They are selected under the direction of the Advisory Committee and may be taken from any department in the university subject to the approval of the student's Advisory Committee. These 12-credit hours should be either to augment the student's general knowledge or to reinforce and expand the area of specialization. The following are examples of electives that support this degree. However, students are encouraged to build professional experiences into their program that will involve them in either field-based research projects or internships in areas of the field in which they have no or limited experiences. Internships may be either to learn about a new area of the field or as a capstone to apply knowledge and skills learned during the program.
Internships tend to be in the areas of teaching, program planning, research, or administration.
The 6-credit hours of fieldwork may be completed with directed independent study under HRAE 6340 and internships under HRAE 6880. Admission to Program Education is a professional field of practice. Consequently, the criteria for admission consist of several indicators of the ability to be a successful reflective practitioner. These indicators consist of experience in the field, innate academic ability, level of written expression, recommendations of others, and focused professional goals. While each indicator has a level that is reflective of past graduates of the program, the indicators interact with each other to form an effective reflective practitioner.