MA Leadership Program Improvements

Earlier, the MA Leadership team announced its decision to reduce the number of trips students will be required to make to Trinity Western University’s main campus in Langley, BC. Starting with the new cohorts in the summer of 2010, MA Leadership incoming students will travel to campus only twice -- during each of their first two summers in the program. To accommodate this adjustment, LDRS 504 – Leadership, Values, and Ethics will be offered as an inspiring online course beginning in the summer of 2011.

The goal of the MA Leadership Team was to preserve the interactive and experiential learning that occurs in the face-2-face summer courses, which is essential for building relationship foundations between students and faculty, while remaining sensitive to the financial difficulties many are facing during the current economic climate.  “The advantage of converting the 504 course to an online course is that it will make it easier for people to enter the program and complete it (by reducing the number of summers that students need to be on campus),” says LDRS 504 professor Randy Wollf.  He further notes, “I think that reducing the number of summers that MA Leadership students must be on campus will make the program more attractive to prospective students and more manageable for existing students. This is positive.”

The change does not come without challenges. Wollf notes, “The on-site 504 course is highly interactive with lots of partner and small group work. It will be challenging to replicate this kind of dynamic interaction in an online format.”  Still, Wollf is confident of the positive aspect of online learning in the MA Leadership program: “I anticipate that some in the class will find it easier to contribute their ideas in an online version of the class, as is often the case with online courses.” 

Another change in the MA Leadership this summer relates to cohort timing for incoming students. Many students have had difficulty in past years attending the May cohort due to work or family obligations.  In summer 2010, first year students will have the option of attending LDRS 500 - Leadership Foundations and LDRS 501 - Strategic Leadership from either July 5th - 30th or August 2nd to 27th.  It is hoped that the change will enable students in specific streams, like education and business, to take advantage of a natural break in their work year and a slower time for the fiscal calendar.

For more information please write to MA Leadership Operations Coordinator Lydia Liu (Lydia.Liu@twu.ca).