This 12-credit graduate certificate prepares current or aspiring college instructors to design and deliver teaching in college classrooms, laboratories, and community education settings, offering courses on adult learning theory as well as effective and inclusive instructional design.

• Identify learning theories specific to adult learners.
• Critically analyze strategies for effective, inclusive, and equitable teaching.
• Apply theory and best practices to design post-secondary curricula and related evaluations for adult learning settings such as coursework, labs and workshops.

Course Requirements

Three required courses and a fourth course selected from a menu of options that allow learners the flexibility to tailor their learning to best meet their career goals. Courses are offered in the evenings, typically once a week and in varied formats (online synchronous, in person at the URI Kingston campus, hybrid).

 3 Required Courses*

• EDC 582: Instructional Design or EDC 513: College Teaching Toolkit
• EDC 584: The Adult and the Learning Process
• EDC 664: Equity & Inclusion in College Teaching

*Anyone who has already taken these required courses can select from other education classes to fulfill the required course sequence. Students will work with advisors to determine the best substitution courses.

Pathways for the 4th Course

The three potential pathways include: 1) an additional education course best aligned with the student’s interest; 2) a discipline-specific course that prepares students for teaching in a particular field; or 3) a supervised practicum/field study and seminar where students gain experience and expert feedback on their instructional design and delivery – ideal for those without teaching experience.

Pathway 1: Education Courses

• EDC 500: Foundations of Adult Education
• EDC 504: Adult Basic Education
• EDC 511: Critical Dialogues on Race in Postsecondary Education
• EDC 520: Translanguaging Pedagogy
• EDC 557: Developing and Delivering Effective Presentations
• EDC 665: Social Justice in Higher Education
• EDC 572: Higher Education Environments
• EDP 660: Critical & Sociocultural Lenses on Language & Education
• EDP 609: Critical Paradigms and Justice in Education
• Additional graduate level education course approved by major professor and certificate coordinator

Pathway 2: Discipline-Specific Courses

• CHM 561: Understanding Complexities of Chemistry/STEM Learning (3 cr)
• COM 503: Graduate Practicum Teaching Communication Seminar (1 cr) Note: must be taken for a total of three credits
• Other discipline/field specific courses as approved by the certificate coordinator and major professor

Pathway 3: Education Practicum/Field Study & Seminar

• EDC 575: Supervised Field Study/Practicum and Seminar in Education
• EDC 553: Higher Education Practicum

Admission Information
Current URI graduate students can add the certificate to their primary degree program by filling out the following form: “Request to Change or Add a Graduate Degree Program.” (See graduate school website forms page–all degrees tab)

Not a URI Student?
Individuals who have earned, or are currently enrolled in a master’s or doctoral degree program outside of URI, can apply for admission to the certificate through the URI graduate school.

For more information, contact Vanessa Lombardi, graduate coordinator, at vlombardi@uri.edu