. Shanti Chang: like, I said, in order of kind of like an 8 week class, an 8 week class an 8 week class an 8 week. Class. And these are scaffolded intentionally to help your learning. I I do know that sometimes going into an online only program can be kind of daunting because you’ll wonder what’s the connection that I’ll have with the other students in the faculty. Shanti Chang: I’m not a computer whiz like, am I gonna be able to do it? Is it gonna be too complicated? Shanti Chang: we’re very aware of, like where you guys are in each of your classes, and what platforms are introduced and kind of Shanti Chang: not just in terms of content scaffolding, but also like technology learning as you’re going and and try to be mindful that we’re not throwing too much at you guys. And the faculty here. Shanti Chang: always accessible, like, you know, very responsive to email, like, I even tell people straight up. I’m like, just text me. We’ll figure it out, you know. So everybody’s pretty laid back in understanding but that said, you know, professionalism is always expected and appreciated. But you’ll start off in the program in a theory and ethics class related to nursing. Shanti Chang: And then you’ll go into some foundations of public health. And this is a cool class, because it’s actually interprofessional within the college. So it’s a you might have social work students, public health students. Shanti Chang: health admin health it students in the class with you, and it’s an opportunity to look at all of the health disciplines through a public health lens and work on some stuff. Nursing informatics is just yeah, focuses a lot on not just nursing informatics. But I think overall a lot of Shanti Chang: project organization as you advance in your career and using informatics and technology to your benefit in structuring solutions because it is the way of our world. Now, we do have a nursing research and biostats. Class. This is Shanti Chang: mostly a refresher. I would think maybe some new things of you know, some more statistical analysis and kind of translational research into practice building on what you’ve done before. But the teacher who teaches that class is just amazing. And yeah, I know no one really loves math, but she does a really good job and and make sure everybody is Shanti Chang: good on that. And then we do organization nursing, healthcare and delivery systems. So looking at some systems, level things. You know, not just necessarily in our country, but also the world’s Shanti Chang: kind of trying to. Shanti Chang: I guess, examine issues and come up with solutions, and just understand some of our history and organization, and how we’ve come to be the way we are. Shanti Chang: there’s community oriented primary care, decision making and farm management and health assessment farm and patho in our level, 2 classes. That’s where you get a chance to really start, I think, a little bit more literally transitioning into the advanced practice role as a family nurse practitioner. It gets more clinical. You start having more, you know, case studies. Okay? You know, 5 year old shows up with these symptoms and this history. And Shanti Chang: what do you do? So it’s really a chance to start putting all the pieces together as to what will make you a nurse practitioner. And then, once you get into the final concentration classes, those Fmp concentration classes that you see on the right there 738, 7, 42, 739, 7, 44, 7, 41 and 749. Shanti Chang: Those are. That’s your last 3 2 semesters actually of the program. And that’s really when you are, you know, you’re in clinical. You’re seeing patients with a preceptor. You know you’re getting ready to take your boards at the end of the day, and you’re ready to practice so Shanti Chang: like, I said, kind of Shanti Chang: scaffolded intentionally on purpose to help your learning and guide your learning. And you know we’ve got almost a hundred percent pass rate on our boards for 1st time test takers. So I think this program really prepares you well to practice in boards. I hear from all the preceptors that Shanti Chang: you know, there’s so many that are like, oh, we only accept George Mason students. Because of. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s good to hear. Yeah. Shanti Chang: Right? Yeah. So I I you know, I think the program does a good job in preparing you both from a didactic curriculum content, and then clinical content, and then mix it all in with some like real world and core values of Shanti Chang: social justice. You know, bringing care to vulnerable and underserved populations. You know, I think, that there’s just Shanti Chang: a lot of value in the way that the curriculum is designed and oh, can you get. I see a question here. Can you get a double degree or concentration of F and P. And public health? That’s a great question, Laura. Shanti Chang: within nursing. Shanti Chang: I know that we do have the Msn. And Fmp, and that’s. Shanti Chang: I think, the only yeah. It’s technically the only Msn that we offer. Shanti Chang: I can’t speak to the Mph. That’s in the College of Global and Community Health. We could possibly meet with the director or or find out, you know, and figure out if a dual Shanti Chang: pursuit would be possible. If I’m being honest. Shanti Chang: I don’t know Shanti Chang: time wise. How much bandwidth you’ve had, you’d have. This is, you know, 49 credits so fairly Shanti Chang: rigorous enough content. But that’s not to say that the answer is absolutely no, I just don’t know enough about the Mph program requirements. I do know that over the last couple of years Mason has changed their rules, that you can apply some credits to 2 separate things so like, I know, for our doctorate students, for example, a lot of times when they’re looking for. Shanti Chang: you know, credits to fill in for their doctorate and trying to pursue something they’re interested in will encourage them to do their nursing education certificate at the same time as their doctorate, and it counts for both. So Shanti Chang: maybe possible, just something we would have to look into a little bit more and talk to some college contacts. Shanti Chang: for Shanti Chang: And I also see can I share how many transfer credits the University will accept from another Fmp program if the degree was not conferred. Shanti Chang: it’s 9. Shanti Chang: If the degree was conferred. You probably don’t want to come to our program, and you’d want to talk to me, or I could put you in touch with someone for an FM. Or for a Dmp program, you’d probably be more interested in pursuing a terminal degree than another master’s Shanti Chang: But yeah, if it’s not conferred. Shanti Chang: the 9, is the answer. I hope that answers your question, cause I’m assuming Shanti Chang: if you already got an F. And P. Wouldn’t be in this one. Shanti Chang: Does that make sense. Shanti Chang: You’re interested in this one. Shanti Chang: Perfect. Shanti Chang: What other questions about like the flexible, like the curriculum like I said, like. Shanti Chang: you know. Shanti Chang: we’ve had people who say, shoot I you know some someone got sick, or I. You know I’m I’m mentally fatigued, or I can’t afford classes next semester. Right now I want to work and build up some cushion. And you know that’s just a conversation that you have with me, and you have a student success coach that’s dedicated to you. That helps register register you for classes, keeps in touch and says, Hey, how are things are going? This is what I want, you know you to take next semester. Does that sound okay with you? You know, it’s just a conversation between all of us. Shanti Chang: If at some point you want to go full time as an option. This is actually the full time schedule is one class at a time. Shanti Chang: if you wanted to take more than that. Yeah, we could certainly talk about it. But the the even taking one at a time Shanti Chang: for the most part, with the exception of, if you’re looking at this list. Patho and farm are combined into one semester over a 15 week block, just to give you more time with both those, and once you get to your clinical semesters. Those are over a full 15 week semester, but if you wanted to double up prior to that we haven’t had anyone do it, but I can’t say. Shanti Chang: you know. Never say never but even with the schedule as it’s laid out here from start to end, it’s 7 semesters? Shanti Chang: Usually without any breaks. Shanti Chang: so and I see another question, do students have to go on campus for in person teaching? No, this program is a hundred percent online. Like, I said, even with our telehealth Shanti Chang: kind of experiences through the map clinic, you still get that synchronous component of working with your faculty, seeing patients, you know, working with the other disciplines together. But it’s via telehealth. It’s not that frequent, unless you want it to be frequent, and you want to do it more. You can always pick up extra. But Shanti Chang: we allow for everyone to be completely online in this program. We do not have. Shanti Chang: like some other schools, you know. Once or twice a semester. You’re asked to go to campus, but we do not currently have that. I will say alternatively, just because trend wise. It looks like we do have a lot of students in this program from the Northern Virginia area who are local. And and maybe they still just wanna online program for the flexibility, but would also like the option of maybe sometimes engaging on in person. Shanti Chang: We can arrange for that, too, like we don’t offer the courses with the same regularity in the traditional program. But we do let me throw that out there. We do have a traditional Msn Fmp program. If you are like, I don’t think online learning is for me. I want to go into the classroom more. You know kind of. It’s a hybrid approach. They’re online half the time in person, half time. That is definitely an option. But we can also, just because, you know we have a beautiful lab. We have a beautiful Shanti Chang: SIM lab, you know, on campus. If that’s something that you’re interested in and wanted to arrange time to go there to physically practice like your health assessment skills or something like that on top of the online modality. That’s something that we could figure out and work out with the other faculty. Shanti Chang: so no, no in-person requirements for this Msn online program. Shanti Chang: so and then I’m looking at there’s someone who has a Phd. Shanti Chang: In nursing without an active nursing license. Okay, so either for the Msn. Or Dmp, you’re going to have to have a an a valid Rn license in the United States. Shanti Chang: To be Shanti Chang: considered for admission. And if you have more questions about that, I would recommend maybe that’s something that we can circle back to later. You can email us on just because that sounds like it’s a little bit more of a different situation. Shanti Chang: so there’s another question that’s just about, you know, as far as clinicals go. Can we buddy up with someone in the class? And do you have connections with facilities that you can do your Shanti Chang: clinicals at, or could you call offices to ask? Yeah, we’ve got a whole clinical process. We’ve got your own clinical coordinator for this program we hold clinical information sessions at least Shanti Chang: once a semester, and offer the recordings of the information for the respect for the semester in between. Shanti Chang: It is a process that I recommend you think about sooner than later, or at least learn about and go to an info session sooner or later. So you can kind of see how it is. But roughly you do look for your own clinical sites, and then we have kind of a a vetting process where we get a contract in place. If there’s not one in place, we kind of look into the preceptor and make sure that you know credentials. Wise license wise. It all makes sense. Shanti Chang: You know, and then there’s not a ton of red tape like we’re flexible. We’ve had a little bit of back and forth on contracts sometimes, where the site will say, Oh, we don’t like this one word here. We send it to legal, and we fix it. Shanti Chang: So I I think in terms of sites to target primary care is important. Just to be clear. This is a primary care Shanti Chang: program. So like, if you were thinking that you wanted to spend time in clinical in the hospital inpatient, you might want to just look at options for other programs. You can do up to 100 h of clinical inpatient if you want in this program. But you need to have at least 500 outpatient primary care hours, and that could be in Shanti Chang: family practice settings, internal medicine, community health centers, federally qualified health centers like health departments, pediatrics, primary care and women’s health count as primary care for us. Shanti Chang: yeah, there’s a lot of options, and and I don’t know that you necessarily need to get too much into the weeds about all of that right now. Just know that there is a process. We do have relationships with lots of places. If you need help. You’ve got your own clinical coordinator that you can email and say, Hey, I need help. Shanti Chang: Here’s what I’ve tried. It’s not working you know what guidance do you have for me? And then like, if I keep on bringing it up? But the map clinics, if you are local to the Dmv area. We do have these homegrown clinics that Shanti Chang: have multiple settings. Now. It was one clinic that started in 2013. And now there’s like 10 of them Shanti Chang: scattered around that we have open Monday through Thursday, where we welcome and encourage nurse, practitioner students to go every day multiple all every day. So there’s, you know, a homegrown option for people to get clinical hours with us as well. George Mason Online Admissions: I love that I love that well, that kind of segways to actually to the next slide. Perfectly. Shanti Chang: Oh, and I also see a question here, too. How big are the classes? Thanks for that question, Laura. We yeah. Yeah. We try to cap each section at like 25. We do not have a cap on the program for admission. So, like, for example, we just Shanti Chang: accepted a fall cohort of 62. Shanti Chang: So yeah, we try to keep class sizes 20 to 25. Typically speaking. Shanti Chang: career outcomes. Yeah, this is great. So Shanti Chang: I think Shanti Chang: again, our goal as a program is to set you up for success as a nurse practitioner. Shanti Chang: but also to put people out into the world who are Shanti Chang: game changers and understand the systems and the issues with healthcare, and feel motivated and knowledgeable on how they might, you know. Shanti Chang: be a key piece to the puzzle. And per a person who says at the table to work on some of these big problems that we have. So you know, like it states here, I think, that there’s just such an increased demand for primary care providers. And if you look at the evidence and numbers coming from Shanti Chang: all the populations we serve. You know, nurse practitioners are very trusted and in in what we do, and we offer lots of really good solutions at an affordable price for a lot of folks in our country. And oh, we have. We have plenty of students who also are international, that, you know. Maybe they’re here Shanti Chang: just for while they’re doing school and clinical, and then they go back. And they, you know, want to work on something in another country which I think is so cool. Shanti Chang: So Shanti Chang: this is Shanti Chang: where we’re coming from. We’re trying to make sure that you guys are number one, of course, ready to be a nurse practitioner, laying your hands on a patient and a family, and safe, and, and, you know, efficient and productive but also just really able to affect change on a bigger scale. A lot of our graduates do go into serving vulnerable populations upon graduation. Shanti Chang: And that’s that’s, you know, strategic on our part like that. We? That’s part of why we have the map clinics, and we work so hard to get everybody involved in our clinics. The evidence is just so strong that those of you that have a chance to work with vulnerable populations in your workforce training are much more likely to kind of carry some some strings of that, some threads of that into your practice. After so lots of our patients, lots of our sorry Shanti Chang: students become successful nurse practitioners and community health centers federally qualified health centers, you know, neighborhood health clinics like things like that. We also have lots of people that are just, you know. Shanti Chang: really interested in getting a good base at a family practice or an internal medicine, and they go on and and are successful there. Shanti Chang: yeah, urgent cares, hospitals. We do allow some Shanti Chang: you can go to an er especially one with fast track, and have that count as primary care for your clinicals in our program. So I know that that’s a route that some people want to go. Shanti Chang: yeah, I can’t say that there’s any kind of setting other than if you know for a fact that you 100% want to do inpatient Np stuff. Maybe this isn’t the program for you, but almost any other setting that you have a passion or an interest for Shanti Chang: I would say that we can make it work. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s awesome. That’s great. George Mason Online Admissions: So many different areas. Shanti Chang: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: So now it’s my turn to share a little bit of information. So I know we kind of dove into the question and answer a little bit, but we still have time for that, too. But I’d like to just briefly go over the admissions process, and if you have any questions regarding the next steps. George Mason Online Admissions: As far as start dates, application materials, anything like that. And and I did get the individual that shared their email address. And I was. Gonna say, we can work together, I will probably be reaching out to you. Tomorrow, if that’s okay, with a little bit more information for you George Mason Online Admissions: but please, if you’re already working with an admissions representative, please reach out to them. I will also be posting our general phone number and email if you’re not sure who you’re working with. George Mason Online Admissions: But we do have amazing people that are just ready to talk to you and work with you and and help you out. But I’m going to go over just a few of the basics of the admissions process, so we can use this valuable time to hear from Dr. Chang because she is the expert on the program and and the star tonight. So George Mason Online Admissions: you know, for the admissions process. Of course, we need your official transcript, unofficial will work. But we do need official before if you’re in admitted by the end of your 1st semester. So we try really hard to get that before even admittance. But unofficials will work if that’s how we have it. At this point a professional up-to-date resume is needed. George Mason Online Admissions: 3 letters of recommendation George Mason Online Admissions: also, and your personal statement, you know. So why are you looking into this program? I always tell. And if any of my my people are on here, I say, share your story. Why are you wanting to do this? It’s so important, you know, as they’re looking at your application George Mason Online Admissions: a little bit about the prerequisites. I know this is something I get a lot of questions about when talking to potential students. You do need to have your bachelor’s in nursing from a regionally accredited institution with a minimum of a 3.0 Gpa. George Mason Online Admissions: You need to have an active Rn license here in the United States. George Mason Online Admissions: and at least one year of experience as an Rn. And your current Cpr card George Mason Online Admissions: and that is all uploaded and sent over. You know that information. So that’s just a brief overview. And like, I said, I’ll be posting the phone number and email address in the chat shortly. You know, for for you to reach out if you have any other questions as far as that goes. George Mason Online Admissions: and so we’re gonna go ahead and switch it back over for questions and answers. If that’s okay George Mason Online Admissions: and George Mason Online Admissions: yeah, feel free to put your questions in the question, answer or in the chat, it’s a little bit easier for us to see in the question and answer box, but feel free to put it in the chat. If you’re not not able to get to that. Shanti Chang: Yeah. And I just wanted to add a couple of things. If that’s okay on the Shanti Chang: application part and just things I look at, because I do. I read literally your whole application for every person that applies to the program Shanti Chang: as the final kind of stamp on it. If you have something in life where it was a little bit, you know, maybe difficult. You struggled. Maybe it doesn’t look good. Shanti Chang: Use your personal statement as a means of explaining that and demonstrating your resiliency like I certainly haven’t been perfect in life. I’ve had some times, or you know, I look back and I’m like shoot, you know, wish that went different. But if I can think about it and turn it into like, well, this is the lesson I learned, or this is how I actually benefited from that at the end of the day. Shanti Chang: Then that’s that’s really of interest to me, that you know, you would have that insight and be able to use it for your success in the future. So don’t think that, like you have to be perfect, you know, to apply, and and everything has to be, you know, just sparkly, and beautiful like. Use your statement to Shanti Chang: kind of explain who you are and what you want to do, and some things that you’ve been through. If you want Shanti Chang: also, just the year of experiences our end just to clarify that timeline. It’s a year of experience by the time the classes start. So like right now, if let’s pretend you graduated you know, last Shanti Chang: December. But you want to apply right now to start in January, and and you started working, let’s say, like, in January of 2024 is an Rn. You could still apply in theory, and I would be able to see, okay, yeah, they’ve got a year experience. Come the time the program starts. Even if it’s not technically a year right now. Shanti Chang: so official transcript. There’s a question here that says official transcript. Only from nursing school or other degrees. I believe. Correct me, if I’m wrong, Tabitha. I think it’s mostly nursing schools as long as that’s what Shanti Chang: you’re using to bring in like, if you were trying to apply credits from another degree pursued to transfer in to not take something. That we ask you guys to take. Then that would have to be official. Is that right? George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, and and and I’ll be honest, I’m fairly new. So. Shanti Chang: No, it’s okay. George Mason Online Admissions: You guys talk to me? I know, like for other programs, too, like we wanna make sure if there’s any George Mason Online Admissions: any like prerequisites that they’re showing on that transcript as well. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Shanti Chang: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: So, and and. Shanti Chang: Exactly. George Mason Online Admissions: We work with you for that? You know, and help you help you out with with looking, looking at that and getting that information, too. That’s part of that’s part of our job. So. Shanti Chang: And I think I just answered Catherine’s question of the one year of experience prior to the start of classes or prior to start clinicals. It’s it’s 1 year of experience prior to the start of the program. Shanti Chang: You don’t start clinicals in the program until your 6th semester in the program. Shanti Chang: So I hope that answers that question. Shanti Chang: do. Your letters of recommendation have to be from specific people? We do want at least one of them to be from a manager or a supervisor of your work. Shanti Chang: In some capacity. You know the more current the better. But there’s no hard and fast rule on how current. Shanti Chang: Obviously, you know ideally, someone who’s been your supervisor or manager in a nursing role. Not to say that you probably weren’t great at some job that you did in high school before nursing, but like just not as relevant and helpful to making the strongest application packet that you can. Shanti Chang: This is another one that I’m not quite sure on this question of. If you’re a Gmu alum and graduated with your Bsn is an official transcript needed? Or can the office of admissions Shanti Chang: get it through their records? Do you know how that works? George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, I can answer that one. Shanti Chang: Okay. Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, we’re able to to get that on your behalf. So that’s 1 of the easy, easy things to do. I I love George Mason Online Admissions: Well, I love working with everybody honestly, but working with alum. It’s always nice to see y’all coming back. You know, which is pretty cool. But yeah, we can. We can work through. We have people that can do that. So we have people. Shanti Chang: Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I know, too, like, this isn’t necessarily the focus of this program of this, this info session tonight. But like. Let’s take that a step further and say, Hey, you graduated with your Msn. As an Fnp. And then you want to come back for your doctorate, or maybe even mid program, you change your mind and you decide you’d rather pursue the Dnp. Shanti Chang: Versus the msn. You know there’s there are fancy things that they all can do in their office to kind of move some of the stuff over and and find it from other places. Shanti Chang: The the paper in this personal statement, there’s there’s no like I’m not. Gonna Shanti Chang: I don’t know. It’s it’s whatever it needs to be that works for you. I think that there’s a couple of questions in the prompt. That just kind of ask you Shanti Chang: about your outlook on being a nurse practitioner. Why, you want to be a nurse practitioner. You know that kind of thing. So certainly like. However long you think Shanti Chang: it takes to answer that, and then also explain anything else in life that you might want to explain. If there’s any need for that. I would say most people’s papers end up being somewhere between. Shanti Chang: or reflective statements end up being somewhere between like Shanti Chang: 2 and 4 pages, maybe. But again, there’s no hard and fast rules on that. When I read it I’m not like, Oh, shoot! It was only one page like if it was a stellar one page and I get it cool. You know. Similarly, if it’s 10 pages that doesn’t also automatically mean it’s an in either, because. Shanti Chang: you know, I want it to Shanti Chang: makes sense. Shanti Chang: and and, you know, help your help. Your packet. So Shanti Chang: I think. Shanti Chang: I saw a question in here about clinicals, and just the spacing of that. Can clinicals be completed during the summer or fall spring. Only. No, we offer the clinical courses, every semester. So we’ve even had so technically in the regular plan of study. And again, this is where flexibility comes in. So my job right now is, I guess, to give you guys the lay of the land as it is. Typically. But Shanti Chang: typically in this program. You do clinical over your 6th semester and your 7th semester, and then you graduate over your 7th semester in the program. We have had some folks who have had some circumstances or whatever. Maybe, for example, like not living in this country. Shanti Chang: who have Shanti Chang: arranged for Shanti Chang: doing clinicals over one semester. So they’re doing all 600 h or 500 direct, patient care hours in that one semester. And they’re still not technically graduating until the 7th semester, because the didactic classes can’t be taken at the same time as all of that. But it is, you know, like, if you know. Oh, my kids, schedule whatever childcare like. I literally only have one semester to get it done. Shanti Chang: You can do it in one semester. I don’t have like a rule of you can’t do more than the minimum Shanti Chang: of hours if that makes sense. Shanti Chang: And and again, we offer the clinicals like every semester. So if you were like, shoot the way my program lines up. I’m supposed to take clinical in the spring, but I’d really rather not. I want to hold the semester and wait till summer. That’s fine. It’s just a conversation that we need to have and stay organized. Shanti Chang: I’m just looking back here at the chat. When should you apply? If you’re looking to start the fall of 2025. That’s a good question. I don’t know. Is that application open yet? George Mason Online Admissions: Is, I would say. Now I have. I mean we have rolling applications. So they’re they are open for fall. I’m 1 of those. The sooner you start and get the ball rolling the better. You can get your information in, get your decision. And so you know what you’re doing. That’s that’s just me. I that’s all the students I work with. I’m like, the sooner you can get information in George Mason Online Admissions: the better. So that that’s just me. But yeah, absolutely, definitely. Shanti Chang: Well. And I said, I think sometimes, too, there’s other pieces that you can’t account for right like, when is your old university gonna send the transcript. When is the person that you asked for that letter of recommendation? Actually gonna submit it? So kind of the sooner the ask and giving yourself more cushion. You know. Why not. George Mason Online Admissions: Absolutely. And it does take time to write that personal statement. And and I tell students I’m working with, take take the weekend, don’t I mean, I don’t know about y’all, and I don’t have near a stressful job as a nurse. George Mason Online Admissions: You know, and and it’s hard for me to take that time to write at the end of a workday, and dealing with kids and George Mason Online Admissions: and life in general. So take that. Take. Take a weekend or 2. George Mason Online Admissions: So the sooner you get started the better. But yeah. Shanti Chang: And then there’s a question here for a Gpa below 3.5. Can you still apply? Absolutely? Honestly, yeah, I think 3.5 is like encouraged. You know, I would say, we Shanti Chang: in reality really don’t start Shanti Chang: getting, I think, concerned, or thinking that it’s gonna be a marker of, you know. Shanti Chang: not being successful unless you get under 3 point. Oh, and even under 3. 0, like, if it was a long time ago, and you’ve got 10 years of Rn experience and you’re speaking to. You know that in your personal statement. Shanti Chang: you know. Yeah, go for it like, just again, use the personal statement and your resume and everything to kind of demonstrate the strength and the and the skills and the learning that you’ve had over time, and why you’d be successful in the future. Shanti Chang: for in terms of timelines on decisions. It’s a little bit of like a ladder. So 1st thing is, you know, I think the office isn’t even really able to look and assess your packet until each of the components are in, because they’re not going to send things through us to the faculty with, you know. Oh, okay. Here, Dr. Chang, like here’s their essay. But sorry. Wait. We’re still waiting on their transcript. Shanti Chang: And so by the time everything gets to faculty it needs to be in one piece, and and their office looks at it kind of 1st make sure it’s all good, you know, meeting our basic parameters of like, Hey, will this person have a year Shanti Chang: of experience, you know, coming into the start of the program that kind of thing. And then they give it to a faculty reviewer, and then it goes to me for kind of the final stamp on it. Shanti Chang: I know that between those steps I explained it to say that everyone’s usually prioritizing the semester that’s immediately coming first.st but that’s not to say that we couldn’t still evaluate and spend some time and resources on things that are in the future, which is. Shanti Chang: we would all love to be. I would love if like, you know, right now I was thinking mostly about next summer, because summer because spring’s all dealt with but and I did have a few that came in that I accepted, for you know this upcoming spring that I was doing at the same time as I was accepting fall this past semester. So it just really depends on the pacing of going through. I don’t know if you have any other answers to that question. Shanti Chang: Mine was a little rambly. George Mason Online Admissions: No? Well, and I guess so, I think. And and Hi, Sally, I got I talked to her this afternoon. I think she’s asking once the application is submitted to you about how long does it take and George Mason Online Admissions: it’s different. So I don’t wanna speak to your I don’t know if you have an idea. Shanti Chang: Yeah, the the faculty reviewers and I have a really good relationship. And the office is good at nudging us sometimes, like, Hey, so and so like you’ve got this application in your inbox. Can you please look at that? So we have those conversations, at least on a monthly basis. I don’t think it goes even that long that it’s sitting at our level waiting for us, I know. Like for me, when I get the notifications that I’ve got Shanti Chang: X many applications in my inbox. I try to look at them in the next 24 h, and then usually then the letter comes out for decision 3 days after the decision is put into the system. Shanti Chang: So we are trying really hard, though, to turn these around to you guys as soon as you put them in, because I know that you’re making plans and trying to figure out where you want to go, and we don’t want to lose you, just because you’re waiting on us. So it’s definitely something that we’re working on, and very cognizant of trying to turn around as soon as we can. George Mason Online Admissions: That is awesome. Yes, yes, and George Mason Online Admissions: Stephanie asks, Do you have start George Mason Online Admissions: weeks? Then? Only 2 start dates. So that’s a. Shanti Chang: Yeah, that’s yeah. Great question. So Shanti Chang: I’ll I’ll say this. I I don’t know of a program. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a program. And this is not me just being biased, although I am obviously biased. I don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a program that’s as flexible as ours, with like the starting and the stopping and the pausing and the you know Shanti Chang: we do start cohorts 3 times a year, so we’ve got, you know, a January start date A may start date and August start date. Shanti Chang: it’s encouraged for sure to hit your start on one of those 3 months. I can’t say that I’ve ever had someone jump in mid semester, like mid 8 weeks like, say in March. Shanti Chang: I think part of the Shanti Chang: reason we haven’t experienced that is, just from a registrar’s perspective. They don’t have a way Shanti Chang: to kind of count you as a student. If you’re not enrolled in a class for those 1st 8 weeks of the semester. And that’s where the issues come in. Shanti Chang: but, like again. Shanti Chang: based on whatever like, whatever you have going on in life like talk to us, and we can come up with some sort of creative plan to try to make it work. If there’s like some reason that you couldn’t do something for an 8 week cluster, or whatever like we could figure that out, it would probably Shanti Chang: not work for the 1st semester you’re in the program. But in subsequent semesters it’s something we could talk about. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s a great great question, too. George Mason Online Admissions: I think we’ve covered everything so far. Does anybody have any other questions? George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Chang has done a great, great job. I know a lot of the questions that that I get from students you actually already covered and information. So that is fantastic. Yes, and then some of our errors in the chat? Are the common questions so. Shanti Chang: Yeah. And then just again, then for the record, like, I know that this info sesh was specific to the Mason online. Msn family nurse practitioner program, but just throwing it out there. And I’m happy to connect you guys to the proper Shanti Chang: people. If you wanted to learn more about some of our other options. We do have like, I said, that traditional kind of hybrid model of Msn Fmp program. If you’re thinking you want to be in person sometimes. We do have also Dmp programs that have family nurse, practitioner, adult 0 nurse, practitioner and administrative dmp, concentrations. Oh, and and psych. I’m sorry. How did I forget psych? That’s like what I just did. Psych Shanti Chang: psychiatric mental health and Pdmp program as well. So again, not for this session. But I wanna at least throw that out there. If people are still turning their wheels on, what program makes sense for me? Which way do I go. You know we do have other options as well. George Mason Online Admissions: And also, if you get to talk to one of us, and you are looking for that program that that we are not experts on we do refer you to an on campus contact. I had one today for the psychiat psychiatric nurse program that I referred to to the on campus. Representative. So yeah, yeah. Shanti Chang: Perfect. And and I’m happy to, you know, share my email as well if anybody else has any additional questions. But yeah, thank you guys all for joining? Does anybody else have any other questions. George Mason Online Admissions: All have been fabulous and just. I thank you all for joining and asking great questions and participating. It’s always nice to have people on here with us, and and it’s a fantastic program. George Mason Online Admissions: So I’m super excited that so many of you are interested, or or I know some of you have already applied, which is exciting. So you know, and that’s what we’re here for is to help you. Oh, Ali, thank you, she said. Thank you for the information you’re inspiring. Dr. Chang is pretty amazing. So George Mason Online Admissions: but thank you all so much, and thank you for your time, Dr. Chang, I know you’re extremely busy as well. But we still appreciate you taking the time to hop on here and and talk with. George Mason Online Admissions: And yeah, it’s a fun. Shanti Chang: I love it. If I if I could just get everybody to come and just have all the amazing fmps in the world, then I’m like, Okay, good. I can. George Mason Online Admissions: At night. Shanti Chang: Oh, there’s not. George Mason Online Admissions: Tweezers. Yeah, all those world tweezers. Shanti Chang: Yes, thank you. Everybody. George Mason Online Admissions: Y’all take care. And if you you know, make sure you get the phone number in the email. If you don’t already have a contact. George Mason Online Admissions: and we will see you later. George Mason Online Admissions: Bye, everybody. Shanti Chang: Bye. George Mason Online Admissions: Making sure we got all the questions. Shanti Chang: I think we’re probably okay. I know sometimes people are multitasking and can’t hang up. So Shanti Chang: yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: We still have 4 people, I mean, I guess it’s 2 people hanging out with us. So thank you so much. Shanti Chang: Yes, I hope you have a good night. It was nice to meet you. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. It’s so nice to meet you and thank you for being my first, st you know. Virtual open house George Mason Online Admissions: you y’all are amazing. Shanti Chang: Good night. Shanti Chang: Thank you. Talk to you later. Bye. George Mason Online Admissions: Take care! Bye-bye.

George Mason Online Admissions: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our virtual open house for online masters of public health here at George Mason, and we’re very excited to get started. We want to give everyone just a few minutes to get logged on and situated. So while we’re waiting, if you could all just put in the chat. Put your 1st name and where you’re joining us from, and we’ll get started in just a few minutes, just trying to give everybody a chance to join. George Mason Online Admissions: So if you can hear me and see my screen that says, online masters of public health, just let me know that we’re coming through to you. George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Sarah says she can see the screen. Can you hear me? Okay, Sarah? George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Thank you. Everybody George Mason Online Admissions: wonderful, wonderful. George Mason Online Admissions: So we’ll just give it a couple more minutes. I think we had a couple more people signed up, and I know it’s tough sometimes hopping on George Mason Online Admissions: right at 7, George Mason Online Admissions: and if you’d like share where you’re joining us from. It’s always fun to see where people are hopping on George Mason Online Admissions: from. Some people are, I know, local to George Mason some people are, you know, from across the United States. We have some people in different continents sometimes, too. So George Mason Online Admissions: put that in the chat for us. If you don’t mind. George Mason Online Admissions: we’ll give it just about one more minute. Start around 7 0 5. George Mason Online Admissions: Give everybody a chance to hop on. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, we have Abigail from Santa Barbara, California. See? There we go. So you’re a little bit ahead, I mean, yeah, ahead of us. Is that right or behind us? I should say George Mason Online Admissions: I’m terrible with time. George Mason Online Admissions: Terrible time and math. My master’s is in English. So George Mason Online Admissions: with somebody from Virginia right here. George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Thank you all for for sharing. It’s always nice. George Mason Online Admissions: It’s always fun, too, to see if I see a name of a student that I’ve been working with. I’ve been trying to George Mason Online Admissions: let them know to hop on, because I will tell you these are these are my favorite times. It’s getting to hear straight from George Mason Online Admissions: our amazing faculty. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: couple looks like we had one or 2 more hop on. George Mason Online Admissions: and we’re at 7.0 5, and I don’t want to take any more of your time. It’s so precious these days, so I wanted to thank everyone for joining us this evening. We’re excited to get started. My name is Tabitha, and I’m an admissions representative on behalf of George Mason University for the online Masters of Public Health Program. George Mason Online Admissions: and I’m here as a resource to give information and answer questions and help walk you through the admission application process. But tonight the star of the show George Mason Online Admissions: is we have our directors, and we have some special guests with us. So they’re going to go over some things for us. So I was going to share a quick overview of what we’re going to go over this evening. We are super excited to be joined with our director, and they’re going to start telling us a little bit about themselves and their roles. Touch a bit on the program career outcomes and kind of how the online format works. George Mason Online Admissions: And at the end we have time for question and answers, which is always one of my favorite parts, because I learn a lot, too. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: let’s see how to participate. So before we jump in, just a little bit of housekeeping George Mason Online Admissions: at the bottom of your screen. If you’re on a desktop or a laptop, or it should be a question and answer box, or if you’re on Mobile, it should be somewhere around your screen. There, it says Q. And A. Feel free to put your questions in that question and answer box, and we will answer those we’re going to try to save the questions to the end. George Mason Online Admissions: Sometimes I know if it’s something that that our presenters are talking about, they will go ahead and touch on it, and we can answer it. Live right at that moment, but feel free to put them in there, and we will answer them before the end of the night. So also there is a chat box that you’re welcome to type in there if you just had something specific. But if you could use the question and answer box for your questions. That would be super helpful. George Mason Online Admissions: And without further ado we’re going to introduce some of our special guests. We have Dr. Mitchum, director of the Mph program, and Sarah Liu, the Mph. Coordinator, and then we also have another special guest with us, and I’m going to let Chris introduce himself after Dr. Mitchum and Sarah, if that’s okay. So, Dr. Mitchum, if you could take it away. MB Micham: Hi! Welcome everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us. As Tabitha said, I know your time is precious, so I appreciate you prioritizing spending this time with us this evening or afternoon, depending on where you live. I’m Dr. Mitchum. I’m an assistant professor in the Department of Global and Community Health College of Public Health at George Mason University. MB Micham: And I’m also the director of the Online Mph program, which means that if you have the wonderful choice to join this program. You’ll also see me in a lot of your courses as your faculty member. So welcome. Sarah Liu: Hi, everyone. My name is Sarah Liu. I’m the Mph program coordinator. Thank you so much for being here today. It’s nice to meet everyone. I am also the academic advisor to all master level students. So certificate the Mph program as well as a master science in global health. So if and when you do come in as a Php. Student I will also be your academic advisor as well. Sarah Liu: Nice to meet you all. Chris Williams: Hello, everyone! Welcome. Chris Williams: Hello, everyone! Welcome! Excited to be with you all today. My name is Chris Williams. I’m the associate director for graduate recruitment and admissions for the College of Public Health. So a great resource for any questions that you have admissions related as you’re considering applying to the program, I’m happy to answer any questions that are related to the admissions process. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much. I’m gonna move to the next slide for us here and let you all take it away. Where this is a 1 of my favorite times is just to get to hear more about the program, and I know our guests are waiting as well. MB Micham: All right, I will take this off. So again I’m Dr. Mitchum. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, and I wanted to start off by sharing a little bit about why our program is a bit unique. MB Micham: So there are a number of reasons why I strongly recommend you. Consider George Mason University MB Micham: 1st and foremost, and this isn’t on the slide. I am one of many people who was trying to balance work responsibilities, family responsibilities. I didn’t live close to the institution that I decided to pursue. So I actually completed my Mph degree completely in an online format, so that experience the good, the bad and ugly of all of that MB Micham: made it so that I wanted to be involved in designing a program using leveraging the amazing faculty that we have at Mason, but making it engaging and tangible, so that the learning experience will help you be successful in the field. So everything that you’re going to hear about tonight any questions that you have about the program. Please do know that this program has been designed with that intent MB Micham: to not only be engaging throughout the learning process. But then also help. So that there’s a that transfer of knowledge that you learn in the program and in the classrooms. But then also practicality of how that applies in your everyday work. MB Micham: So a George Mason University College of Public Health, is the 1st College of Public Health in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We’re very proud of that. We’re actually completing our accreditation purposes for that accreditation, for not just our Department being accredited through Cf. MB Micham: On the Council of Education for Public Health Accreditation. But in addition to our department, the entire college is going to be accredited as a 1st college of public health. So what does that practically mean outside of that lovely little title that we have? That means that there are many years of effort, of excellence, established excellence that have gone into designing this program. MB Micham: that our programs have been established and noteworthy for being successful, not only in providing education, but in setting our graduates up for success in the field. MB Micham: It also means that we have an incredible interdisciplinary group of faculty students and experts in the College of Public Health. So our Mph. Concentrations have the ability to have our students learning from people who have expertise in different areas. One of the courses that we’ll be talking about a little bit. Gch 500, which is the fundamentals of public health. MB Micham: is part of the mph curriculum, but it’s also required to be taken by every master’s level student in the entire college. So students in this program are taking most of their courses with other students who are in the Mph program. However, several of them are, or at least in that one course. You’ll also be taking that course with students from across the College of Public Health. So you have the opportunity to learn from each other and each other’s experiences and expertise. MB Micham: We also have practicum fieldwork and internship opportunities. Another thing that makes this program very unique is a lot of Mph programs that are delivered entirely online are very siloed in that. People go through those programs kind of as a cohort. So there are students who are online, and then students who are in person in the institution. MB Micham: Although this particular concentration is able to be completed entirely online asynchronous online. MB Micham: We consider students in this concentration just one of our Mph students, which means that you, as a student in the online Mph program, public health practice concentration will have the same access to all of the resources available to all of our Mph students. MB Micham: which means that if you choose to take a course on campus. You have that capacity to do so. MB Micham: If you want to complete internships or function as a graduate assistant, you have the same chance and opportunity to do that as our students in other Mph. Concentrations. MB Micham: Part of the Mph. Degree is that End Capstone Project, where you have 200 h of practicum field work where you get that tangible in-person experience. But you are also able to leverage that experience, to make some connections hopefully, either to boost your portfolio to gain additional experience for employment. MB Micham: or to maybe even complete that in another setting that will allow you to get different expertise. So again, with this concentration students in our program because they are part of the Mph program, will have all of those field work opportunities that all Mph. Students have. But they’ll also have those other opportunities that are available to all of our Mph. Students, whether they attend classes remotely or they attend classes in person. MB Micham: The other bit that I would like to mention, and Sarah can chime in if she likes and add more information about this is our mentor program, which has been very successful in having graduates from our program able to work with mentor and share information with current students. Sarah, is there anything you’d like to add about that. Sarah Liu: Oh, yes, just a quick note. So usually students who will be like in their second year are paired up with a graduate student from our program. So, as Dr. Midgem said. Sarah Liu: and this is a opportunity, it’s usually done in the semester. But it’s an opportunity for upcoming graduating students to be interacting with people who are already in the real world to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be working in public health. Sarah Liu: It’s all optional. But it is a very successful program that we 1st launched in 2,022, and we are. We brought it back to, and 2023, and we are also doing it this year. So we hope to keep that going, since it’s been a great program. MB Micham: You. George Mason Online Admissions: I love that. I didn’t know about that. So thank you for sharing that. MB Micham: Thank you. The other things that our students have access to include Sarah, who is absolutely phenomenal and is very willing and available to meet with students. I know she’ll share more about that later on, but that that tangible MB Micham: ability to be able to connect with somebody and ask questions and have them answered is very helpful. Rise point also has the capacity for students in this program to have some additional support that will be covered a bit later as well. So again, there are many opportunities for this program to have the support academically, have the support, strategically thinking about the educational process, but also future steps in your profession. MB Micham: Next slide, please. MB Micham: Thank you very much. So our courses, without getting too much into my happy discussions about course, design, and all of that good stuff. Our Mph program has 42 credit hours. These credits are combined with core courses that all of our Mph. Students have to take, regardless of their concentration. Those include Gch, 500 foundations of public health. That’s the course to which I referred earlier, that is taken by all students MB Micham: in the College of Public Health who are in a graduate program. That’s just an introduction to public health so very helpful to have discussions with students who are in the nursing program or social work, or who are in nutrition or in hap. So being able to take these courses with other students, but learning about how each different department in the college contributes to the overall field and learning of Public health. MB Micham: Gch. 6, 0, 4. Fundamentals of epidemiology and biostatistics. That is one of the core courses for students who are not pursuing an epidemiological concentration. MB Micham: community assessment and partnerships. That is one of the courses that I teach. So if you take that course, chances are you will see me. MB Micham: And in that course we explore learning how to understand what the needs of needs of the community are to be able to successfully address those needs. Gch, 611, health program planning and evaluations. Gch, 645, Us. And global public health systems MB Micham: hap, 6, 35, role of government and healthcare and public health, and then hap 680 applied public health leadership and management. So each of those courses are 3 credits. Each of those are required to be taken by all Mph. Students. MB Micham: Other courses that are required to be taken by all Mph. Students are our practicum courses. That is, gch, 780 practicum seminar. That is a 0 credit course, which means that there are no tuition fees for that course. However, a lot of students go into their practicum opportunity or thinking about their practicum opportunity with a little bit of trepidation, a little bit of fear, not knowing how it’s going to work. MB Micham: The reason we have that course is so that by the time you actually get into your practicum, and you’re doing that work. You have everything that you need in order to be successful. So Dr. Winters, the faculty member who’s currently teaching that, and in that course go over MB Micham: some information about how to be successful, how to build your resume, how to network. MB Micham: how to find a placement, and our placements are available not only in person, but there are also some remote opportunities. You don’t have to be located right next to Mason in order to complete your practicum, doctor, which will work with you. MB Micham: But again, that practicum seminar is basically designed to make you successful. When you take Gch 790, which is the actual practicum and public health that is, 200 h that are required in person. To MB Micham: be able to get that that experience MB Micham: the concentration specific courses. The electives are Gch. 551 rural health and Gch. 560. That one, it says, is not currently available, and there was a question of when it will be available. The answer to that is this summer. So there are 2 restricted electives for this concentration, meaning that you have to have an elective. So you can either pick rural health or environmental health. MB Micham: Rural health was available last semester. And that talks about specific rural health disparities both here in the United States and overseas. And then environmental health is currently being developed and will be available this upcoming summer. So those are the 2 electives. MB Micham: The other concentration specific courses for this program are public health preparedness and response. Gch, 5, 35, Gch, 6, 0, 7, evidence-based public Health practice. MB Micham: Gch. 6, 5, 5, public Health Equity and justice. Gch. 6, 91 project management and Public health, and then Gch, 7, 20 public health problems in a changing society. And that course is our ile course MB Micham: or integrated learning experience, where you will kind of like the capstone course before the practicum, where you take all of the knowledge that you’ve learned in the entire program. And then you you do more of a deep dive into a topic that’s of interest to you and explore it in great depth, so that often sets students up for additional success in their practicum. MB Micham: Sarah, is there anything that you would like to add for the courses. Sarah Liu: Yes, just a real quick note. So, as Dr. Mitchum had this, you know, talked about the practicum. I do want to add that there are a lot of opportunities available within the practicum. So common questions I get are, can it be paid? Can I get paid during the practicum? Absolutely? If that is a site that is willing to compensate you for your hard work. Sarah Liu: you know, if that’s agreed upon beforehand, that’s great. Also, there are students who have done practicums abroad as well. Sometimes students are interested in doing practicums outside of where they are. Sarah Liu: And so if you find an organization or a practicum site outside of where you are. That’s definitely doable. We’ve also had students do practicums abroad virtually as well. So that can also be explored. So there’s a lot of different avenues of how you can complete your practicum outside. So just wanted to add on, there. MB Micham: Thank you very much. Could we please have the next slide? MB Micham: Thank you. So why on earth pursue an Mph. Degree? The Mph. Degree is one of the degrees that, I think, is one of the good things that came out of covid and appreciation for having available resources, including toilet paper. Understanding how much we value each other. Also good things that came out of Covid. But one of the things that made me as a public health professional. MB Micham: I don’t want to say excited, but maybe gratified. That was a good outcome from Covid. Is, people know about public health now? They may not have been aware of it prior to Covid. But now there is an awareness of public health, not only its importance and its need, but the value of earning an Mph. Degree. So this degree is designed to give you practical knowledge and experience applied experience that can be leveraged for employment in the field. MB Micham: so as part of projected outcomes for employment. You know, public health jobs are expected to increase the Mph. Degree is also a nice option for people who have an Allied health degree. MB Micham: and maybe an undergraduate degree. But then, because of accreditation or certification requirements, now, a master’s degree is required. So, for example, nutrition dietetics, it’s a very nice complementary degree to be able to add, so that you could still maintain your credentialing. MB Micham: get your master’s degree, but then also have the extra knowledge and experience of public health. So some of our alums from our program have worked for the Cdc. Booz, Allen, Hamilton, Usda. The Association of State and Territorial health officials and many, many, many other institutions. MB Micham: As part of our program, we collect data from our graduates, our alums, so that we know what’s working great, what needs to be adjusted and improved. So we’re constantly in that process of looking at how we can make our program as effective and helpful as possible. MB Micham: So part of that data that we collect are where our alums are employed, and I’m very happy to report, and Sarah can add on to this if she would like that. Our alums have very good success, and not only finding employment, but finding solid, stable, good paying employment that allows them to leverage their careers. Sarah, is there anything you’d like to add to that. Sarah Liu: No, you said at all. Yeah, as Dr. Mitchum said, there’s been a lot of students. We hear a lot of feedback. One thing that we do try to do is make sure that we are constantly updating our program and making sure that our information is also updated in order to, you know, understand where our students are going. But yeah. MB Micham: Thank you very much. Next slide, please. MB Micham: Alright. And this is where I’m going to turn this over to Sarah and Chris. If he would be interested in saying anything. So the admissions process. Sarah, if you don’t mind. Sarah Liu: Yeah, absolutely. So we do have Chris here. So again, if you have any admission questions, please feel free to raise your hand or put it in the Q. And A. Section. It’s great, because, you know, he is somebody that’s working in the graduate admissions office. So Sarah Liu: he’s able to answer questions that I might not have answers to. But essentially so the admission process. So you will be using a portal called Sophis. All of our programs, including the certificate and masters of science also use Sophis as a portal on top of the Mph program. Sarah Liu: So you would need a bachelor’s degree and a 3.0 Gpa. Is preferred, but it is not required by any means. There will also be transcripts that you have to turn in. You’re also required to turn in 2 letters of recommendations. Sarah Liu: Sophis will ask for 3. We recommend that for the 3rd email address you can either put your own or a family members with their consent, of course, and or, if you want to add, on a 3rd recommendation letter, you’re more than welcome to. But we really only Sarah Liu: look at, too. You will also need a statement of purpose. This is where you will have an opportunity to essentially show the faculty reviewers of who you are and what you’re hoping to achieve within the Mph program. So I often tell students Sarah Liu: that it’ll be important to write about. Why are you applying specifically for the Php. Concentration here. And what are you hoping to do with it after you graduate? If you’ve had any successes or challenges in the past. So maybe you didn’t do so great in undergraduate. Maybe when you’re a sophomore. Sarah Liu: because you were dealing with some personal things, make sure you write those challenges down, provide examples. It’s going to be really important for us to understand what kind of student you’ll be here at George Mason, and then you’ll also be turning in a resume slash cover letter. Chris, is there anything that I am forgetting that students will need to look out for? Chris Williams: No, I think that you and captured it all, and I think that you know one of the common questions that we always get through the admissions process is kind of like, how does my application stand out? And I think that it’s laid out really, perfectly right here that it’s truly a holistic process. Right? So, like all of these factors on the screen, are going to be factored into consideration when making admissions, decisions and thinking about, you know great people to recommend you Chris Williams: really kind of highlighting your interests, and how the Mph. Is going to further your career goals and just highlighting your experiences on your resume. So just making sure that you’re following all the outlines and all the expectations that are outlined for each of these components of the application process. Sarah Liu: Thank you so much. And I do want to add that specifically for those who are international students, you will have additional materials. You do need to provide, so we always encourage you to apply sooner than the deadline, or try to apply as soon as possible, because sometimes it does take time to obtain those materials. So, for example, all transcript scripts will have to be translated into English, and then also English proficiency test scores Sarah Liu: will be required as long as well as like a wes evaluation. So again, if you have a specific, you are an international student, and you have specific questions about like, if you qualify or have any questions of like, how to obtain these materials, please feel free to reach out to the Chris in the graduate Admissions office. MB Micham: Thank you very much. I will chime on MB Micham: couple of things here for the statement of purpose. Please do not use Chat Gpt. To write your admission statement. Have it be coming from you. That’s 1 thing that we’ve been talking a lot about. So faculty review are the ones who review your applications. MB Micham: and we want to know who you are. We want to know what makes you get up in the morning. What makes you want to be part of a public health career. Field. What makes you want to to earn your mph like Sarah mentioned? If there were things that happened that maybe reflect MB Micham: on your Gpa. And like, Okay, well, I had an ill family member I needed to take care of or Covid happened. All of those things are important to include in your statement of purpose. But please have it be in your own words. We want to hear your authentic voice. We don’t want to hear an inauthentic voice that is not you. MB Micham: The other thing, too, is to keep in mind that we have 2 admission cycles for the public health practice concentration, the online Mph. Degree. So for the spring admission MB Micham: for this upcoming academic or this upcoming semester, that would be December first.st So please make sure that you start the process if you’re wanting to pursue this as soon as possible, so that all of your documents can be in by that deadline, so that we can have time to review it before the holiday break. MB Micham: Any questions at this point I see some questions in the chat box. Are there any evaluation classes we can add to the community health consideration. MB Micham: So I’m not really sure what’s being asked. Or if you want to add a clarification that may be helpful, but I can speak to evaluation components in classes. So most of our courses are designed to expand on evaluating systems, evaluating projects, evaluating policies. MB Micham: So in thinking about community health or global health or anything like that, it’s there are those evaluation components that are part of the courses. If you have a specific focus that you’re looking for. That was not answered by that. Please definitely clarify MB Micham: if a school is taking too long to get this transcript to you. Is there a way to contact them? Sarah’s typing an answer? But if Sarah wants to give the answer. Sarah Liu: Oh, yes, and Chris feel free to chime in here. But I think so. Typically you will be because you’re applying through Sophis. You will be putting your transcript through Sophis. And so, if you are unaware of, like the status of where your transcript is contact, Sophis. First, st Sarah Liu: there’s usually like a Sophus customer service Sarah Liu: contact, and you can always ask them to see like, oh, was my transcript delivered? It’ll usually show up in the portal as well. Sometimes students do send it to George Mason University, but we ask that you send it to Sophis. Since that is the portal you’re applying to. Sarah Liu: and if your school is taking too long, maybe try to contact them again, or you know, send them an email. Give them a phone call. Chris, is there anything else that the students should be doing. Chris Williams: Yeah, I would. I completely echo what Sarah mentioned that you 1st want to check in with sofas. But if there is, if there is a glitch going on, and that, you know you’re not hearing any responses. It’s always it’s, you know, we always encourage you. It doesn’t hurt to send out to, you know, either call the school or to send an email to the school just to kind of check in and say, Hey, I submitted my. I requested my transcript at this date. It’s kind of been a little long. I’m just kind of checking in and wanting to inquire about the process, so it doesn’t hurt to follow up with them. Sarah Liu: Thank you. And then in terms of the recommendation letter. So we do ask that it is Sarah Liu: usually someone that can speak to your academic performance, whether that is a past professor. Maybe Sarah Liu: maybe they might not have been directly associated with your classes, but maybe you worked with them on a research project or someone that can talk to your academic performance, and it can be from someone from your previous university. So that’s completely fine. But we do ask for that worst case, you know, if you’ve maybe a supervisor from a job that can talk about your character and your work ethic. That is, that is okay, too. But we do ask that Sarah Liu: we usually have a someone that can speak to your academic performance. Write you at least one letter. MB Micham: Thank you. And there’s also a question about why is it difficult to apply through sophas? MB Micham: I would say that any application process I have ever been involved. It’s always been somewhat complicated. Sophis is kind of the gold standard for many public health programs. And as part of that accreditation process, and making sure that everything is done as excellently and holistically as possible. Sophis is one of those platforms that allows us to do that. So if you pursue applying through Sophis? MB Micham: Good news is you do have support. Chris and his amazing team are there to help also rise. Point has a lot of MB Micham: staff who are able to support and assist you too. So even if it is challenging, you will not be going through the process alone. MB Micham: all right. Next slide, please. George Mason Online Admissions: I was. Gonna say, we’re actually at question and answer. But you segwayed really? Well, that’s kind of where we step in and help you with the application. There’s only so much we can do, because it is your personal information. But you do have us as admission representatives on your side, supporting you through each step of the way I work with students. And honestly, I’m your cheerleader. I’m your supporter. When you go through a step. I’m right there, I’m proud of you. I’m celebrating with you. George Mason Online Admissions: Sophus is. I work with a lot of different programs. Sophus is a little bit harder, because I honestly can’t see it on my end. I have a coworker that one of our team members that does, and George Mason Online Admissions: he’s very quick to get back to us when I’m asking questions for students and Mph program. But it’s just it’s doing it one step at a time. But I can understand. I can understand that question as someone new to this role. I’m learning Sophus as well. But Dr. Mitchell is exactly right. It is what is used, and we just do it one step at a time right. MB Micham: There’s a question in the Q. And a box. Do you have any recommendation form? To the best of my knowledge? That is just something that you can have your. The person who’s writing your referral right? One thing that I’ve done when I’ve had students ask me to write a letter of recommendation is, I’ve asked them to provide me with some of their strengths, or some of their their Cv. Or their resume. MB Micham: So that way I have what I know from having taught them in the classroom, but I also get a better picture of their background, so that when I write my letter of recommendation. Then I have a little bit more information just outside of their classroom performance. MB Micham: So that is also very helpful. Also making sure that you think creatively about people that have been in your teaching history. So if it’s been a few years, maybe reaching out to a faculty member and starting a conversation before. Hey? I haven’t seen you in 5 years, but write this letter for me. MB Micham: you know. Maybe introduce like, Thank you, doctor or Professor, whomever yeah, I was in your your class during this semester. This was the class that I attended with you. I’m looking to pursue my Mph. Degree. So having that that tangible touch point with the faculty member and reminding them who you are is also very helpful. MB Micham: Are there any additional questions that have not been asked yet? MB Micham: So I’m going to put. Oh, go ahead. Sarah Liu: There’s another question in the Q. And a chat. Actually, it says that it says, I saw that we need to submit a resume, and is that through Sophis as well? So yes, all application materials need to be uploaded on Sophis. MB Micham: Then I just put my email address into the chat. If anyone has any specific questions, I know sometimes people don’t like to ask questions during these sessions. But if you have any questions, and you would like to ask them afterwards if you’d like to set up MB Micham: meeting via teams or Zoom to talk about the program. I’m always happy to answer any additional questions that may not have been answered tonight, or to talk more about our program. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, this is a great time. If you have anything. We have our experts here. I I love these sessions because I get to learn even more about the programs and and and I love hearing from y’all. So thank you so much for your time. George Mason Online Admissions: We just had a question. Will we please be able to send the recording? We actually will have it posted. I’m not sure exactly how quickly they go out there on the website. But I can send you a link once it gets posted, our one from the that was run for this fall is is out there right now. George Mason Online Admissions: Very similar information. Very similar. Format. But the new one will be posted. Shortly. But I can let you know definitely, definitely. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s a great question. George Mason Online Admissions: And if anybody doesn’t have any more questions one last time while we have our experts George Mason Online Admissions: oh, we got one. Would it be acceptable for a coworker to write a letter of recommendation? Is the question that just came in. Sarah Liu: Dr. Mitchum, as someone who does usually review applications. Do you have an answer for this? MB Micham: Excellent question, and thank you, Sarah, for deferring it to me. My strong recommendation would be no, that if you do not have any faculty members who could write you a letter of recommendation. It looks much better for us reviewing your application. If it’s somebody who’s in a position of authority over you. MB Micham: either a supervisor. If you’ve done an internship a preceptor faculty member, somebody who can, who can speak to your ability with a level of authority that may not be on a friend or a colleague. MB Micham: So if you do submit a letter of recommendation from a coworker, it will not be rejected, but your application will be much stronger if that letter of recommendation can come from somebody who has been either a teacher, a faculty member, or a supervisor. George Mason Online Admissions: Any more questions. George Mason Online Admissions: I just personally want to thank each and every one of you. You know Sarah Chris and Dr. Mitchum, I really want to thank each of you for taking your time to be here with us. We do have one more question that came in. If I have a bachelor’s degree unrelated to public health, can I still apply for the public health masters. MB Micham: Absolutely so. We have many students who are in their Mph program who have different undergraduate degrees. I mentioned earlier nutrition, and the reason I know about that is, I have worked with a number of dietetic nutritionists who are working on their Mph degree because they need that master’s level accreditation. We have some students who have had educational backgrounds, some who have science backgrounds. MB Micham: People come from all different academic journeys, or a lot of students who go through their undergraduate degree, get some life experience, and then realize that they love public health and want to get that degree. So the very long answer is, no, you do not have to have a public health, undergraduate degree. The requirements that we outlined earlier that Sarah and Chris discussed are the requirements that we have for admissions into the program. MB Micham: and the person does not have to be from the United States for a recommendation. Again, we’re looking for a faculty member or a supervisor with not only experience with you, but ideally experience to be able to speaking MB Micham: of how you would do in this program. So if your supervisor has public health experience, and you’ve you’ve worked in that field, or if your supervisor has seen you in any health related setting, then that would be acceptable. But no, they do not have to be from the United States. MB Micham: And what if the practicum is a remote job? So again, as Sarah mentioned earlier, the practicum component that 200 h of required experience can be completed. Remotely. We have had students do that before, but the specific requirements and instances of that in order to meet our accreditation requirements, so that your degree is valid. MB Micham: will be worked out with Dr. Winters, so it can be completed remotely, but it can’t just be at any remote site. There are very specific requirements that will be put into place, but Dr. Winter is fabulous, and once you get through the program and get to that stage, she will work with you to make sure you find that placement. Sarah Liu: Yes, I do. Wanna add real quick, that Sarah Liu: that what students are not able to do their practicum at their current job. So if your job is currently remote, and maybe somewhat even related to public health, it cannot be your current job, so it can’t be your current job title. Sarah Liu: It could be at the same site. So maybe your work has multiple departments. And there’s someone that can supervise you. So it needs to be a different supervisor, and a different job title. But again, as Dr. Mitchum said, the nitty gritty of where your practicum placement will be, and all the questions that you may have can be answered by Dr. Winter, who is a practicum coordinator. Sarah Liu: Once you get admitted into the program, and again, the prep course is there. So you’re not just thrown into a 200 h practicum or internship, so you will be prepared before you go into that. MB Micham: And piggybacking. On that MB Micham: there are several students who start their Mph. Journey and have so many questions about the practicum that they want to have all of the answers right then. MB Micham: and Dr. Winter would tell you, wait, learn 1st take a few courses, and then when we get closer to the practicum. We can work all of that out. And the reason for that recommendation is there’s so much content, information, practical skill, set information that needs to be learned and developed first, st that will then frame the practicum experience. MB Micham: So all of that to say, you know, we’ll definitely work with you, Dr. Winters, absolutely fabulous. We’ve had students be able to successfully complete their practicum in a variety of different settings. But it’s not something that you would need to necessarily be so focused on. Now it’s something that that can wait a little bit too. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s great information. George Mason Online Admissions: Does anybody else have any other questions? Y’all are coming up with some wonderful questions. George Mason Online Admissions: I don’t wanna let them go if you still have one or 2 out there, but I do want to let them get back to their their evening as well. George Mason Online Admissions: and if you do have any questions that come up feel free. I know Sarah provided her information. I believe Chris provided his. We have our general email listed on here. Our phone number. If you do have an admissions representative that you have been working with, I encourage you to reach out to them with any questions George Mason Online Admissions: they will more than likely be reaching out to you in the next day or 2, if they see that you are on this webinar, just to check in with you but feel free to email or call, and we’ll be able to get back in touch with you or get you in touch with an admissions representative. If you don’t have one that you’re working with. George Mason Online Admissions: But we are so so thankful you joined us tonight like I said, these are my favorite nights getting to learn more and get to interact with with each and every one of you. And I want to just thank all of our panelists for hopping on tonight, and thank our guests as well, and and thank you so much for joining us any other comments or anything from our panelists. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, thank you so so much, and everybody have a great night, and we hope to hear from you soon. Sarah Liu: Good night, everyone. Thank you for joining. George Mason Online Admissions: And 9. MB Micham: Thank you. Chris Williams: Bye, everyone. Thanks for coming. MB Micham: Alright. Thank you, Tabitha. Thank you, Chris, very much for taking the time. At the end of a long day. I appreciate you, you hitting the ground, running and deciding to join us. Thank you very much. Chris Williams: Thanks so much for inviting me. I enjoyed being here. George Mason Online Admissions: Absolutely. Thank you all so much. Y’all are wonderful. I I loved getting to host this with you, and look forward to working with you more. MB Micham: Thank you. And if you have any questions about the program, Tabitha, reach out. If you ever want to meet one on one to learn more, discuss more, so that you have the knowledge that you need. I’m really happy to do that, too. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I told Doctor Chang yesterday I want to make a trip up there just since I’m so close to come and see you also. That would be awesome. That would be wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate y’all are amazing. MB Micham: Back at you have a great night. Thank you again. George Mason Online Admissions: You, you too. Bye-bye, bye.

George Mason Online Admissions: Hi! Everyone welcome in. George Mason Online Admissions: We’re gonna get started in a couple moments. Thanks for coming early. George Mason Online Admissions: Can everyone in the chat right? If you can hear me. Yes, no, sure. My sounds working George Mason Online Admissions: all right. George Mason Online Admissions: Alright. Great, thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. George Mason Online Admissions: alright cool. And then I’m gonna start sharing my screen. So if you could also let me know if you could see George Mason Online Admissions: my screen? George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: can everyone see my screen. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Great George Mason Online Admissions: Hi, Dr. King, how is it going? How are you. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: I’m doing well. How are you? George Mason Online Admissions: Good. George Mason Online Admissions: Alright is everyone as everyone is joining George Mason Online Admissions: the meeting. If you can write in the chat George Mason Online Admissions: what you’re having for dinner tonight, or if you had dinner already, just so that we could see the chats work and make sure you’re George Mason Online Admissions: writing to the correct person at the bottom. I think there’s like a switch. George Mason Online Admissions: Just so I know everything’s working George Mason Online Admissions: awesome. Taco. Tuesday sounds delicious. George Mason Online Admissions: And we’ll also be able to use the question and answer function. So you guys can either, you know, choose between the 2, the question and answer function or the chat function, whichever you prefer George Mason Online Admissions: checks, mix it. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s great. George Mason Online Admissions: and yeah, we’ll get started in a couple of minutes. George Mason Online Admissions: I don’t think that we can see George Mason Online Admissions: your cameras. I think it just George Mason Online Admissions: myself and Dr. King. George Mason Online Admissions: So yeah, so you’ll probably most likely have to George Mason Online Admissions: message in the chat, or use the question and answer function. George Mason Online Admissions: grilled chicken, mashed potatoes. That sounds good George Mason Online Admissions: hot cheetos. George Mason Online Admissions: Love it. George Mason Online Admissions: Lot of mashed potatoes going on George Mason Online Admissions: cool. George Mason Online Admissions: awesome. George Mason Online Admissions: We’re able to let everyone start to come in George Mason Online Admissions: think we had about 40 students registered. So we’re at 13. George Mason Online Admissions: At the moment. George Mason Online Admissions: Hi, Melissa. Melissa Hensley: Sorry. It took me a minute to Melissa Hensley: find the link. George Mason Online Admissions: Alrighty George Mason Online Admissions: and as people are joining again, just to reiterate you guys can use the chat function or the question and answer function as we do the presentation. You know. Again, if you have any questions, we’ll probably save them to the end. George Mason Online Admissions: Unless it’s, you know, a, you know question addressing something immediately. George Mason Online Admissions: But yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: 21 people great. George Mason Online Admissions: And I see some familiar names as well. George Mason Online Admissions: And again, make sure when you’re asking these questions. If you want to keep it private, just click on the host and panelists, or if you want to propose a question to everyone for everyone to see. I’ll read them out anyways. Usually. George Mason Online Admissions: alrighty George Mason Online Admissions: couple more minutes George Mason Online Admissions: the session. Can everyone hear me? The session ends? George Mason Online Admissions: We have it till 8 if it goes over, if it goes under, depending on how quickly we go through the presentation. George Mason Online Admissions: But we can go ahead and get started. If Dr. King, you’re ready. George Mason Online Admissions: Melissa, you’re ready. George Mason Online Admissions: So this is the virtual open house for our masters of social work program. George Mason Online Admissions: And again, thank you. Everyone for coming. So many people came early, which is great. George Mason Online Admissions: awesome. So we’re going to meet the faculty today, you know, kind of go over the outlook of the master’s program, go over kind of different programs. And then, you know, we’ll go over the emissions requirement, which will be my end, and then we’ll go over some questions at the end as a reminder. Again, one last reminder, you can use the chat or the question answer function for those questions. George Mason Online Admissions: and again. George Mason Online Admissions: how to participate George Mason Online Admissions: questions, chat instructions. George Mason Online Admissions: and meet the faculty. So we have Dr. King. George Mason Online Admissions: I don’t know if George Mason Online Admissions: Jean is in Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So Professor Booth is the director of Practical Education. She’s not with us this evening. Okay. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: but Melissa Hensley is the assistant director of practicum education, and she’ll introduce herself. But again, I am Dr. King. I am the Msw. Online program director as well as an assistant professor here in the department of social work. I primarily teach the 1st course that you take. So social work 600, the foundations of social work and social welfare. And then I also teach clinical courses within the children, youth and family Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: specialization. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: And then Melissa. Melissa Hensley: I’m Melissa Hensley. I’m 1 of 3 assistant directors in the Practicum Education Office, and so we work closely with students and coordinating and setting up their placements, and then the 3 assistant directors also teach Melissa Hensley: one of the seminar courses that go along with the practicum. So it’s great to be here, and hopefully, I can answer some of your questions related to the practicum this evening. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: All right. So this next slide, just, you know, really quickly talks about the profession of social work as well as the mission and outlook. And as social workers we get our values and the mission of our profession from our national organization, the National Association of Social Workers, and as social workers. Our primary responsibility or mission is to help meet the needs of all people, those that may have been vulnerable or oppressed, or living in poverty. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: We also have a dual focus of not just focusing on the individual, but also focusing on the well-being and meeting the needs of society as a whole, as you can see from some of the statistics that social work is one of the largest or fastest growing professions right now. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and that is also due to the shortage in mental health. Professionals so licensed. Clinical social workers also serve as mental health professionals. And so. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and we are meeting that need here at George Mason’s department of social work and our Msw program. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So what makes our program unique? What makes our program Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: worth you coming to and applying to is that we’re accredited by the Council on social work education, which is the accrediting body for all schools of social work, and we have demonstrated that we meet the criteria of a rigorous academic program to maintain that accreditation. Our faculty researchers are recognized globally and nationally with the work that they do in areas from interpersonal violence to immigration. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: to Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: meeting the mental health needs of youth and families. Our online program was ranked in the top 10 for best Msw. Online programs in 2,003 by Forbes Advisor, and our Msw. Program prepares you to apply for licensure within the State of Virginia. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: This next slide just features a little bit about our curriculum and the focus of our curriculum, so, as you can see for those of you that maybe don’t have a Bsw. And are not applying for advanced standing, which advanced standing just means that you have a bachelor’s of social work from an accredited university, and you’re going to apply for advanced standing in the Msw. Program Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: for those of you that don’t meet that criteria, and you are coming in as a generalist student. What that just means is that you’re being prepared with the basic knowledge of the social work profession. So your generalist courses, as outlined here, would be courses like 600 foundations of social work and social welfare. 623, which isn’t listed. That’s human behavior. 644 is community Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: practice across the life course, 656 is poverty, oppression, and inequity. And this is just a snapshot of some of the courses. All of the courses in the program are not listed on this slide, and then an example of some electives that you could take would be 677 family therapy, as well as 682 substance abuse interventions. Your practicum, as Professor Hinsley is going to talk about a little bit later, is covered under your generalist practicum, 672 and 673 Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: that encompasses seminar courses. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: And then, once you finish your generalist courses, you’ll move into your specialization courses, and for students coming in under advanced standing. You’re going to start the program in your specialization courses. And so we have 2 specializations within our Msw program. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: One is children, youth and families, and the other is adults and healthy aging with the children, youth and family specialization. It is preparing you to meet those very unique and specific needs of children and youth as they navigate the family life cycle. And while you’re providing those services to children and youth, of course you will be engaging with their families as well. Much of the work Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: or some of the coursework connected to the children. Youth and family specialization encompasses also child welfare and providing services within that arena. And then the other specialization is adults and healthy aging. And this will prepare students to work with adults, older adults as they age and experience those, you know, very unique Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: issues or challenges that may come with aging. One thing that I like to tell students is that because our families are multigenerational, and many youth and adults are living in multigenerational families with older adults as well, that sometimes, even though you may have a certain specialization that you want to declare, or a certain population you want to work with, to remain open to obtaining information Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: about that other population, to have a more broad and well-rounded experience as a social worker. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: And one thing that I forgot to point out on the last slide is that now that we are a College of Public Health. So our Department of Social work sits within the College of Public Health at George Mason University. Now that we’re part of the College of Public Health. All incoming students have to take Gch. 500, which is the foundations of public health, and that is a requirement for all students across all of our programs within the college. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So our Msw. Online program is primarily asynchronous. And what that means is that you will engage in the course your courses and your coursework on your own time, so you don’t have to log in Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: to a course on a certain day or certain time, and we say primarily asynchronous, because there are some synchronous components, such as with your sync, your practicum seminar, which Professor Hensley will talk about. Your practicum seminar will have a synchronous component with those courses where you’re going to log into zoom Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: at a certain time for those synchronous class sessions, and your practicums are going to be done in person. So you will report to whatever agency that you are going to be doing your practicum at in person. Additionally, some instructors will hold optional, synchronous class sessions via zoom. As a way to further connect with students and build that community within the classroom Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and faculty will also offer virtual office hours. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: to students as a way to, you know, be able to meet, to talk about your own individual needs within a course. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: All right. And I believe this is Professor Hensley. Melissa Hensley: I’m sorry it took me a second to get off mute, so I’ll talk a little bit about the practicum education program. We 1st wanted to mention that the Department of Social Work is Melissa Hensley: proud to announce that we’ve changed our name for the student internship program, which was formerly the Field education program is now known as the Practicum education program. So you may see the term field or internship. Melissa Hensley: You may see different terminology that may seem interchangeable, but we definitely are now the practical education program. And really, that’s to elevate the experiential learning focus of the internship. You’re not basically learning a skill set. There is a classroom component. It is connected to the Msw. Program and the degree itself. And so it is a very robust experience. And so we wanted to make sure that that comes across. Melissa Hensley: There’s comprehensive supervision of skill development. Practicums are deliberate, structured, intentional and interactive learning experience. Melissa Hensley: Answer. Melissa Hensley: professional practice post graduation. So you may see Field. We are still continuing to make sure that everything is transitioned over to practicum education. I believe our email may still say, Field. So just wanted to let you know it is in process, and we’ll soon everything will be transitioned over to practicum education. Melissa Hensley: So the practicum education program. Melissa Hensley: practicum education is the signature, pedagogy of social work, education. It’s the pivotal transform Melissa Hensley: experience and progressing from social work, student to social work, professional and giving you the opportunity to really get out there. You know, work in the agency, setting work with clients, work with colleagues, and really develop your skill. Set as a professional. Take everything that you’re learning from the classroom, the textbook, all the theories and frameworks, and apply that to practice. Melissa Hensley: And so you are supervised by a social worker within the community. You will be evaluated on criteria by which students demonstrate the 9 social work competencies. And that’s a big part of our program. You will see that all throughout the coursework, the practicum. Melissa Hensley: the program as a whole, everything is based on the 9 social work competencies. And so we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to really practice each one of those competencies, both at the generalist, your level, and then also with the specialization year level which is going to be a little more advanced. Melissa Hensley: And the practicum education program is comprehensive. So you’ll have the classroom experience like we mentioned Melissa Hensley: with the seminar, so there will be assignments that you’ll be doing. You will receive a grade and course credit for the practicum. Obviously you’ll have practice experience. You’ll be working in an agency setting. Most of those opportunities will be in person. Occasionally there will be an agency that provides remote or a hybrid format, but it really depends on how agencies are delivering services for clients. Melissa Hensley: Again, you’ll have those assignments Melissa Hensley: which will be guided through. You’ll have clinical supervision, so you’ll be supervised by a social worker within the agency. You’ll also be evaluated, and then this will really give you a chance to work within the community. Use this opportunity to explore different areas of social work, as Dr. King mentioned, be open to population, it’s very difficult to be exclusive to work with one particular population, whether it’s children, youth and families or adults in healthy aging, a lot of families are intergeneration Melissa Hensley: and all. And so Melissa Hensley: there’s a lot of overlap. And we definitely want to make sure that you get a well-rounded experience that’ll prepare you for social work practice Melissa Hensley: next slide. We’ll talk a little bit more about the hours and the requirements. So if you are starting the program in a generalist year, your practicum is going to be Melissa Hensley: 16 h per week, it is 2 full semesters, so you’ll do a total of 450 h. If you were to start your practicum in the fall, you would do fall and spring, and so by between August and May you would accumulate 450 h Melissa Hensley: of those hours. 1 h per week will be supervision with your social work supervisor. Again, you’ll have to demonstrate all 9 competencies in practice. Melissa Hensley: And then the generalist year is, gonna be more Melissa Hensley: of a foundation level year. Generalist tasks and Melissa Hensley: interaction with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities. So it’s not all heavily clinical. It’s not all community level work. It’s a mixture. So you’ll be working with Melissa Hensley: multiple levels. And then you’ll also have the opportunity to infuse some of the macro level social work. So you’ll be doing policy practice and evaluating policy advocacy work. Melissa Hensley: And so it’s definitely a range of experiences. So then, after you complete your generalist year, you’ll go into your specialization year, which again, is going to be 2 consecutive semesters. Melissa Hensley: That’s going to be 20 HA week. So altogether it’s going to be 600 h for both semesters. Melissa Hensley: Same thing with supervision. Minimum is 1 h per week. Melissa Hensley: Again, all 9 competencies must be demonstrated. And so again, micro Meso and macro, meaning individuals, groups, families, organizations and communities. Melissa Hensley: as well as that policy level work. The specialization here is a little more advanced. So about 75% of your time will be spent in direct service, whereas your generalist year is about 50% direct service, and then 50% more of the advocacy policy administrative level work. Melissa Hensley: Again, you know, placements must provide opportunities for specialization and advanced clinical practice. If you are coming into the advanced standing program you would start your specialization year. You would not do the generalist year. Melissa Hensley: And again, you know, I mentioned a little bit that there are some remote hours. Most agencies are going to be providing services during normal business hours. So we try to talk about this and kind of plant the seed to think through what your obligations are, your schedule, your time commitments, because it is a heavy lift, but it is definitely well worth it. But it is a big commitment. And so we also want to make sure that you are able to build in some availability so that you can be present for Melissa Hensley: department meeting community meetings, opportunities to really engage and collaborate with your agency colleagues to give you that full experience. We want to make sure that these are meaningful hours, you know, not just checking a box or clocking hours, you know, we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to truly engage with clients and Melissa Hensley: at all levels. And so a lot of times that’s going to be during normal business hours. But again, you know, we understand, social work is 24, 7, and you know, we recognize that there may be some opportunities at places that operate 24, 7. But those opportunities are not as Melissa Hensley: not as many of those available. So Melissa Hensley: I just wanna make sure that Melissa Hensley: that we know that upfront Melissa Hensley: slide. So Melissa Hensley: again, we work with students individually to coordinate the practicum. So Melissa Hensley: wherever the student resides, that’s where we’ll work with you on identifying and coordinating a placement. We have hundreds of agencies, many of which are, you know, all over the country, West coast, east, coast, north and south, and we’ve got quite a few States covered, I think, already. And then again, we do have some. Melissa Hensley: Those remote options. We have traditional placements. And so Melissa Hensley: that’s generally when a student does not already have a relationship with the agency. So it would just be strictly, the student will be there for the practicum only. Melissa Hensley: and then we do have the opportunity for an employment based practicum. So if you are currently employed in a social services agency, or a location that would be able to support you as a social work student, we may be able to connect with them, and as long as it’s approved, and there’s an application process that we would walk you through. But we do have some students completing their practicum on site at their place of employment. Melissa Hensley: One of the questions that we often get is, what agencies do we partner with? And it really depends on where social workers are in the community. And so we’re not limited to schools, hospitals. Dss, you know, although we have lots of those opportunities, it’s really wherever social workers are in practice. And I think that’s Melissa Hensley: you know, really important to you as a student, to understand that social work is adapting to the community’s needs. So that’s going to be continuously evolving. Melissa Hensley: And Melissa Hensley: so there’s a lot of opportunity. So I would definitely encourage you to look around your your area and see where social workers are practicing, what opportunities are available and what agencies are, you know, hiring social workers, not for employment, but just, you know, to give you an idea of where social workers are needed right now. George Mason Online Admissions: And everyone. Melissa Hensley: To answer any questions that. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I know. A frequent question I get, too, is, if the employment based practicums if they can, if they are unpaid, or if they are paid George Mason Online Admissions: as well. Melissa Hensley: Sure. Yeah, right now, our practicum hours can overlap with employment hours. But again, everything is connected to those 9 social work competencies. So it has to be approved through the department. We have to make sure that all of those opportunities can be provided, and that the agency will support you in being a student. You know, we also want to make sure that you have the opportunity to be a student because it is designed to be a learning experience. Melissa Hensley: And so we want to make sure that you’re getting new experiences and maybe branching out from your current role. Melissa Hensley: you know. But it’s a it’s a process. But yes, you can overlap hours with your employment, but it does have to be approved. George Mason Online Admissions: Thanks. Melissa Hensley: Do we want to do questions now, or. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I think so, for someone’s asking for the Ebp. Could they do it with the department they’re already in, or would have to be with a different department. I know you mentioned different responsibilities. Melissa Hensley: It can be in the same department. But again, we just need to make sure that you can meet all 9 of those competencies, and we really do encourage students to diversify their experiences. Work with, you know, if you can work in another department for maybe a portion of the hours, or you know, say, you’re doing. You’re facilitating groups in your current department, maybe. See if you can facilitate groups in another department or program or Melissa Hensley: with another population. So 155 00:28:26.370 –> 00:28:32.819 Melissa Hensley: so we just want to make sure that being new perspectives and are able to truly apply that Msw. Lens. George Mason Online Admissions: Someone said, Can you do Eb? Melissa Hensley: P, for. George Mason Online Admissions: Both practicum, generalist and specialized, or just for the one. Melissa Hensley: You could do both. Again, there is a process for coordinating the placement, and we do that every single year, because things can change. Sometimes supervisors come and go, agencies have funding that comes and goes. And so we want to make sure that when we coordinate the practicum, we’re doing that within the same planning cycle. And so we’ll work with you on that. But it is a possibility for sure, and we just need to make sure that you have those learning opportunities available. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Guys. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. One. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Oh, yeah. The next question that came through was asking if the letter of recommendation is just a survey to fill out. So I’ve seen. I have seen both. I have seen the recommender complete. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and it’s not a survey. It’s a series of questions that they complete, and they have also submitted a letter of recommendation. One thing that I will suggest as one of the reviewers for the applications is to make sure that whoever writes your letter of recommendation that it is a professional letter of recommendation, and that they can speak to your academic ability and your ability to be successful Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: in the program. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: The other question is, does picking one specialization limit the ability to work with the opposite? It does not. I primarily have worked with children Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: as a social worker, but I also now provide therapy to adults. So it doesn’t. It doesn’t limit it. You will have opportunities to expand on that knowledge Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: with the declaring the specialization. It really is a university requirement. So you know, that is something that you have to do. But I, you know, would tell students to take the take electives that cross both populations. So you will have an opportunity to expand on that. On that coursework. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: I think we can go to the next slide. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So the next slide just really talks about Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: some of the places where you could practice as a social worker. And this list is not exhaustive social workers impact so many parts of our society that it’s very difficult to highlight or to list every single place where social workers work or every single role that a social worker fulfills. But listed here are just a few Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: that you know we have come across, or that we’re highlighting today. Definitely, you know, child protection and foster care and adoption family services. We do have a lot of faculty Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: as part of our department who really engage in research connected to aging and gerontology. So just a variety of places where social workers can provide services. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: This next slide just really features the difference between social work and other disciplines that are similar, like psychology or marriage and family counselors or sociologists. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: And one of the things with social work that really sets us apart is one that holistic approach that we take in providing services to clients. So we look at clients within their environment. We look at how the client is interacting with other systems. And our focus on social justice is another area that separates us or distinguishes us Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: from other helping professions. But this just provides you with a snapshot of the difference between social work and some other professions. Sometimes when students are coming in and they’re applying to the social work program, they sometimes have questions about other degrees and what makes social work different. So this provides that information for you. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So within our department, we have 2 stipend programs that are funding opportunities for students to apply to one is the child welfare stipend program Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and students, whether generalist or specialization, can apply to the child welfare stipend program. It comes with a $10,000 stipend per academic year. So that’s $5,000. During fall semester, $5,000 during spring semester. There is a work requirement. Once you Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: finish and graduate, you do have to work for a Virginia Department of social services. I believe it’s for one to 2 years upon graduation. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and Professor Cornejo. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Kathy Cornejo is the coordinator for the child welfare stipend program, and they really do work with students on, you know, finding employment on ensuring that, you know, you are prepared to work in the Welfare arena. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: The behavioral health cap. Bh program is another stipend program that we have for students. But this stipend program is only eligible or available for students who are in their specialization year. This also comes with a $10,000 stipend for students. And this program is specifically to address the Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: to address the shortage in the behavioral health workforce. And so students in this stipend program receive specialized training to be able to address those behavioral health needs. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: And there is information on the website on applying for both of the stipend programs. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: This next slide just features, some testimonials from some of our students in the Msw. Program, and, as you can see here, our students are coming from, you know, diverse backgrounds, and they each have had their own unique experiences with George Mason, and have gone on to, you know, do great things in the profession of social work, and, as you can see here that they were all, you know. Satisfied with the education that they received from George Mason. George Mason Online Admissions: Alrighty So George Mason Online Admissions: in the beginning I mentioned my name is Casey. I’m an admissions advisor on behalf of George Mason University. So I work with students for the admissions process. George Mason Online Admissions: and I know we touched a little bit on those recommendations. What we do look for on for applicants on the application is a bachelor’s degree. We do like to see a minimum of a 3.0 Gpa. George Mason Online Admissions: If you do happen to have under 3.0 Jpa. You can discuss that with your advisor regarding the essay that you can write. George Mason Online Admissions: We do ask for your resume as well George Mason Online Admissions: those 2 recommendations as mentioned should be professionals. I believe one has to be a supervisor is required. George Mason Online Admissions: Regarding the questionnaire, it is about 10 questions should really only take about 1015 min from your recommendation. They do have an option on that questionnaire to attach a letter. Again, the letter is optional. They can do both. George Mason Online Admissions: and then they can also just attach it to the questionnaire, just to make it easier on both you and your recommendation. And then the last thing would be a personal statement essay, we can provide the prompt for you. There is a word, Count, but the personal statement essay is really just providing kind of your career goals experience and putting it all together for the master’s program. George Mason Online Admissions: We do have prerequisite courses as well. George Mason Online Admissions: Those prerequisite courses are statistics. George Mason Online Admissions: If you don’t have statistics. We do have a course that can satisfy that for students. George Mason Online Admissions: We do require an English composition course. That’s usually one of the basic undergrad English courses that you take George Mason Online Admissions: a government course or a history course. George Mason Online Admissions: Usually this kind of government or history course needs to be like a Us. Government or an American history type, of course. George Mason Online Admissions: So not like no music history, nothing like that. And again, above it, government one on one. You can take on study.com, if you don’t have a government course George Mason Online Admissions: and then a social science course. So George Mason Online Admissions: for students that you may have a bachelor’s in psychology that would fall under like a psychology course, but fall under social science, a philosophy course kind of those kind of courses. Usually you can do a Little Google search. If you don’t think that you may not have one or not. George Mason Online Admissions: But we do have an upcoming term which is spring George Mason Online Admissions: and our start date, for that is January 13.th So George Mason Online Admissions: you can reach out to an advisor like myself, and we’ll help you with the application process George Mason Online Admissions: and help you with your materials. George Mason Online Admissions: Alrighty George Mason Online Admissions: and this is where you can apply as well. You can reach out to this contact information I will provide my contact as well. George Mason Online Admissions: But any other questions. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: One thing that I did want to just make sure that I highlighted for anyone considering applying is to one we have classes or courses in all semesters fall, spring and summer, and we admit students in all 3 semesters fall, spring and summer for the online program. As we talk, the courses are primarily asynchronous, but the courses, with the exception of your practicum seminar, the courses are 8 weeks in length. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and the 8 weeks do go by very quickly. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and our semesters are divided into 2 8 week sessions. So you for part, for the traditional part time, you will take 2 courses in the semester. So one course in session, 1 1 course in session. 2. We do have options for accelerated on a more full time scale. So you really want to make sure that Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: you know what kind of student you are, and to recognize, you know, if you are able to handle that kind of rigorous workload in a short amount of time, and if you’re able to handle it, being asynchronous and not having that traditional Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: in person lecture that you would get from an on on campus course. So I do like to make that distinction for students as far as the application deadlines for spring semester. The deadline is December first, st and for fall semester the deadline is, excuse me, and then for summer semester the deadline will be April 15, th and then for Fall semester. The deadline is August first.st George Mason Online Admissions: And then for advanced standing. It’s July first.st Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Yes. So for advanced standing, for fall semesters to July. And that’s because we do have a panel interview for advanced standing. If you’re applying just for traditional admission, not advanced standing. There isn’t a panel interview. It’s just you completing all the requirements of the application. But for advanced standing. When you apply, you’re actually applying to be interviewed because the interview is a component of being accepted for advanced standing. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So with the website, you want to also make sure, because there are dates listed for our on campus modality as well. So I know that those that manage the website are working to make sure that it distinguishes Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: online deadlines versus on campus. So again, if you’re applying for spring semester, the application deadline is December first, st Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and if you are, if you are thinking about summer. That deadline is April 15, th and then fall. Semester would be August first, st and again, this is for traditional admissions not advanced, standing advanced standing for fall semester. The deadline is July first.st George Mason Online Admissions: And we work on a rolling ambition so sooner that you apply to the program, the sooner you can get a decision so you can start applying, you know, if you think that spring is too soon, you know you want to go for summer. You can start applying now for summer and hear back way before George Mason Online Admissions: the deadline. George Mason Online Admissions: So those are always options as well. George Mason Online Admissions: And for the study study one on one. I believe there is a cost for that online website. I’m not sure what the cost is, but I believe there is. George Mason Online Admissions: But the statistics course that we could provide is free. George Mason Online Admissions: And again no panelists interview for the regular program advanced, standing only. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: So there’s a question related to completion for the online event standing. So Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: just to make sure that Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: I think I that everyone has this information. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: for our traditional part-time online program. It takes 60 credit hours to complete over 10 semesters for advanced standing. You are completing 33 credit hours over 6 semesters, and I talk about it in terms of semesters, because different things happen sometimes it takes students a little bit longer than the specified time. So just know, for advanced standing is 33 credits Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: over 6 semesters, and again with advanced standing. It’s your Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: coming in ready to start your specialization courses. So you’re not taking all of those other generalist courses. With the exception of psychopathology, all advanced standing students, when they enter, have to take psychopathology Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: and Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: any other questions. George Mason Online Admissions: I do have 2 on George Mason Online Admissions: what do we see? Yes, the applied, well applied statistics, count. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: I did. I answered it in the chat. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Yeah, I said that I believe that it will count as long as this is a statistics course. George Mason Online Admissions: I believe so as well. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: any other, any other questions? Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: it was a question asking, will the presentation be available. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, there will be a recording of the presentation, and then it will be updated on the website. George Mason Online Admissions: once they have the recording as well George Mason Online Admissions: and. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Questions as we get ready to close out. George Mason Online Admissions: Professor Henley Hensley put her information. So if anyone has practicum related questions you can reach out to her. I’m going to put my contact information you can reach out to my own contact or the our office line. If you do have any questions regarding the application process. And again as admissions advisors. We’re here to help you. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: There are a couple more questions in the chat. One is, can traditional students take more than 2 courses? Yes, there are options to take more than the 2 courses a semester. I do recommend students to maybe wait and see how their 1st semester goes before adding on additional courses, because sometimes the 8 weeks can go by really quickly, but there are opportunities. And yes, there is an accelerated option with the online program, and the accelerated option Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: is 9 credits a semester, and it would be kind of the equivalent to a full time Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: if students want to take more than the 9 credits or 3 classes, a semester that will require them to meet with me as the program director, to discuss it before approving that. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: All right. George Mason Online Admissions: All right. Well. George Mason Online Admissions: thank you. Everyone for joining great show of students. I know a lot of. I see a couple of names that I work with personally, so thank you all for coming, and thank you, Dr. King and Professor Hensley, for taking the time out of your night to join us. We really do appreciate it, and I know the students clearly appreciate it as well. A lot of questions. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Of course they did. They asked really great. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: You all for your participation. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: alrighty. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, thank you all again, and I’ll end the session tonight. But thanks so much. Dr. Daphne King – MSW Online Program Director: Alright! Have a good evening. George Mason Online Admissions: Bye, everyone.

George Mason Online Admissions: Recording. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh. George Mason Online Admissions: well, good evening, everyone. George Mason Online Admissions: Welcome to our virtual open house for online masters of education and special education program. We are very excited to get started. But let’s just wait a few minutes for everyone to log on and get situated. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. Everyone for joining us this evening. We are very excited to get started. My name is Brianna, and I am the admissions representative for the online program. I’m here as a resource to give information, answer questions and walk you through the admissions application process. George Mason Online Admissions: Today, we will have the opportunity to meet our presenters. Understand why we should choose the George Mason university program. George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll talk a little bit about the master of education and special education. The curriculum details our Asd and Aba George Mason Online Admissions: certificate program. George Mason Online Admissions: We will also share experience with one of our graduate, Beth Felston’s experience while she was in the program, learn about other faculty members. George Mason Online Admissions: discuss what the online classroom experience will look like, and last, not but not least, we will talk about the admissions, requirements, and next steps if you decided to apply. George Mason Online Admissions: There’s a couple of ways that you can participate while you are in our virtual open house tonight, feel free to use the chat George Mason Online Admissions: feature. So in your control at the bottom window you will click, chat for the chat window to appear, and then type your message. You can also select who you would like to send the message to by clicking on the dropdown menu next to George Mason Online Admissions: feel free to click on the symbol. Raise your hand, you will click your raise your hand in the webinar control will be notified that you have raised your hand. If prompted to speak, you feel free to unmute yourself. George Mason Online Admissions: and also we have the questions feature. You’ll click on the Q. And a. In your webinar control to get access to the Q. And A. Window. You’ll type your question in the box to ask a question, and then we’ll be more than happy to answer your questions. George Mason Online Admissions: So, joining us tonight, we have our presenters, Dr. Jodi, Duke and Dr. Christine Barthold. Thank you both for joining us this evening. Chris Barthold: Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: Just go back. One slide. Sorry. Chris Barthold: I don’t know if Dr. Duke wants to start, or if I should start Chris Barthold: Oh. Jodi Duke: Why don’t you go? And I’ll follow you. Chris Barthold: Okay. Great, great. Chris Barthold: Yeah. Chris Barthold: Alright. So I think we go to the next slide. Jodi Duke: Do we want to introduce ourselves, Chris? Chris Barthold: Sure. Jodi Duke: Dr. Bartold. Sorry. Chris Barthold: Fine. George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll go back a slide. Jodi Duke: Go back. Yeah, let’s do it. I’ll go first.st Since I’m on the left. How’s that? I’m Jodi Duke? Jodi Duke: I’m an associate professor of special Ed here at Mason, and I coordinate the autism program. Jodi Duke: I’ve been here. I think I’ve been here 15 years. It’s been a long time. Jodi Duke: and I also conduct research on autistic students and their post-secondary transition and mental health supports. Jodi Duke: Dr. Bartold. Chris Barthold: Hi, I’m Chris Barthold. I am the academic program Coordinator for applied behavior analysis. I have been here almost 11 years Chris Barthold: and it feels like yesterday that I started and I am. You’ll hear a little bit more about this. But I am interested in the applications of behavior analysis. Chris Barthold: both in the classroom. And when I mean that I mean higher education classrooms, and also applications to health, fitness, and wellness. Chris Barthold: So now, should we go to the next slide. Jodi Duke: Let’s move. Yeah. Good job. Awesome. Alright. Chris Barthold: Alright. Chris Barthold: so our program. We, you know, we pride ourselves in creating a program that’s going to give you the best educational experience, no matter which path you choose. Chris Barthold: we have a high quality, and we say, immersive student experience. You’re going to see that. Chris Barthold: we take a lot of time to make sure that you have hands-on experience, that you’re working with your classmates, and that you can join a community of learners. Chris Barthold: We are ranked number 7 for the best online special education programs by Us. News and world report. Chris Barthold: I believe that Number 7 is still correct. Chris Barthold: And Chris Barthold: we have a unique innovation, innovative approach to inclusive education. And Chris Barthold: I want to kind of change this around that it’s designed to benefit all learners throughout their entire lives, not just learners with disabilities. So we are in the Special Education Division. But you’ll see that, especially in behavior analysis, that we have diverse interests, and that we really Chris Barthold: do think that these programs benefit learners with and without disabilities. And we have a very Chris Barthold: specific lifespan approach in both of these certificate programs. Chris Barthold: so there are 2 certificate programs. There’s autism which Dr. Duke coordinates, and there’s Aba, which I coordinate. And I wanted to go off script a little bit and ask a quick question of all of you. You can put it in the chat, or in the Q, and a. Chris Barthold: Just curious as to which one you’re most interested in. Is it autism, or is it Aba, or is it both? Those are all? Chris Barthold: Oh. Chris Barthold: okay. Kendall’s Abi Chris Barthold: Erica as well. Janelle’s undecided Chris Barthold: Erica. We knew what you meant. Chris Barthold: Alright, and then you can just fill the you can. Chris Barthold: Oh, it’s totally okay. So we’ll just kind of go through and see where you are at the end, and answer any questions that you might have. Chris Barthold: So I think the next slide I can give to Dr. Duke. Jodi Duke: Sounds great. Jodi Duke: Alright. Would you move us forward? One slide? Sure. Jodi Duke: Thank you. Jodi Duke: Here we go. So, regardless of which of the 2 paths you take aba or autism, there are some core courses that you will take as part of the core curriculum in the program, and it starts with 501, which is an introduction to special education. And this course is Jodi Duke: pretty much all the basics you need to know about the Federal law idea, the different disability categories. It’s a really good overview of the whole system. What kind of placements there are for students with special ed identified disabilities? Jodi Duke: So this is, if you have really, in a big sense, anything that might be either school based. But it also. Then we get into with disability categories and things in this course get into a little bit of Jodi Duke: other other parts of disability categories. So you learn about autism and Adhd and some some other disabilities that really impact across the lifespan. 5, 17 is our computer applications. So you learn a lot of technology options for individuals Jodi Duke: and Jodi Duke: and so on. That one we do Jodi Duke: from like what I would consider really high tech. You know. Jodi Duke: things like voice word, prediction, software and voice typing and things like that that are for adapted needs. All the way to like applications that really benefit just about everybody. Jodi Duke: And then you take a class on universal design for learning and universal design for learning is really fundamental in a lot of what happens in both programs and is a great way to provide you with a framework of how to think about Jodi Duke: about developing anything for anyone with autism or any disability, or probably any of the Aba type things, applications that you’re talking about in Aba. But universal design is the idea that we’re going to plan as though we want to offer choices and options to people. And we want to think about how we can provide as Jodi Duke: many supports and accommodations as possible. And that way people don’t even have to identify to you that they have a disability, or that they need extra support with something, and universal design is great because it will work for all kinds of learners the way that you develop your content. And so that is really, I think, fundamental. It gives you a nice framework, helpful across the lifespan approach for both programs as well. Jodi Duke: 590 is special Ed research, and you’ll learn about some different kinds of research, and you’ll get to do your own application project where you choose a topic and investigate it. Jodi Duke: There’s a capstone option as well. I don’t think we’ve had a lot of students go through this, but you can do an individual project if you have something that you’d rather. But the bulk of our students go through 590. Jodi Duke: So whether you take the autism certificate or the aba certificate. These are the courses that you’ll be enrolled in as part of as part of your master’s experience. Jodi Duke: All right, I think we’re good to move. There we go. Well, I’ll just keep talking then. Okay, so this one’s me. I’ll take this one. So if you take the autism track Jodi Duke: you will start out with actually 6, 34, which is our characteristics class. And this is a course that spends an entire semester looking at the communication behavior, sensory characteristics of autistic people. And we look at the different kinds of there’s 3 levels in the diagnostic criteria. So we look at those levels. And we look a lot at Jodi Duke: what does this look like in real life? Jodi Duke: And then 6, 20. I’m teaching right now. I was just grading papers for this today. Some some activities. This is a class that focuses on behavior and sensory needs. Jodi Duke: And in this one we really focus on. Jodi Duke: how can we help shape behavior or address sensory needs in a way to help autistic people access their lives more easily. So it’s not really about just changing behavior because it bothers us. But it’s more like, okay, this is something that’s really keeping this student from attending to what’s going on in the classroom. How can we help with that? Or this is this is really keeping this, this adult, this autistic adult from having, you know. Jodi Duke: meaningful relationships. What can we do to help them with this? And so that’s the slant we take on that class. We have an interventions. Course edsc. 635. That I teach, and each week we do a different domain or area of life. And then one evidence-based intervention for that area. So we go through things like social skills, interventions, communication, intervention, independence, just about everything you can think of Jodi Duke: 636 is all about communication and literacy, and that course focuses in on how to support those for all ages of autistic individuals, and Jodi Duke: that one is is fascinating. Again, because of our lifespan approach. We do everything from like early childhood, communication and literacy all the way through when you have someone who’s getting older in the aging process. How can we support that? Jodi Duke: Yes, Erica, this is fun. I think that I love all of these courses. I get really excited about them. 6, 37 is our collaboration course. And it’s where we really focus again on the lifespan. And you actually get to do some work in your, in your own community, identifying resources that you would share with people and thinking about how you would support autistic people in your own community. Jodi Duke: And then our newest course is Edse 638, and this one is assessment, and then we also delve into intersectionality which is the intersecting identities of people who are autistic and also identify, for example, as Lgbtq, or have different cultural or racial identities that are important to them. And so this course. Jodi Duke: actually, I teach this one. And I do a lot of the assessment content like, it’s a lot of traditional format. But when we get into the intersectionality, this one is all autistic voices. And so the whole second half of the course, you’re exploring podcasts and listening to speakers and watching videos and reading, and Jodi Duke: our emphasis is really on bringing autistic voices to you so that you can hear about their lived experiences. So our goal is that by the end of the program you’ve had a really comprehensive view of autism in just about every setting, and we’ll talk later about career options. But it really prepares you well for just about anything that you would do Jodi Duke: engaging with autistic people. Chris Barthold: Great. Let’s talk a little bit about the Aba track. The Aba track has 7 courses. And Chris Barthold: If you were coming for the Master’s degree. You’ll take those core courses, and then you’ll take these certificate programs. So, for example, in Dr. Duke’s case, you would take this core courses, and then those courses that she just talked about. If you decide to choose the Aba track. Chris Barthold: you’ll see those cool courses and then these these classes here. There, like, I said, There, there are 7 courses. Our 1st course is Chris Barthold: basically, all the terms that you need to learn. Learning behavior analysis is like learning a new language. So we spend a lot of time with that. A lot of time with philosophy. Chris Barthold: these courses meet the 5th edition Task list, and also the 6th edition test content. Chris Barthold: So these are dictated by the board as to what we need to Chris Barthold: to teach you. Chris Barthold: Our second course, is all about data collection, data analysis, creating experiments. Chris Barthold: learning, single subject design and all the things that you need to know to make database decisions and behavior. Analysis. Chris Barthold: Edsc. 622 is my favorite. This is the course where we don’t talk about interventions, and we don’t talk about Chris Barthold: anything clinical. This is about that philosophy, those conceptual issues Chris Barthold: in behavior analysis that underlie. I tell people that it’s kind of like the Chris Barthold: the bio and chem of behavior analysis. It’s the basis for which all of those interventions are built. Chris Barthold: And then you’ll go on to assessments and interventions where you will learn how to do Chris Barthold: specific behavior, analytic assessments, interpret the data and come up with an intervention plan. Chris Barthold: 6, 24 is all about the different ways we can apply behavior analysis. So we’ve been very intentional about expanding the reach of behavior analysis beyond Chris Barthold: just working with individuals with autism. And so you’ll learn about things like how behavior analysis is applied in organizations and in businesses, how it’s applied in sport, health and fitness, how it’s applied in marriage and family therapy. Chris Barthold: different specializations like feeding and all kinds of stuff. So you learn about all the different ways that behavior analysis can be applied. Chris Barthold: Edsc, 6, 25. Verbal behavior is about how behavior analysts look at communication and language. Chris Barthold: And then, of course, our ethics course, which is exactly what it says. Chris Barthold: If you are on the fence. Kind of like Janelle is Chris Barthold: and you’re like, I’m not sure which one to pick. You know. What what do I want to do? Do I want to do the autism track? Do I do the Aba track? Chris Barthold: Yes, the Aba track does, you know, lend itself to Bcba? Chris Barthold: But I think what you really want to ask yourself is. Chris Barthold: am I here to learn about autism, spectrum disorders? Chris Barthold: Or am I here to learn about Chris Barthold: behavior analysis as a Chris Barthold: it. Chris Barthold: We call it the science of behavior. So Chris Barthold: you have to kind of ask yourself that question, because if you’re like, Hey, I want to know everything there is to know about autism. Chris Barthold: Then Dr. Duke’s program is for you. Chris Barthold: If you’re looking more about, I kind of want to, you know, want to become a behavior analyst. And I really like the whole. You know, scientific thing. There’s a lot of science in the Aba track, a lot of experiments, a lot of reading Chris Barthold: literature, even down to like stuff with rats and pigeons. If that gets you excited, then you probably want to go the Aba track. But I really would say, ask yourself, you know, which one really kind of speaks to you. Chris Barthold: and then go from there Chris Barthold: so that that might help you with some of your decision making. Chris Barthold: I think we can go to the next slide. Chris Barthold: Oh, that’s backwards. Jodi Duke: But I think we did that one. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes. Sorry about that. Jodi Duke: No worries. There we go. Jodi Duke: You want me to start this one, since I’m at the top. Chris Barthold: Sure. Go ahead! Jodi Duke: All right. So, as Dr. Barthold is saying in the autism program, we really focus on preparing professionals to engage and work with individuals who are autistic in any field. So we do have people who are Jodi Duke: educators. We have a lot of people who are work with autistic adults. We have had such a range, though, honestly, we get family members who want to learn about autism and how to advocate for their loved one. We get people who are. We’ve had lately some people who are actually employers who are wanting to learn about how to support autistic employees better. Jodi Duke: So it’s a real range. And and so there’s, you know, this is really a program, as as Dr. Bartol said, that will Jodi Duke: just immerse you in autism. I actually, this is funny, Dr. Bartold, you’ll think this is funny. But I had a student this week in my behavior class. Tell me that it felt like an Aba class, and I was like, well, that’s because the principles of behavior are the same like you can’t. You can’t not talk about the other one, so we do touch on it a little bit in our in our behavior course apparently feels Jodi Duke: a little bit like an aba moment to my students lately. But but it’s really that immersive look at autism. And so we have folks who finish and do all kinds of things. We have a lot of people who start their own businesses. You’ll hear from one of our alumni who did that. But transition coaching adult service kind of case managing and supporting families, that kind of thing. The statistics Jodi Duke: continue to just the growth is just. It’s incredible. So one in 36 children are diagnosed with autism right now. Jodi Duke: I feel like it’s 1 of those things where everywhere you go, you find autistic people. And so, no matter what you’re doing in life, I think this benefits you. Jodi Duke: and we see such a tremendous need. And so I think the real strength of this program is giving you this expertise in autism that you can take into whatever field of interest you have. And so to me, I think that’s really important. And I’m really passionate about it, because Jodi Duke: as these numbers grow, we need more and more professionals. And we need professionals who don’t just want to do little ones. We need them for adults. So I’m always pushing that really hard, that transition out of high school into adulthood. And Jodi Duke: even things like aging is an area where Jodi Duke: the the autistic individual still has needs. They’re just looking a little different. So that’s our track. Chris Barthold: And I’ll tell you a little bit about the Aba track and give you Chris Barthold: a little bit extra information to to help you make your decision? Chris Barthold: So we have some Chris Barthold: developments with the Chris Barthold: Aba certificate program. Chris Barthold: The Aba certificate program like, I said. Chris Barthold: look at the science of behavior all over. I echo what Dr. Duke said about aging. I actually do work with adults. And right now I’m actually not working well. No, I’m working with one autistic adult, but the rest of my caseload are people who do not have autism. But Chris Barthold: My oldest client is 65 years old, so we do need people to work in aging and geriatrics, even with Chris Barthold: people with Chris Barthold: typical development as well. But our Apa program is designed to prepare you partially Chris Barthold: for that national Bacb exam, which is not an easy exam. But we want to make sure that you are as prepared as possible. Chris Barthold: The certificate program and the Master’s does not provide you with the 2,000 h of supervised field work that you need to sit for the exam. But we do provide you with the preparation, the coursework. Chris Barthold: we find that most people end up finding Chris Barthold: good field work placements on their own and us providing that tends to be a little bit redundant. Chris Barthold: we are one of the oldest Aba programs out there. We’re formed, I think, in 2,002, if I remember correctly. So we have, you know, a pretty long track record of preparing people in Virginia. If you run into people who have a Bcba, a lot of them have come through our program. Chris Barthold: So I think this is the right time to tell you kind of. I don’t know that it’s bad news. But the news I want to make sure I had. I have some Chris Barthold: have some notes here. So I’m gonna pull those up real fast. Chris Barthold: All right. So our program is changing and it is changing, due to changes with the behavior analyst certification board. Chris Barthold: So something to keep in mind as you’re making decisions here is that Chris Barthold: the last time we’re going to admit people for the Med. The full master’s program Chris Barthold: is in the spring. Chris Barthold: and if you’re looking to start the certificate. Only you have a master’s degree. You’re just going to get the certificate. The last time we are admitting people to this program is in summer of 2025, and the reason for that is because you have to be finished according to the board. Chris Barthold: with everything, including your field work. Chris Barthold: By the by December 31, st 2026 Chris Barthold: So Chris Barthold: there’s a deadline. And what’s happening is that Chris Barthold: our our coursework is changing. I can’t give you a whole lot of information on how it’s changing, because it’s still in the proposal process. But this certificate will be sunset. Chris Barthold: In 2026. So Chris Barthold: this is Chris Barthold: you can get done. Chris Barthold: We’ve done all of the math, you know. You definitely can get done. But the thing is is that you can’t delay anything. If you’re Chris Barthold: If you’re choosing this certificate program Chris Barthold: you’ll have to get that field work in as fast as you can. Chris Barthold: You can start that as soon as you start your 1st course in behavior analysis. Chris Barthold: And Chris Barthold: you just gotta get that done by the end of Chris Barthold: of 2026 in order to sit for the exam. And unfortunately. Chris Barthold: if you don’t get done by then you got to start all over. Chris Barthold: So that’s the bad ish news. Chris Barthold: But we still will be running this in the spring, admitting people in the spring. And if you’re just looking at the certificate, admitting people in the summer. Chris Barthold: So if you have any questions about that, I’m happy to answer it. But I think I said too much. Chris Barthold: so I’m going to move on to the next to happier news. Jodi Duke: I’ll take this one. Beth is a graduate of the autism program, and she is now an owner of a company that she started called spectrum transition coaching, which supports autistic students. And I think all neurodiverse students at this point, which would include Adhd. You know, learning disabilities, other things like that. And she. Jodi Duke: She works with students and families as they finish high school to help them transition into what we call post secondary life after high school life, and she said the faculty were very engaged with the students, and clearly interested in our success. They were very knowledgeable in the subject area, and clearly passionate about their field. They were incredibly responsive to questions as well. So Jodi Duke: just a little alumni quote for you. Jodi Duke: So I’ll highlight the faculty who teach in the autism program at the top. Dr. Grace Francis works with us. She’s an incredible researcher in the field of family professional partnerships. And Jodi Duke: when you start digging into research. You see her name in a lot of places. She is also one of the most fun and engaging people you will ever take a class from. So it’s very rare to have someone who’s both of those things I feel like. Jodi Duke: But she’s great. And she really does a wonderful job. In our collaboration course. For example, you’ll have her, because that’s her area of expertise. And she really talks about how to develop Jodi Duke: really positive Jodi Duke: relationships with families. And then Dr. Lynn Jorgensen works with us, and she’s the director of the Mason life program. And that’s our post-secondary program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. So students who come and have a college experience at Mason and Dr. Jorgensen has been at Mason a long time. Jodi Duke: and also runs her own consulting company and has a lot of expertise in the field of autism. But what I really love about her being one of our faculty is that she’s she because of her work in Mason life is still very much like boots on the ground in with autistic students every day. So she has a lot that she can share based on that. Jodi Duke: Dr. Barthol. Chris Barthold: Yeah. So I’ll talk about our faculty. We’re actually missing somebody in this in this slide. I just realized. Chris Barthold: all of our faculty Chris Barthold: are working in the field. So Chris Barthold: you’re going to have faculty who have recent hands-on experience with the things that they’re telling you about. Chris Barthold: And I think that’s that’s true across both certificate programs. And I think that’s 1 of our strengths Chris Barthold: is that we do Chris Barthold: focus on. You know, the science and the philosophy, and all the you know best practices. But we’ve also Chris Barthold: walked in the shoes of clinicians. And so Chris Barthold: have that practical experience. Chris Barthold: Dr. Ted Hope works in. He’s actually a marriage and family therapist. Chris Barthold: and he uses behavior analysis in marriage and family therapy, clinical mental health applications. Chris Barthold: Dr. Christy park. Does some stuff with Chris Barthold: autistic kids and home programming, but mostly focuses on school-based supports. Positive behavior supports that type of thing. Chris Barthold: Dr. Lisa tullo works in the schools, but she also works in organizational behavior management. So she looks at ways that businesses and organizations can be more efficient. Chris Barthold: And the person that we’re missing on here is Dr. Kristen, Kugel Chris Barthold: and Kristen is. She works primarily with autistic children. And like I said, I work in the areas of supporting people with significant problem behavior whether they have disabilities or not. And I also am a board certified health and wellness coach. Chris Barthold: So you’ll see that you get a pretty well-rounded experience with all of us. Chris Barthold: and I think I’ll move on from there. Chris Barthold: Dr. Duke. Jodi Duke: Yeah, I think I’m good on this slide if you want to move us to the next one. Jodi Duke: Oh, this one is Aba, yeah. Chris Barthold: Oh, this is me. Okay. Chris Barthold: all right. So these are I think. We were talking about. We give an immersive learning experience. Chris Barthold: So Chris Barthold: and a lot of times when people think online learning, they think, watch a video, take a quiz, watch, a video, take a quiz. And in both of our programs. That’s not going to be your experience. We spend a lot of time with Chris Barthold: things like simulations and working groups and discussions. You’re not going to be alone Chris Barthold: in your in your learning and these are 2. The one on the left is my favorite, which is the cyber rat. Almost always everybody starts off with, oh, I have to work with a rat, and then by the end of the semester, like he’s kind of cute Chris Barthold: but you will be performing some experiments and Chris Barthold: with a virtual rat in a virtual operant chamber Chris Barthold: and getting hands-on experience with that basic research. Chris Barthold: The one on the right is a simulation of assessment of problem behavior Chris Barthold: in which you will see from start to finish a case study of Jen Chris Barthold: and Jen. From Chris Barthold: problem identification through to intervention. You will be taking data on her behavior. You’re going to come up with intervention plans for her. And that’s in our edsc. 623, course. So I think these are nice examples of hands-on. But Dr. Duke also has some really nice hands-on experiences as well. Jodi Duke: Yeah, if you would go to the next slide. Jodi Duke: think that one has ours. Jodi Duke: Nope, it doesn’t. Never mind. Sorry. Would you go back? I’ll just talk about ours in the autism program. We don’t have rats. This is so cool, and we do not do this. But what we have is 4 autistic individuals who allowed us to bring a film crew and follow them around for 3 days. And so throughout the experience, you work with Allie, Jake, William and Brooke. Jodi Duke: and all of your major assignments are based upon them and their lives. And so that part is really fun, because we do a project where you get to Jodi Duke: look at, for instance, some of the sensory needs or behaviors working on communication for each of them and their families, gave us all these materials, and literally we followed them at home, at school, at work. Jodi Duke: And it’s a it’s a wide age range. We tried to go across the lifespan. So we have from 8 years old through young adult. Jodi Duke: and Jodi Duke: by the end people say they really feel like they know these 4 Jodi Duke: excuse me. And and so we are providing you with that, as your practical experience in terms of how you can really learn how to Jodi Duke: excuse me. Engage with autistic individuals. Jodi Duke: So sorry. Jodi Duke: I think we’re good on the next slide. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Yeah. Chris Barthold: And. Jodi Duke: Alright! Would you talk us through this. George Mason Online Admissions: Absolutely awesome. Okay? George Mason Online Admissions: So the next start date for the program, it’s going to be January 13, th 2025. Which means that we are currently accepting applications for the program. In order to apply, you would need to have your bachelor’s degree with a minimum of a 3.0 Gpa George Mason Online Admissions: transcripts. We do welcome unofficial transcripts, but we also do order to the officials for you at no cost. George Mason Online Admissions: A copy of your resume, 2 letters of recommendation and your personal statement. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? George Mason Online Admissions: And then we have the last slide. And this is for some Q&A’s so pretty much I will go ahead and monitor the chat. If we have any questions at this point, we’ll answer the questions. George Mason Online Admissions: But is there anything else we should add George Mason Online Admissions: to our George Mason Online Admissions: conversation today? Jodi Duke: I think that’s it. Other than answering questions that folks have. That’s usually what we do. At this point I do see a question about Aba in the Q. And a Dr. Barthold. Can you see that one. Chris Barthold: Yeah. So Kendall’s asking, can you start the Aba certificate program without a Master’s degree? Chris Barthold: You can. But you won’t be eligible to take the Bcba. Exam. Depending on how you do it, you might Chris Barthold: qualify for the Bcaba exam, which is the assistant behavior analyst, and that requires a bachelor’s degree, and then aba coursework Chris Barthold: but you wouldn’t be able to take the exam. The exam towards Bcba. And I see that geeta Chris Barthold: does their hand raise. Chris Barthold: and I don’t know. Brianna, it can you unmute them? How does that work. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. jida mourad: Hi, thank you. I was gonna send it in the chat. But I just feel like I have such extensive questions. jida mourad: So my 1st question would be. jida mourad: does getting the special education masters with the jida mourad: Aba certification cover enough knowledge to be prepared for the Bcba exam. Chris Barthold: Yes, it does. Now, I always recommend that people. Obviously, you also have to get that 2,000 h of field work, and that’s going to help prepare you for that exam, too. I always suggest people do consider a prep program just because I mean, the test itself is pretty intense, and the pass rate usually hovers for all programs around 65%. Chris Barthold: And we find that people who both take that coursework seriously and also do a prep, program, do the best. jida mourad: Okay? Cause, I’m currently a behavior technician. jida mourad: so I’m just wondering, like the behave the Aba certification. Is it less comprehensive than the Aba Masters that you guys are creating. Chris Barthold: No, no, I can’t really say too much about the Chris Barthold: What we’re doing with the new program, and it says it will be developed for fall 2025 Kendall, that is still in discussion. So Chris Barthold: Unfortunately, I have to be a little vague about that. jida mourad: Okay. Chris Barthold: But no, it’s the requirements are different. If you go on the Bacb website, it actually lines up what the differences are. Chris Barthold: So if you’re really interested in in what the board is requiring now versus in 2027, that might be a good place to look. jida mourad: Okay? And then, if I begin the masters of special education with the Aba certification for spring, will my diploma say the master’s with the certification. Or are you guys gonna convert the curriculum jida mourad: to the behavior analysis? Chris Barthold: No, no, so you’re so. What you take is what’s going to be reflected in your transcript. Chris Barthold: I don’t know what they write on the diploma. I’ve never seen it. Chris Barthold: But transcript wise. It’s gonna say, me d Chris Barthold: with a concentration in behavior analysis. jida mourad: Okay. And so what happens if we do the Aba certification? But jida mourad: we don’t complete the classes by December 2026. I know you said that the the hours were required. Chris Barthold: Yeah, you have to have everything done. And honestly, you have to start all over again. jida mourad: Okay. Chris Barthold: Yeah, yeah, I wish I could tell you. You know, there’s bridge courses. We usually we used to have those. But the changes are so extensive that we just can’t guarantee that things will transfer over. jida mourad: Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Chris Barthold: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: You. Chris Barthold: And yeah, so, Kendall, can you transfer the new credits? No. Chris Barthold: no, you won’t be able to transfer any of those credits in, unfortunately. Chris Barthold: And, Gina, I don’t know if you still have more questions, or you just didn’t put your hand down so. Chris Barthold: Oh. Chris Barthold: yeah, I know this isn’t necessarily the news that you all came here to hear. But I also think it’s important that you know Chris Barthold: what the restrictions and time frames are at this point. Jodi Duke: As an outsider. I think it’s wonderful that at least you’re being so open about it, because as a student coming in, it’s important that you guys all know what your timeframe is. So this is great, and at least you have support in moving through it quickly, and there is a path forward for those who want to do, Aba, which I think Jodi Duke: is great. Chris Barthold: Yeah, I wanted to address Erica was saying. This is not encouraging. Chris Barthold: true. Chris Barthold: but it’s also not discouraging either. Chris Barthold: I’ve been telling students Chris Barthold: that you can get through this, you absolutely. We have put this together, made sure Chris Barthold: that you, if you go through and you get those hours as fast as you can. Chris Barthold: and it based on the Bseb standards. And you, you know, you go straight through that this program. Chris Barthold: You will be able to sit for the exam. Chris Barthold: If we’re just saying, you know. Chris Barthold: don’t panic, but don’t dawdle is basically what we’re telling people. Chris Barthold: So you know, I wouldn’t discourage people from applying Chris Barthold: but I think you do need to know that, and that needs to get done on that timeline. jida mourad: So I do have another question. jida mourad: after completing the hours and the curriculum in December of 2026, is there a specific timeline, where we have to take the Bcba. Exam afterwards, or can we just take it at any time. Chris Barthold: So it hasn’t been announced Chris Barthold: as to what they’re actually doing. Typically what we see now, I can’t get. So the board does what the board does. You know there’s nothing that we can do about that. But typically what we see is Chris Barthold: We see like a window of time Chris Barthold: where people can sit for the exam usually a couple of months. Chris Barthold: So you can apply, and then you have to take the exam within a certain amount of time. Chris Barthold: what they’re going to do I’m not quite sure but I would assume that they probably are going to Chris Barthold: go that route, that if you’re done, you’ve got a little bit of time, a little bit of a window to prep for the exam. Chris Barthold: The anonymous attendee said. Are there other masters at Gmu that allow for the Aba certificate. No. Chris Barthold: this is it. Jodi Duke: And this is not just an issue that Gmu is facing correct like every institution that does. This is in the same boat and the same timeline. Just so, you all know. Chris Barthold: Yes, thank you. Dr. Duke. Jodi Duke: Yeah. Chris Barthold: Yeah, yeah, this is not. Gmu is, you know. Chris Barthold: doing this. Chris Barthold: the behavior analyst certification board Chris Barthold: is requiring all of us to do this. So every program Chris Barthold: is going through this change. jida mourad: So the programs that are going through this change are only the ones that have the behavior analysis certifications. But the colleges that have behavior analysis. Master’s programs are not facing this correct. Chris Barthold: Not exactly Chris Barthold: so this is probably a little bit deeper than you really wanted to go. But I’ll go there. So what we have to do is that we have to go through an accreditation process. It’s called tearing Chris Barthold: And so Chris Barthold: What happens is is that anybody who’s not been accredited or tiered Chris Barthold: needs to make sure that they are moving their program towards that. Chris Barthold: So some master’s degree programs are going to have to make some big changes, others are already okay. Chris Barthold: So yeah, there are some master’s programs that will be okay in the transition. And there’s others that will have to make these big. Chris Barthold: you know, overhauls. Chris Barthold: so yeah, it’s not. It’s not as simple as you know. Certificates go away and master’s degrees are okay. Chris Barthold: It’s a little bit more complicated than that. Chris Barthold: and Geeta, you were asking about if we don’t pass the Bcba. Exam after completion. December 26.th Will we have to start the curriculum over again, due to the changes. Chris Barthold: The board has not announced exactly what they’re going to do with that. But typically what happens is that you get one attempt Chris Barthold: with the old program. Chris Barthold: so Chris Barthold: that’s that’s typically what they do. But we have to wait for the bacb to tell us what Chris Barthold: they’re going to be doing. Chris Barthold: Again. I don’t mean to be vague about it, but these are the things that we know at this point. Chris Barthold: When will more information about the new master’s program be available? And is there a way we can receive updates? Kendall? I am happy to Chris Barthold: figure out a way that you can receive updates. If you want to wait for the master’s program. Chris Barthold: Like I said, everything is in Chris Barthold: is in proposal. Chris Barthold: So we have to wait for everything to get approved to give you information. Chris Barthold: Do I know what master’s degree that will be? Chris Barthold: it’ll be behavior analysis. I know that part and but everything else. We’re kind of working out right now. Chris Barthold: But it. We are designing this to meet those 2027 standards, and making sure that you’re well prepared. But, Kendall, yeah, I would say, maybe I’ll put my contact information in. I would suggest, if you want to wait Chris Barthold: that Chris Barthold: you send me an email, maybe halfway through the spring semester, and I’ll probably have more information around that. Chris Barthold: Let me put my email address in here. Chris Barthold: And Dr. Duke did the same. Jodi Duke: Any other questions. Jodi Duke: You guys asked a lot of good ones. Chris Barthold: Hold on to that one. Chris Barthold: So if we don’t pass the Bcpa. On that typical one attempt, the curriculum will have already changed, and we’ll have to restart. Chris Barthold: I think so. You know. My, I I haven’t been hearing workarounds Chris Barthold: for that. Unfortunately. Jodi Duke: Maybe the trick is to start with the autism program, you guys. And then by the time you finish the autism certificate. Jodi Duke: Aba will be all sorted out, and you could go over to that program. Maybe that’s how we need to launch this. Chris Barthold: Idea. Actually, Jodi Duke: Saying. Chris Barthold: Yeah, yeah, I don’t. Yeah. I think actually, those are. Chris Barthold: That’s a i’ve Chris Barthold: you’ll get the best of both worlds through that, you know. Chris Barthold: Does the special education courses transfer to Aba master’s credits? Chris Barthold: So the special education courses. If you get the Med. Chris Barthold: you’ll take the certificate with those special education courses. Chris Barthold: Those courses probably will not transfer to the new program. Chris Barthold: As far as I know right now. Chris Barthold: I feel like this is doom and gloom. But it’s not. I’m kind of just saying, if you want to do it this way, get in now. Chris Barthold: So they would be only for personal knowledge. Essentially. Chris Barthold: no. So I want to clarify a little bit. If you take the special education courses and you take the Aba certificate. That’s the whole Master’s degree. Chris Barthold: So if you start in spring of 2025, it’s not for personal knowledge. There’s a lot of people who use those courses in their day to day as behavior analysts. It’s just that if you end up in that new program Chris Barthold: you wouldn’t be taking those special Ed courses. So I want to clarify that that? No, it’s not just, you know. Chris Barthold: just for personal knowledge. It looks like geeta. You’ve raised your hand. So go ahead. jida mourad: Yeah. So jida mourad: you guys have to like, start with a special education. And then by then, like, we would most likely know about the Aba masters. But those credits that you take for that I think it’s like semester and a half. I think it’s that 3, the 3 classes, those would not roll over to count towards the behavior analysis. Masters. Chris Barthold: If you were going to the new program. So I think what Dr. Duke was saying is that if you were to do Chris Barthold: the certificate. Chris Barthold: Just the certificate. Am I right, Dr. Duke? Jodi Duke: Yes, I was just meaning that. So exactly like, if you wanted to learn about autism, you could enroll in the autism certificate program and do that, and that would get you through. Let’s see 4 semesters at least. And so then Aba would be sorted out. Chris Barthold: Well established. Jodi Duke: Yes. Chris Barthold: Yeah, yeah, so I. Jodi Duke: But we would not have you start if you didn’t. If you wanted to do the Jodi Duke: full masters under Aba, it would not be wise to start with our core courses, because those may not will not apply. So no, and the autism courses won’t apply either. It’s actually similar. I went through this with my Jodi Duke: when I was doing my Phd. And did some graduate certificates that then later applied to something else. I think it’s you know, it’s a. It’s a professional growth sort of thing. If you were interested in autism, that was just an option I was throwing out there. Chris Barthold: Yeah, and quite frankly, if you decide that you want to stay in the autism aba world. Chris Barthold: that certificate Chris Barthold: would be value added because you would have. If one of the things that people sometimes say is, you know, if you go through the Aba program, you don’t get that autism specific Chris Barthold: information, and you could really use it. And some of the things around neuro, you know, divergence that Dr. Duke covers so well. Chris Barthold: you know you, I think that you would. Chris Barthold: Actually, it would be an asset to you as far as employment. Chris Barthold: If you want to stay in Chris Barthold: in autism. jida mourad: I think what’s a little bit nerve wracking is that with the special education masters, and the certification is that it kind of requires you to be on jida mourad: like the most perfect jida mourad: chronological timeline that you can be, and I feel like that’s not entirely too realistic all the time, and then, like it would cost you a lot jida mourad: afterwards to have to restart. Chris Barthold: Yes, yes, so we do have one contingency plan, if things don’t quite go right. Chris Barthold: but unfortunately this is kind of it. Chris Barthold: The so the other thing again, I’m going to get into the weeds Chris Barthold: a lot here, probably more than you want to know. Chris Barthold: The board kind of sprung this on us. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to prepare for this, so we started as quickly as we could. Chris Barthold: and we’re going through as quickly as we can. Chris Barthold: But yeah, we do have like, let’s say, you know, one course doesn’t quite go as planned. You’ll be alright. Chris Barthold: And we figured out that if you do your field work Chris Barthold: with the maximum amount of hours that you can be done if you start when you start your 6, 19. You can be done in 15 months, which then gives you a little bit of cushion Chris Barthold: if something doesn’t go right. Chris Barthold: So we have a little bit of cushion, but not a lot. jida mourad: Because you said the pass rate for the Bcba exam was around 60%. But you really only get the one. Try with the master’s jida mourad: a special education curriculum before you have to do it all again. Then try it you can. jida mourad: You can continuously try after that with the new curriculum correct, because it’s not going to change. Chris Barthold: With the new curriculum, you’d be able to take it. I believe they capped it at 5. Chris Barthold: You’ll have to check the bicb Chris Barthold: requirements, but you will have extra tries. jida mourad: But for the masters of special education you’ll only have one jida mourad: because of the curriculum change. Chris Barthold: Yeah, unless you unless you figured out a way to take it a little bit earlier. Like, if you get it done and you put in your stuff like right away, you may have a little bit of an extra Chris Barthold: extra cushion. And again, Gina, these are not Chris Barthold: our rules. These are the boards. jida mourad: So are there schools out there that jida mourad: are not facing this issue, if they have, like a master’s for Aba already? Or is their curriculum, also changing in the same way that Mason is. Chris Barthold: So everybody’s curriculum will alter, alter in some way, shape or form. Chris Barthold: There are a few programs that are Abai accredited. The Association for behavior analysis, international. And they’ll probably have the least amount of changes. Chris Barthold: So Chris Barthold: that there are programs out there that may have less changes than what we have. In full transparency. Chris Barthold: And you know you’re welcome to look at those. Not all of them are online, though. Chris Barthold: So some of them are not online. Chris Barthold: So that’s something to keep in mind as well. George Mason Online Admissions: One of our last questions. There George Mason Online Admissions: I. Chris Barthold: Think, I answered. Everything. Does anybody. Jodi Duke: Thank you, too. Chris Barthold: About autism. Jodi Duke: It’s okay. Jodi Duke: There’s a lot happening in the Aba world. Jodi Duke: But please reach out to either of us with any questions. We appreciate. You all being here tonight and taking the time to talk to us, and we know we threw a lot at you, so don’t be afraid to reach out, especially if you’re interested in updates. Yeah. Chris Barthold: It looks like Gina has one more question. Could do we have time for that one? Chris Barthold: Oh, when? When do the does the Aba masters begin. Chris Barthold: We’re hoping Chris Barthold: for fall of 2025. But it we’re it’s really about making sure that we get all the approvals of our proposal Chris Barthold: done, and unfortunately, I don’t have information on those. But, Gina, if it’s my emails in there, Chris Barthold: if for some, if you decide that Chris Barthold: waiting is in your best interest Chris Barthold: email me, maybe around like February March, and I’ll probably be able to give you a lot more information than I can give you right now. George Mason Online Admissions: Good. Well, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to attend our live session today. We hope you were able to gather important and valuable information as you embark on your journey back to school. George Mason Online Admissions: I also want to thank Dr. Barthold and Dr. Duke for joining us tonight and helping us learn about such great changes that are happening in the world. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out at the number on the screen to get started today, my number is (703) 348-5006. You can reach me online. George Mason Online Admissions: 2@gmu.edu George Mason Online Admissions: and then I’ll be more than happy to help you through the application process again. Thank you. Everybody for joining tonight. I think we have one last question. In the chat. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, it was a thank you. Thank you guys so much. We really appreciate the conversation tonight. Hope everyone has a wonderful evening. George Mason Online Admissions: Take care! Jodi Duke: Thank you so much for helping us through this. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Jodi Duke: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: We will both again. Jodi Duke: Good night, bye. Chris Barthold: Yeah, thank you. I’m gonna log off. George Mason Online Admissions: Same here. Bye-bye.

Maria Uriyo: So are they coming? Oh. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: hello! And welcome to Mason’s online. Mha. George Mason Online Admissions: zoom session. I am joined here tonight with Dr. Sheingold, who is division director George Mason Online Admissions: and Mha. Program. Coordinator, Dr. Yurio. So we’re going to give you a couple minutes George Mason Online Admissions: to George Mason Online Admissions: let us know you can access the chat feature George Mason Online Admissions: and let us know where you’re joining us from George Mason Online Admissions: New Jersey. Wonderful. Brenda Sheingold: Alexandria. George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll move that over here. Yeah. Wonderful New Jersey George Mason Online Admissions: again. Wow! George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for joining us. Brenda Sheingold: Salt, okay. Maria Uriyo: Welcome! George Mason Online Admissions: We’re gonna give it a couple more minutes before we get started. Last time we had about that I checked. We had about 13 people joining us, but we’ll just give it a few more minutes. George Mason Online Admissions: but appreciate you taking the time out of your evening to join us. George Mason Online Admissions: and we’re very fortunate to have George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Sheingold and Dr. Urio share their knowledge with us. So I’m excited to George Mason Online Admissions: learn more about this great program. George Mason Online Admissions: So throughout the session tonight be familiarized with the Q. And a. And just feel free to post your questions George Mason Online Admissions: in there for Dr. Urio and Dr. Scheingold. Don’t be shy, because this is your chance to ask them your questions directly. Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: okay, so George Mason Online Admissions: I guess we’ll go ahead and kick it off. What do you think? George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, yes. George Mason Online Admissions: perfect. Good evening, everyone again. My name is Susan, and I’m joining you in support of George Mason. George Mason Online Admissions: And George Mason Online Admissions: again here, along with Dr. Scheingold, who is the division director and Dr. Euroyo, the Mha. Program coordinator. George Mason Online Admissions: to talk about this wonderful Cami accredited accredited Mha. Program. So thank you for joining us. And George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Urio, George Mason Online Admissions: Do you want to go ahead and well, let’s see. George Mason Online Admissions: Go ahead and well, I can do this real quick. So George Mason Online Admissions: or would you go ahead, Dr. Urio? You please. Maria Uriyo: Okay, so thank you so much for the introduction. I am the Co. The Mha. Program coordinator. I’ve been in the program for this is my 4th year. Maria Uriyo: and I was previously overseeing the online program. And now I’m overseeing the undergraduate. I mean the graduate traditional program as well. By background, I have experience working at Johns Hopkins, healthcare in their managed care organization, and working with Ncq. Accreditation of their health plan. Maria Uriyo: I’ll stop there and I’ll let Dr. Shine, go, introduce herself. Brenda Sheingold: Oh, thank you. So I’ve been at George Mason since December of 2018. My background is as a nurse with 20 years of trauma care experience. Before I went into academics. Brenda Sheingold: I teach the leadership and organizational change classes. Brenda Sheingold: and also the capstone class that you take at the end of the course. I work very closely with Dr. Yurio, and we function as a team. I also support the undergraduate faculty in the bachelor’s of administration. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful. Thank you. George Mason Online Admissions: All right. So George Mason Online Admissions: throughout this presentation, we’re going to talk about the learning outcomes, curriculum details, the capstone George Mason Online Admissions: and outside of the classroom and various career opportunities. And then I can just discuss the admissions, requirements. I am an admissions representative, so I can assist you with all those questions, and then Q. And A can take place throughout the session, or at the end as well. George Mason Online Admissions: Y’all should be familiar with these. George Mason Online Admissions: you know. Raise your hand and questions. Just post your questions in the questions. Feature. George Mason Online Admissions: and y’all have introduced yourselves. Those are your official titles. George Mason Online Admissions: and George Mason Online Admissions: go ahead. Dr. Rigo. Maria Uriyo: Yes. So what makes our program unique? You’re already here. You’ve already done your research, and you probably know the answer. Maria Uriyo: But we are cami accredited, and we are ranked 30. Second, in the nation we have received as of 2023, the Cami Canon Award for being a program that focuses on sustainability in healthcare, management, education and practice. Our program is very flexible in that Maria Uriyo: we offer our classes in the evening for those of you who work so that is very flexible in that regard, and also some of the courses are asynchronous, so they can take place at your own chosen time. However, we do engage you and put in Maria Uriyo: synchronous sessions so that we can have time to interact with you and answer your questions, because sometimes it is easier to talk rather than sending emails. However, whatever works for you programs will be more than able to meet your style of learning. Maria Uriyo: And we also cater to providing you opportunities to do activities outside the classroom. We’ll talk more as we move forward. Maria Uriyo: It’s fine. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Maria Uriyo: So when it comes to the learning outcomes. As I said, we are coming accredited. And so we focus on the domains of practice Maria Uriyo: or domains of competency that we want you to get by the time you finish. So we look at the knowledge of that, you obtain more knowledge of the healthcare system and healthcare management Maria Uriyo: that you work on communication and interpersonal effectiveness, because without that Maria Uriyo: nothing advances. Really, we look at critical thinking and analysis and problem, solving all your classes. You have projects to do challenges that you have to overcome, and of course, teamwork as well. Maria Uriyo: In addition, we offer you classes and opportunities to Maria Uriyo: sharpen your management and leadership skills. Dr. Schengold teaches the leadership class, and she can talk a little bit about that. And then we look at professionalism and ethics. I will let Dr. Shengold talk about the leadership. Yeah, yeah. Brenda Sheingold: But in a leadership class, one of the 1st things we do is a strength finders assessment. So, and we do a lot of exercises around that throughout the semester because it’s a team based. Course. Brenda Sheingold: it’s a case analysis based course. And we also bring in a micro credential for that class, and it’s a micro credential you don’t have to pay for. So it’s built in as an assignment on resilience. Brenda Sheingold: So that’s provided through the university and supported by the university. It’s you know, when you take a look at some of these micro credentials, or over $2,000 to get one, and we build it into this class. So that’s a that’s a huge plus in the leadership class everybody. It’s monitored externally by the university, so that it meets a very high quality standard to achieve that during the course of the leadership class. Brenda Sheingold: And then our ethics classes are built in our ethics, the learning outcomes are built into the law classes, and those are taught by experienced healthcare attorneys that you really get a top drawer experience in in all 5 of these areas. By the time you graduate. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful George Mason Online Admissions: next slide. Maria Uriyo: Yes, please. Maria Uriyo: Okay. So these are the list of classes that we have in our program. Maria Uriyo: In total, everything adds up to about 45 credits. You have classes on the right that are required. The 1st one is Uch, 500 foundations of public health. We are in the College of public health, and this class provides you the opportunity to mingle and meet other students Maria Uriyo: who are in social work, for example, who are in nutrition, who are in nursing. So the Gch 500 is a class that is required for all incoming new graduate students in the in the college. So another way of interacting outside the discipline. Maria Uriyo: And then, of course, you have your statistics, the leadership class that talked about Maria Uriyo: you get to learn about the role of government in healthcare Maria Uriyo: which is critical for you to know. Maria Uriyo: and then quality, improvement and economics. So you may come from it that we have students from a diverse background. But by the time they go through our program they by the time they finish they are more than able to go work as an administrator in a healthcare organization, because we take you through various aspects of Maria Uriyo: what is the healthcare system, and what things should you? You know, be familiar with? I would like to shy and go talk about the concentrations, the quality, healthcare, quality and executive. Yeah. Brenda Sheingold: This is our newest concentration. We did this in response to market research, that this is these are the skills the market’s looking for right now, especially with the movement towards value-based purchasing for insurance policies, and we have a pretty heavy interest in it. These are unique. They were co-developed with Ncqa, the National Committee on Quality Assurance. Brenda Sheingold: So we have field experts as well as the academic expertise, the blended into these classes. So they’re very unique. Brenda Sheingold: So you know. So our program. Brenda Sheingold: So we’re about ready after this semester is over, we’re about ready to apply for a separate cami accreditation Brenda Sheingold: for this, for the quality concentration, and so it’ll be double accredited. So it’s very high again, very high standard for for our program. Maria Uriyo: Yes, thank you. And yeah, before you go forward, you move to the next slide. We have. We have a 790 capstone class. So everyone who takes our program is required to take the 790 class. Naturally, maybe it’s on the next slide. George Mason Online Admissions: It is on the next slide. You got it. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Maria Uriyo: yeah, so you are actually going to be working for an well working or interning or Maria Uriyo: providing your your expertise, your availability Maria Uriyo: to an actual organization to work on an actual real life project or pro problem that they have Maria Uriyo: within a 6 week, 8 week period Maria Uriyo: and leave the organization with a solution, or Maria Uriyo: at a point where that somebody else can take the project to the next phase. Maria Uriyo: So we do. We do support you in finding an entity where you can do this project at. Maria Uriyo: And at the same time we have students who are actually who actually do the capstone project with within the employer so, but not in the same department, but outside the current, the I guess your current department. Maria Uriyo: and you find a preceptor who have requirements that the preceptors need to have. But Maria Uriyo: for the 4 years I’ve been here Maria Uriyo: every student has successfully completed their their project. Maria Uriyo: You know nobody has not been able to complete. So it is a doable. Ask that we have for you, and I think you’ll find it very useful, and our preceptors also look out for students as well. Maria Uriyo: Dr. Shango, do you want to add anything. Brenda Sheingold: I do. I have an example I can provide. But I also want to add that Dr. Yurio and I are both certified Project managers. So we bring that to the table with this particular class as well. One project that just came to mind in listening to Dr. Yurio was from a student in North Carolina, for example. Brenda Sheingold: who worked with the Public Health Department in her county in North Carolina because there were a lot of people swimming in the, you know, because they were raised that way to swim in the creeks and swim in the tributaries Brenda Sheingold: in North Carolina that had a lot of algae blooms in it in this day and age and did a public service project and and actually did a radio commercial. That was her project. She did a radio commercial warning people not to just jump off the docks at the end of their, you know, at the end of their piers anymore, to what to look for if the algae blooms were very active in terms of the sheen of the water, and you know the dangers that could happen by Brenda Sheingold: taking for granted that you could just swim anywhere like you grew up because it’s changed, and they need to be aware of what algae blooms can do. So she did a whole strategic plan for the county to launch this advertising campaign to educate the public. And you know, and it ended up being broadcast on the radio. So that’s just one example. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Yep. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s really cool. Maria Uriyo: Next slide. Yes, please. Maria Uriyo: Yes. So, aside from classwork and homework, we do provide you additional opportunities to network and to expand the skill set of you being in healthcare. Maria Uriyo: So we have an organization called Rising Healthcare, Leaders of Mason Rhlm. Maria Uriyo: I’ll let Dr. Shang go. Talk about that. But the next one is, we also have Maria Uriyo: within this region we are part of the national national capital Healthcare Executives, which is a regional chapter of ache. Maria Uriyo: You will know more about that. Once you join the program. Maria Uriyo: Also, we have members of Upd Honor society as well as Academy Health student Chapter. We have that internally in the department, and you can Maria Uriyo: become a member of that and take part in whatever this chapter does. We also have series related to health policy seminars Maria Uriyo: and yes, national competitions. Dr. Shango can talk about both of them. Rhlm and the case competitions. Okay, yeah. Brenda Sheingold: So I’ll start with the Student Association rhlm. We’re very different from other programs in that we include online students in every single way that we can. The officers for rhlm are made up of on campus students and online students. Brenda Sheingold: the online students network to make sure that the online students are included the online officer networks to do that. But we also, when I say we, Dr. Yuri, when I have oversight of that as well, and we make sure that we don’t do anything without including online students. We have a huge event tomorrow night Brenda Sheingold: with executives coming in from a Nova health system which is our big Brenda Sheingold: health system in Northern Virginia, and they’re coming in to do a panel discussion which will be broadcast, live nationally and followed by a demonstration of a behavioral interview to get students ready for interviews, because that’s the mode that they’re conducted in nowadays. And then they’re going to do a speed Brenda Sheingold: networking session, and moving from table to table with different executives to ask questions from each executive. So we have a laptop set up to take live questions from the audience from all over the country, and this is all sponsored and driven by our students for case competitions. I just actually had a meeting right before this one Brenda Sheingold: to tee up a team for a virtual case competition at Penn State. These are competitions that are national with with other schools, other Mha. Programs, and we have a dedicated coach that’s a faculty member to do that, depending on the competition. Different coaches are assigned. I just came back from one in Florida Brenda Sheingold: with the National Association for Health Service Executives. It’s the biggest one in the country, and we pay for everything for a student to go. We’ve taken virtual students to these competitions as well, and paid for them to fly in from whatever state they live in. We had one recently that flew in from West Virginia and participated in a competition that was at University of Alabama, which is another big national case competition. Brenda Sheingold: So at every opportunity we have, we share with you, and we also fund all of this to make sure that we are as inclusive as possible. And I think that sets us apart from other online programs. We follow the data, we track the market. And we know that other programs don’t do these outside activities and provide the opportunities that we do so. I think that really speaks Brenda Sheingold: speaks highly of George Mason. We we put, we roll up our sleeves and put a lot of effort into it. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s amazing. I mean for an online program, you are definitely gonna get get to be able to network. And that’s so very important. Terrific. George Mason Online Admissions: all right on to job opportunities. Maria Uriyo: Yes, so when it comes to what can you do, or what should you be? What should you expect from this degree? One of the things is, you can work in managed care. If you, for example, take the quality concentration, you can use that very easily in managed care. You can also use it in long-term care management, because quality is number one Maria Uriyo: quality and patient safety management. So anything, I guess. Maria Uriyo: performance related risk management related Maria Uriyo: that push the issue with value based purchasing, you know. You can do that with the executive route Maria Uriyo: that opens a wider opportunity for you in the various departments that make up a healthcare entity. Whether it is in finance, whether it is in operations, whether it is in care management, you know you, as the administrator. Have you have an opportunity to be at the table to guide and manage that organization, or that group. Maria Uriyo: Dr. Shengold, do you have anything you want to add. Brenda Sheingold: That was so. Well, said Dr. Yurio, it’s a tough act to follow, but I will add that we do have a 93% placement in the field of choice within 3 months after graduation. And that’s a pretty high statistic. We track that carefully, and we have to. We’re required to track it for to be. You know, cami accredited because they expect us to have those kinds of outcomes. So they watch us. Brenda Sheingold: and we know for a fact that that we do what we say we’re going to do. Brenda Sheingold: So something to keep in mind as you look at programs. And I know you’re all looking at other programs and making a tough choice. Brenda Sheingold: And we want to be your program of choice. Brenda Sheingold: You’re going to spend 2 years in this in a grad getting a graduate degree. We want you to be happy. We want it to be a good fit, and we want you to know that we’re here for you. We’re we’re student, centered. Maria Uriyo: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s terrific. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? George Mason Online Admissions: All right. Now, y’all been really shy. Go ahead and post your questions George Mason Online Admissions: because you have the people that can answer them. George Mason Online Admissions: I deal with the admissions process. So if you haven’t already spoken to someone George Mason Online Admissions: in the Admissions office feel free to reach out to us, I will go ahead and post the. Actually, it’s on the next slide, the information to reach out to us. But the application process is George Mason Online Admissions: very easy. If you have unofficial transcripts. We can. Admissions can use those to confer a decision, and, in fact, Mason will George Mason Online Admissions: attempt to order official transcripts on your behalf as a courtesy. George Mason Online Admissions: As mentioned, this is an incredible program. It’s cami accredited. George Mason Online Admissions: you know, and by virtue of George Mason Online Admissions: us being close to Capitol Hill, we on the prior slide. There is opportunities to have the zoom sessions with Congressional policymakers which I think is really cool, too. George Mason Online Admissions: back to the admissions process. George Mason Online Admissions: a resume. Y’all typically have that a statement of purpose. George Mason Online Admissions: With respect to letters of reference, we also make that very easy as well. One needs. You need 2 professional references one needs to be from a past or present supervisor. George Mason Online Admissions: And all you do is input their names and emails into the application portal. Once you do so they automatically receive an email that will take them to a questionnaire literally takes them 10 min to do. George Mason Online Admissions: Now, one really cool thing about this program is, we have a short video interview George Mason Online Admissions: and have no fear. It’s just with an admissions representative like me. If I’m your admissions representative, we send you the questions in advance. And basically, it’s, you know. Tell us a little bit about yourself why you want to get the degree. What are your career goals? You know why, Mason. George Mason Online Admissions: and it usually takes 5 to 10 min, and then we send it up on up to admissions. But again the process is very easy. George Mason Online Admissions: We have 3 start dates. George Mason Online Admissions: Currently we have. You can apply for spring, which is January. George Mason Online Admissions: Then we have a summer start and we then have a fall start. George Mason Online Admissions: So George Mason Online Admissions: do y’all have questions. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? Yeah. Brenda Sheingold: Somebody then chat here. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, I like that. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Totally. Brenda Sheingold: Take. Take this 1st one about the capstone project, Dr. Yurio, this one down here from Gabe. Maria Uriyo: You wanna take it or, yeah. Maria Uriyo: go ahead. Brenda Sheingold: Where are you from, Gabe? I’m looking through the Brenda Sheingold: scrolling through these chats here. Brenda Sheingold: Where? Where are you? George Mason Online Admissions: New Jersey. Brenda Sheingold: Jersey. George Mason Online Admissions: The house. Brenda Sheingold: Okay, so the the answer to your question is, yes and no. Yes, you can complete it where you work. But no, you can’t complete it. In your current role. Brenda Sheingold: So so I’ll explain that it has to be a different you know, a different supervisor for your capstone project a different preceptor than who you directly report to Brenda Sheingold: so many people, complete it in their organization, but not in their own department with their own boss. Brenda Sheingold: So that’s that’s where this that’s where it bifurcates. Brenda Sheingold: So we meet with every student and every preceptor to make sure that it’s not your your boss that you’re reporting to as your preceptor, and it is also an opportunity to step out of your comfort zone a little bit and do something different. So I hope that answers your question about the Brenda Sheingold: you know the dual duality of Brenda Sheingold: being in your current role, but also being at your workplace. Brenda Sheingold: but let me know. George Mason Online Admissions: Now, is this something that you can put on your resume. Brenda Sheingold: Yes, a lot of people do put it on their resume. We want them to put it on their resume, and the preceptors can often write letters of reference based on the students work and their experience with the students. So it’s helpful in that way as well. Brenda Sheingold: And. George Mason Online Admissions: You said that if you’re not working in the field you’ll help them find placement. Is that correct? Maria Uriyo: Yes, so by the time they reach it will be like 2 years. By the time they get to the capstone Maria Uriyo: they would have been making those network connections. Because we, for example, we have a symposium every year where we bring in people from the healthcare sector, C-suite executives and also guest speakers within the classes that our students take. Maria Uriyo: So by that time Maria Uriyo: not that we’re gonna Maria Uriyo: we will help. We do help our students make sure that they finish and find the connection that they need to do a project that suits Maria Uriyo: where they want their career to go. So we do help them in that regard. Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: You said that everybody’s been successful in completing that. So that’s fantastic. Okay, there’s 1 before Gabe Talia says, what does a typical class look like in terms of work, experience. George Mason Online Admissions: background, etc. Maria Uriyo: That’s an interesting question, because everybody, let’s say, okay. So you’ve never been in healthcare before. You’re taking your 1st class. All our classes are 6 weeks in duration, right? No 8 weeks in duration, and so assignments or modules are weekly, and so it can be. Read something, or write a paper or watch the faculty’s video about about a certain topic. Maria Uriyo: and in some classes they will have a synchronous session in case you have a question. The professor will be there Maria Uriyo: like an office hour. You come in, ask your question, and you can leave Maria Uriyo: that. That is not all. Classes have that, but some do, especially the technical ones. Maria Uriyo: and then so it’s Maria Uriyo: more of like an independently driven learning, because at this stage you have to be Maria Uriyo: independently motivated to learn and do the work because you are making that decision right now to apply. So we are treating you beginning to treat you like that executive. Maria Uriyo: Yeah, but we have had success, and our students do succeed in finishing their their requirement for each given class. So we don’t leave you like a like a. It’s a cold class here, you know, like automatic robotic. Nothing. Yeah, there will be a faculty person on the other side. Maria Uriyo: I like. George Mason Online Admissions: I like the fact that there’s a combination of asynchronous and synchronous, though I think that’s that’s really nice. George Mason Online Admissions: One question is, is, do we enroll in a concentration, follow, following potential admission, or in our initial application. Maria Uriyo: So I think you can choose which concentration you want as you come in. Maria Uriyo: So I think by default it will put you in executive unless you say you want to go into quality. George Mason Online Admissions: But you do your core courses first.st Right? So if you changed your mind like, if you selected one concentration, you do your core first, st and you could always change, correct. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. Maria Uriyo: We’re not. We’re not gonna lock you in in. Maria Uriyo: Sure. One thing. Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. So Isabel says, I’m sorry. Go ahead. Brenda Sheingold: I read that I can take Isabel’s question, and I apologize, Isabel, if we were confusing, we have one cami certification accreditation that covers the online and the on campus pathway. The classes are identical. They’re exactly the same. But if you’re an online student Brenda Sheingold: coming in for admission with Susan, then you do not take any in-person classes. It is. It is strictly online. Brenda Sheingold: So I apologize that I I confused you for about that. So they are asynchronous. Brenda Sheingold: and thank you for asking that. George Mason Online Admissions: Yup. Good to clarify. Absolutely. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Any more questions. Maria Uriyo: Well, phone? George Mason Online Admissions: I’m going to go to the next slide that just has George Mason Online Admissions: my contact information. And I work with a team of admissions representatives. So you know, if it’s me or one of my colleagues, we’re more than happy to help you George Mason Online Admissions: and it again. It’s very easy to complete the application. Maria Uriyo: So Maria Uriyo: okay. Maria Uriyo: there’s so many questions. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s a good thing. Maria Uriyo: Good. Yeah. So if we don’t, Cap, if we don’t answer all of them, we’ll show we’ll probably send you our answers. But yeah, the program is 24, like 24 months, it follows a pattern. Maria Uriyo: So if you begin, whichever in whichever time you begin, you will go through all the classes. So it does follow a pattern. But if you decide to stay out, but then that may affect your Maria Uriyo: your ability to finish it in a given time frame. So Maria Uriyo: so it is basically up to you as to how quickly you want to finish and how timely you want to finish. But life happens, and sometimes our students have to step back and then come back. Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: So we do give up to 6 years to complete the degree. But, as I understand it, with the online, it’s 15 courses for 45 credits, and then what you do is you take one class every 8 weeks. Maria Uriyo: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: Semester is 16 weeks. So you’re completing 2 classes, a semester. So you you can’t double up and take more than 2 classes per semester. Is that correct? Maria Uriyo: That’s correct. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Yeah. Brenda Sheingold: Hmm. George Mason Online Admissions: Khalil is asking a question. Brenda Sheingold: Okay. Brenda Sheingold: You want me to answer that. Dr. Ario. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Go ahead. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, we. We stay on top of your competency mastery through. Ever since you started the program. We start with a baseline that’s unique to you, and then we measure it halfway through, and we measure it again at the end. We also have an executive and residence available to help advise and counsel you about how to improve a particular competency. Brenda Sheingold: It’s measured. It’s data that we can see. And it’s not tied to an objective opinion of us like an essay in a class. Brenda Sheingold: It’s actually multiple choice testing that we do. That’s designed by our faculty and supported by the faculty and our executive and residents, which is a very unique feature of the class, I should of the of the program. Not all programs have an executive in residence to help support students with their competency mastery. But we do. We’re one of the few in the country that have it. Brenda Sheingold: That’s an excellent question. George Mason Online Admissions: Can I ask you a question I’ve never heard of like micro competencies. So is that something can you like? Is that something you’d put on your resume, or like. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, a micro credential is so. George Mason Online Admissions: Credential Sorry. Brenda Sheingold: That’s okay. A micro credential is the same thing as a badge. You may be more familiar with it as a badge, and what it is is a unique core of knowledge that you achieve that you’re tested on, that you’re awarded this a special micro credential for different than taking a whole certificate say, that’s 15 credits. This is embedded into a class as an assignment that lasts 6 weeks in that particular class. Brenda Sheingold: So some students and they’re organic. These badges and these micro credentials are organic. You click on them just like the QR code, and it pops to all the things that were included in that you had to learn for this micro credential. Now some students will take those and put them down the left hand margin of their cover. Letters for jobs. So players can just click, click, click, click on what they have. Brenda Sheingold: and see immediately what their skill set is with a 1 page cover letter. You want something unique that’s going to catch the eye of an employer. So that’s 1 way to use it. But it really defines Brenda Sheingold: specifically unique skills outside of what we offer in the program. And then for the resiliency one, it’s free of charge. We’re developing another one in leadership now, another one in emergency management because we know the market wants them. We know the students want them. So we’re meeting that need. And we’re developing new ones right now, and we’ll be presenting it to the board tomorrow. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s really cool. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Maria Uriyo: thank you. So there’s this thing about Maria Uriyo: work. Experience is not required. Like most other programs, we do not make it that it’s a. It’s a requirement that you have to have work experience in healthcare. Maria Uriyo: It’s good if you do, because it will help you. However, we are. The program takes you from the beginning till the end. So don’t let the fact that you don’t have Maria Uriyo: healthcare experience be a limiting issue for you Maria Uriyo: only Maria Uriyo: has a question. George Mason Online Admissions: Question about national nursing conferences. Maria Uriyo: Brother! Come on. Brenda Sheingold: We don’t network at national nursing conferences that I know of, that George Mason University does as a as a university. They’ll network Brenda Sheingold: because we’re a College of Public Health, and they present the whole slate, the whole portfolio of programs that we offer. But we don’t as just as our Mha. Program network at nursing conferences. We do have a lot of nurses in the in the program, and we just we’ve had 2 nurses just recently in our capstone course Brenda Sheingold: and won. They both have won awards. Both of them Brenda Sheingold: won awards for their projects, and one is getting ready to publish her project. Now in the Journal of School Public Health. So. George Mason Online Admissions: Wow! Brenda Sheingold: Yeah. Brenda Sheingold: work with them. George Mason Online Admissions: Speaking of public health, Mason is the only college of Public health in the State of Virginia. So that’s another thing that sets us apart too. George Mason Online Admissions: Any other questions. Maria Uriyo: I see a question in the Q. And a here from Thalia about fellowships. Maria Uriyo: Did you see those ones? George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, there it is. Yeah. Maria Uriyo: My institution offers a fellowship? Ed. In administrative fellowship, do we find? Do you find these opportunities helpful? Maria Uriyo: If the institution offers it, and it’s Maria Uriyo: open to you for sure I’d apply. Maria Uriyo: We do have students who have applied to administrative fellowships, and Maria Uriyo: it’s good if you have, if you get them. Maria Uriyo: because there are so few in number. The demand for them is very high. Actually, Dr. Shango writes all the recommendation letters for all the fellowships, so let us speak about them. Brenda Sheingold: They’re very competitive, they usually only take 2. That’s why they’re so hard to get like Dr. Yurio said. They don’t take a very big number per organization of fellowships. But you know we just had a student who had one at Mayo Clinic very prestigious. She just completed that this summer, and so we do have students that get into fellowships, but not that they’re hard to get into. Brenda Sheingold: And it’s also not required for our program to have a fellowship. A lot of Mha. Programs still require those, and they tend to be 3 year mhas, because a year is taken up with your fellowship. So we support our students to do it after they graduate. Most of the applications go into Nafkis. If you’re familiar with that and we are, we send out. Brenda Sheingold: We’ve probably sent out 50 solicitations for different fellowships Brenda Sheingold: just this season alone, which starts in June and runs through September. Brenda Sheingold: So so we’re very active in terms of providing the information and writing the letters. I can tell you. Brenda Sheingold: Write a lot, write a lot of letters. Maria Uriyo: Yes. Maria Uriyo: and. George Mason Online Admissions: Stephanie wants to know how much time have previous students reported dedicating to the coursework each week. That’s a great question. Brenda Sheingold: That’s a good question. Maria Uriyo: I I think, to do a good job in a given class. If you can spend Maria Uriyo: like 6 to 10 h, you know, 6 to 10 HAA week Maria Uriyo: is good. Maria Uriyo: That’s like an hour a day. Maria Uriyo: you know. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s not bad at all. Maria Uriyo: Good Maria Uriyo: but depends how deep and how how dedicated you want to be. It’s all up to you Maria Uriyo: to do a good job. I don’t. Dr. Shango, do you Maria Uriyo: have any. Brenda Sheingold: I think there’s certain classes that you’ll find you need to spend more time in than others. The law class, for example, is not a lot, a lightweight class, and the professors that teach that run it like a law school. So you’re not going to want to go into that class unprepared in any way, nor any class unprepared, but particularly that one. So Brenda Sheingold: that’s something that you should keep in mind. Not all classes were are created equal, just like any like any other program, and some are harder than others, and are going to take more time. And then I see a question here from Tony about Brenda Sheingold: having getting the Mha. And I would say, it depends on the direction you want to go in with your career in social work. If you want to go into more of an administrative operations role with mental health and addiction, then it absolutely makes sense. We have a graduate professional assistant right now in our map clinic Brenda Sheingold: who is working, and they do a lot of addiction and mental health care, and she’s working on all their scheduling and working on the operations end of it, you know, not in the clinical practice arena, but supporting the clinical practice, which is what an Mha. Is designed to do. So I would say, it depends on your career. Goals. Maria Uriyo: So there’s this question about the cost. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I can handle that. So let me get my information whoops. George Mason Online Admissions: So George Mason Online Admissions: I do believe it’s 8, 95 per credit. So when you take into consideration the distance learning fees, the total for your investment for the entire program George Mason Online Admissions: currently stands at $43,770. And so again, this is spread out over the 45. George Mason Online Admissions: Credits. Okay, it’s 15 courses. They’re each 3 credits each. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: And George Mason Online Admissions: there was George Mason Online Admissions: one. I don’t think that we George Mason Online Admissions: spoke about khalil is asking what if any seminars or additional webinars are needed. George Mason Online Admissions: related to coursework before you start classes? George Mason Online Admissions: have you? Have? You have career changers? Right? I mean. So you don’t necessarily. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Have to have. George Mason Online Admissions: Any specific coursework related to this. You’ve had successful career changers. However, I would say it is a competitive program. The Gpa is is important right? So you’re looking for a minimum of a 3.0 Gpa, George Mason Online Admissions: But you all take into consideration you balance the whole person like if they just graduated versus George Mason Online Admissions: if they have 20 years of work, experience. Would that be correct? Maria Uriyo: Yeah, they’re right? Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, they’re very holistic admissions. And we look at the entire person and and like, bring to the table those purpose statements are very important so that we we read all of those, and. George Mason Online Admissions: Hmm. Brenda Sheingold: We consider Brenda Sheingold: the entire person in a holistic way. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah. And George Mason Online Admissions: we have like, say, for example, we do have the option. There’s a Gpa addendum George Mason Online Admissions: that you can explain where you were at when you were going through your undergraduate, and how you’re going to be successful in the program. George Mason Online Admissions: The application fee, Stephanie, is $75. Okay? George Mason Online Admissions: And yeah. Maria Uriyo: They’re asking, is there a difference between state and out of state? Maria Uriyo: I don’t think there is. George Mason Online Admissions: No, there’s not. So when you’re online, if you live 5 min away or across the country, it’s a great thing, because some of there’s a lot of people in Maryland. It doesn’t matter. It’s online, you know. And George Mason Online Admissions: the one thing due to is it cami due to the cami accreditation. You cannot complete this degree George Mason Online Admissions: overseas. Correct. Maria Uriyo: Yes, right. Maria Uriyo: Green. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, right? George Mason Online Admissions: Anything else? George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, we have 2 in the chat. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, yep, yep, we just answered that. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: well, this sounds like such a well-rounded George Mason Online Admissions: program. George Mason Online Admissions: The fact that there’s so many speakers. How many zoom sessions are there with the Congressional policymakers, healthcare policymakers. Brenda Sheingold: They usually plan those in the summer, and they usually have 3. Brenda Sheingold: I haven’t seen more than 3, Brenda Sheingold: but that, that’s usually what they have. But I mean, we, the in the healthcare policy classes. There’s also there’s speakers, and then we bring in other speakers throughout the you know, it just depends on who’s available and what the event is. But for that Speaker series you’re talking about. It’s usually 3 high level policy makers that they that they bring in. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s wonderful! Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, cause we’re cause we’re in administrate as a health administration and policy. So we have a lot of policy faculty embedded in our in our faculty bench. George Mason Online Admissions: Excellent. George Mason Online Admissions: Anything else? George Mason Online Admissions: Hmm! Maria Uriyo: And I’ll say, like, like everybody else, our program is Maria Uriyo: looking at AI and the implications of it so surely as you consider coming to Mason. Know that you will learn about AI, Maria Uriyo: and how you can use it in healthcare. George Mason Online Admissions: Wow! That’s fantastic. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: So I you know, y’all have a statistics course George Mason Online Admissions: that’s in there. And you know there’s lots of people that are really scared of math, and if they’ve never had math before you know there is a Linkedin learning statistics. Would that be something beneficial? I know it’s like free for 30 days and takes, I don’t know. Like 5 h to complete the modules. Would you suggest that as something to encourage people to do? Or what are your thoughts. Maria Uriyo: I would, I mean I would encourage them. Yes, to do it, but I would not let that alone be a barrier to applying and even embarking on taking statistics Maria Uriyo: because we offer. We offer. We have tutors and you know, everything with determination and support and guidance you can overcome. So yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: So I would just say something, maybe, as to make them feel more confident when they take the course. Would that be George Mason Online Admissions: if they’re if they want to. Maria Uriyo: I want to, for sure, because George Mason also is. When you become when you come into Mason you do get access to that Linkedin, learning. It’s available to you as a student. Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, wow! Maria Uriyo: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: Fantastic. Okay. Maria Uriyo: Yeah, so. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonder. Maria Uriyo: Yeah, you can be studying and getting all these different certificates on the side, too. George Mason Online Admissions: I love those badges I’d be like, sign me up, and I’ve got to say healthcare is not going anywhere, and unfortunately the population is aging. So you guys are going into the right field. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Definitely. Yeah. And also, you know, speaking of AI Mason is a tier one research university. We are the largest research institution in Virginia. So that means your curriculum is going to be backed by the latest, you know, research based evidence. So that’s fantastic. George Mason Online Admissions: Okie Dokie. George Mason Online Admissions: So George Mason Online Admissions: any more questions. Now is the time. George Mason Online Admissions: Is there anything else that y’all would like to add? Dr. Sheingold or Dr. Erio. Maria Uriyo: I will just encourage them to apply. Maria Uriyo: Yes. George Mason Online Admissions: Absolutely, absolutely. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: And you know, as an admissions rep representative. I always explain to the applicant that I’m not going to be looking at your applicant, because sometimes they try to sell themselves to me, and I’m like, I’m not George Mason Online Admissions: be looking at your applicant your application. But you know we are sort of the George Mason Online Admissions: we see the gatekeepers is the word I was looking for. So we see what makes a good candidate and what doesn’t. So I’ve got a question. So say, if somebody was really like, this is something I really want to do. George Mason Online Admissions: Maybe a recent graduate not the greatest, you know, whatever. And Gpa, would you. George Mason Online Admissions: There’s always the possibility of taking some non-degree seeking graduate level George Mason Online Admissions: Mha courses to boost their Gpa right? And then maybe apply. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, there’s there’s 2 answers for that one depending on the Gpa. We can admit provisionally. Brenda Sheingold: which gives a semester opportunity to raise your Gpa to a 3.0 with, you know there’s guardrails around that to make sure that that’s accomplished, or you know we have to. You’re not admitted. You’re not really admitted until you meet that requirement. The other way is to do what you suggested, and take non-degree classes to raise your Gpa. And then apply Brenda Sheingold: so that you’re not Brenda Sheingold: throwing away any application fees, or you’re wasting your time applying. But take, we’ll guide you to take the classes that you need Brenda Sheingold: for the Mha. But you take it as a non-degree to help raise your Gpa. And then everything transfers in, because you’ve already taken it at George Mason Brenda Sheingold: towards your Mha. And I. There’s some of the best students we have Brenda Sheingold: something to keep in mind. George Mason Online Admissions: For somebody who is out of state. We have some New Jersey people here. So if it’s so with the online program, you have to be in the program as a whole. George Mason Online Admissions: It’s not like you can take a couple courses here and there. So for people like that, if you can’t come to. George Mason Online Admissions: you know, campus to take some graduate level courses. George Mason Online Admissions: We do accept transfer credits. Right? I think it’s like up to 12. The only caveat to, that is, it would have to be from. Would it have to be from a cami accredited institution in order to transfer and be closely aligned George Mason Online Admissions: with the curriculum. Maria Uriyo: I’m not sure about that. Brenda Sheingold: I’m not sure about the Cami accreditation Brenda Sheingold: piece of that question, but it doesn’t have to align or we can’t accept it. The We we come. We compare the syllabi. We compare the the outcomes and the you know, the deliverables Brenda Sheingold: for classes. And then we make a decision on a case by case basis. Okay. Maria Uriyo: Yeah, yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay. Sounds good. Maria Uriyo: And even if they’ve taken like a master’s degree from Maria Uriyo: graduate level class, let’s say in statistics in another university Maria Uriyo: profile. Maria Uriyo: you know, and they’ve decided to switch gears, and they want to come into the Mha. We’ll look at their statistics class and compare it to our statistics class, for example, yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Excellent. George Mason Online Admissions: So Loretta is asking, do you waive the application fees for disabled veterans and their spouses? George Mason Online Admissions: I wish we did. I don’t believe we do. Maria Uriyo: I can’t answer that question. That’s probably a college. Brenda Sheingold: That’s a student. Affairs question from our Dean of student affairs. Maria Uriyo: Yeah. Maria Uriyo: I can tell you. I always say you can always ask. There’s there’s nothing wrong in asking calling the number and asking, Yeah. George Mason Online Admissions: Absolutely. And and I agree with that. Mason is a yellow ribbon school. So we do have a separate office that handles all of our military applicants or military dependents. So if you plan on using military benefits, we can direct you to specific people with their names and numbers within that office that can assist you with what you’d be, you know, eligible for. But George Mason Online Admissions: you know George Mason Online Admissions: regarding the student. George Mason Online Admissions: application waiver for the veterans. So, student affairs that’s good to know. So yeah, excellent. Brenda Sheingold: We have a lot of navy personnel in our program. George Mason Online Admissions: Really. Brenda Sheingold: Yeah, we do. George Mason Online Admissions: That’s interesting. George Mason Online Admissions: Now, in terms of the demographics of the students. It varies, doesn’t it? Like some of them, are new grads. Some of them have been in the field for a while. Right? Would you say, yeah. Maria Uriyo: Yes, it’s it varies. We have people across the spectrum in terms of age, from like Maria Uriyo: twenties to thirties forties and then Maria Uriyo: approaching 60. So you know, there’s like there’s no end to learning, you know, lifelong learners. So that’s the Maria Uriyo: It’s always good to do that and be like that. Maria Uriyo: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Okey Doke. George Mason Online Admissions: Well, thank you again for spending George Mason Online Admissions: your evening with us and sharing all the great information about this program. George Mason Online Admissions: It really is an awesome program, Dr. Gurio. Thank you. Maria Uriyo: You’re welcome. George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, so George Mason Online Admissions: we’ll go ahead and end it. Maria Uriyo: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: Have a great. Maria Uriyo: Okay. George Mason Online Admissions: It was nice seeing you. Brenda Sheingold: You take. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for joining us. Everyone, everyone take care. Maria Uriyo: Bye. George Mason Online Admissions: Good night.

George Mason Online Admissions: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our virtual open house for the online Master of Science in Computer Science program here at George Mason. We’re very excited to get started. However, we want to give everyone just a few minutes to get logged on and get situated. While we’re waiting, if you would not mind practicing with the chat feature, just let us know if you can hear us clearly by typing in your first name and where you’re joining us from. George Mason Online Admissions: We’re so excited to be here with you tonight. George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful, thanks, Ryan. I was making sure y’all heard me okay. Awesome. Welcome from Berryville, Virginia. I’ll have to look up where Berryville is. Rob Pettit: Where Berryville is, because I’m in Round Hill. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, awesome. George Mason Online Admissions: Awesome. Rob Pettit: From the opposite side of the mountain. George Mason Online Admissions: I’m terrible with geography too. Falls Church, wonderful, awesome. Thank you all. George Mason Online Admissions: We have somebody from Arlington. Welcome, Maria. George Mason Online Admissions: Y’all are awesome. Oh, my screens are sliding around here. George Mason Online Admissions: There we go! Wonderful, wonderful. We’ll give it just a minute or two more to join. I want to be respectful of your time and Dr. Pettit’s time, but just give everybody a chance to hop on. George Mason Online Admissions: Hope everybody’s having a good night. Most of you are from Virginia, so we’re starting to get that fall weather, which is nice. Rob Pettit: Yeah, we were just out west this weekend, and it was really nice. George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, yes. I’m not too much for those 100-degree, 90-degree days. Rob Pettit: No. George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, goodness. All right. Well, we’re a little after seven here. I know we didn’t have a whole lot of people on the roster. A lot of people like to watch the recorded version if they’re not able to join us tonight. So, we’re going to go ahead and get started and be respectful of y’all’s time. I want to thank everyone for joining us this evening. We’re excited to get started. Just to introduce myself, my name is Tabitha, and I’m an admissions representative on behalf of George Mason for the MSCS program. I’m here as a resource to give information, answer any questions you might have, and walk you through the admissions application process. If it’s something you decide to move forward with, or if you’ve already started the process, I can help you with that. George Mason Online Admissions: I’m going to go ahead with the agenda next. We do have a special guest with us. So, just to go over the agenda, we will be meeting our presenter, Dr. Rob Pettit, who will share some valuable information on the program with you. You’ll find out why you should choose GMU’s Computer Science degree, take a closer look at the curriculum, and learn about career opportunities. In addition to that, we’re going to learn about the admissions requirements and end with a Q&A session. I highly encourage your participation and appreciate you being here. These are my favorite nights where you get to really learn about the program and ask the experts. We, as admissions representatives, know a lot, but you ask some questions that we are just not sure about, so the expert is here tonight for you. Feel free to put them in the Q&A, and we will address those at the end. George Mason Online Admissions: Sorry, my mouse is just jumping around tonight. I just want to go over a few housekeeping rules here. Feel free to use the Q&A box to ask your questions during the session. That’s what it’s here for. We’d love to get those answered. You are welcome to raise your hand if you have a question as well and use the chat box if you would like to. It’s there. Y’all know how to use it. Y’all are the experts here. I love getting to host this one because you all know what you’re doing more than I do. Without further ado, I’d like to introduce our special guest tonight. George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Rob Pettit, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I’m going to go ahead and hand it over to you. Rob Pettit: All right. Welcome, everybody, and thank you, Tabitha. I am Rob Pettit, the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies at George Mason’s Computer Science Department. I’m also the Program Director of our online MSCS program. Beyond that, this is now my fun job. I retired in 2021 after 30 years in the aerospace industry as a practicing software engineer. I’ve taught for years as an adjunct, and this is what I vowed to do at this stage. I’m also pretty partial to George Mason. I have my master’s and PhD from George Mason—master’s in software engineering, PhD in computer science. As of this coming May, we’ll have five Mason degrees in the family. I keep joking, “Buy five, get the sixth free.” Hasn’t happened yet, but I can keep trying. Rob Pettit: So, I am well-versed in George Mason as a student and a professor. Welcome, everybody. I really appreciate you joining us and your interest. I’ll talk a little bit about our program. Rob Pettit: In terms of our online program, there are some things that set us apart from other online programs. Ours is relatively new. I forget exactly which year we started, but shortly after I joined Mason, we ramped up this online version of our Master of Science in Computer Science. If you’ve shopped around, you’ve probably seen various modalities and methodologies for approaching online MSCS programs. A few things were really big sticking points for us that we wanted to maintain. One is that the courses we offer are a subset of the vast number of courses we have in Fairfax. These are the same courses, the same materials, the same syllabi. They are developed and taught by our own George Mason professors. The content is the same, the admissions criteria are the same, and you are getting the same MSCS degree. Rob Pettit: Another point is class sizes. Other schools may put a thousand people into one class and make it self-paced. Ours are not like that. The most you’ll see in one of our online courses is capped at roughly 100, and most are not that high. Professors, not GTAs, teach the classes. You don’t have to sit through a 100-minute lecture; our courses have 15-20 minute segments with other materials and recorded office hours. This really sets us apart from other programs. Rob Pettit: George Mason’s Computer Science program is the largest in Virginia and one of the largest in the country. According to US News and World Report, we’re in the top 65 for best computer science schools. On CSRankings.org, which uses objective metrics, we’re ranked around 31-32. This is a very strong, well-respected program. Rob Pettit: Regarding the curriculum, the online MSCS program requires 30 credits or 10 classes. Twelve credits come from theoretical computer science courses, such as Mathematical Foundations, Algorithms, Systems, and Intro to AI. Four advanced courses are required from areas like Software Engineering, Web User Interfaces, Software Testing, and Computer Vision. Electives include Systems and Networking, Databases, Visual Computing, and more. We continue to expand our online course offerings and refresh existing courses as needed. Rob Pettit: In terms of outcomes, computer science careers pay well. Nationwide averages for MSCS positions are over $200,000. In Northern Virginia, salaries are often higher. This region is ranked second in the world for tech jobs, and approximately 90% of the internet runs through Loudoun County’s data centers. Even with a fluctuating job market, there’s no end in sight for growth in computer science careers. Rob Pettit: Admission requirements include a bachelor’s degree, preferably in computer science, with prerequisites in areas like data structures, automata theory, and calculus. Applicants need transcripts, a personal statement, and a current resume. Letters of recommendation are no longer required. The online program has the same standards as the on-campus program, and students can switch between them if desired. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for explaining that. Our team is here to help with the application process. Spring and fall applications are open, and we’re ready to assist you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask now. Audience Question: Can you take classes from different focus areas to complete the last six credits? Rob Pettit: Yes, you can choose electives from any focus area. Audience Question: Can work experience substitute a prerequisite? Rob Pettit: No. Prerequisites must come from an accredited university to maintain academic standards. Audience Question: If someone needs one prerequisite, can they take it at George Mason? Rob Pettit: Yes. U.S. citizens may receive provisional admission with a stipulation to complete prerequisites. International students must meet all requirements upfront. George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for your time tonight, Dr. Pettit. If anyone has additional questions, please contact us. Have a great evening!