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Online MPA Courses

Curriculum Details

  • 11 Courses
  • 33 Credits
  • 8-Week Course Sessions

In the Master of Public Administration online curriculum, you’ll build the core competencies essential to effective public leadership, including policy evaluation, public budgeting, strategic decision-making and navigating complex organizational challenges. Beyond theory and knowledge building, the program prioritizes meaningful community engagement, giving you opportunities to apply what you learn in practical, people-focused settings.

If you need to gain management experience, you’ll be able to complete an internship at a site convenient to you, with assistance from the Office of Career Services.

By taking accelerated eight-week courses and studying part-time, many students complete the online MPA in approximately 18 months. If you study full-time, you can graduate in as few as 12 months.

Foundation

Credits

This MPA foundation course introduces students to the basics of governance in the American context. It explores the civic foundations of American democracy; the roles and functions of the public, nonprofit and private sectors in American society; the relationship of politics with policy; the principles of public service; and the ways in which governance can be performed to advance the interests of underserved and disempowered communities. Because Public Administration is a highly interdisciplinary field, this course assumes only a basic understanding of civics and builds upon that for public and nonprofit administrators. Further, this course introduces the concepts and some skills for effectively engaging with communities and identifying tools for civic empowerment. This course establishes the community engagement and empowerment ethos of the Master of Public Administration at Delaware State University.

This MPA foundation course serves as both an introduction to and an extension of research methods skills for graduate students in public and nonprofit administration. The tools for acquiring and developing information and knowledge to inform decision making are vital to good stewardship of public resources and service of the public good. Rather than train students on all quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, this course will help the student understand what types of methodologies are available, their appropriate uses, how to interpret data and analysis, and how to recognize high-quality research. Later courses will build on these skills for application to community, managerial and policy research. Additionally, the course will examine the responsibility of administrators to make the best use of data, information and research in an era when technological advancements can provide more information than ever before.
This MPA foundation course is designed to provide students with the theoretical background as well as practical skills for leadership development in the public, nonprofit and community settings. This course helps students develop leadership capacities within themselves, then provides them with the tools for identifying and nurturing the leadership capacities of others in the public or nonprofit sectors, community organizations and individual community members. Students will identify their own leadership strengths and will build upon them through application-based exercises and projects. Credits, three hours.
This is a foundation course for students in the Master of Public Administration program. This course is designed to offer students a basic as well as applied knowledge of economic principles as they relate to the field of Public Administration. Basic economic principles will be the foundation of this course, and areas of agreement and contention will be presented and built upon so students are able to identify the economic intricacies of the community, nonprofit and policy problems they seek to impact. Credits, three hours.

MPA Core Courses

Credits

This is an MPA core course in which students learn the history of Public Administration and the evolution of the discipline before exploring the context in which students can expect to serve as public administrators. A key to understanding context is the ability to trace the history of how those contexts came about. In this course, students will become familiar with American policy history, the history of nonprofits, and urban history. This course will build the skill of identifying salient and relevant characteristics of the communities they seek to engage and serve. Finally, students will develop a profile of a policy, nonprofit, community, or issue of their choosing.
In this MPA core course, students learn the specific steps and practice of performing policy analysis and program evaluation. These skills, which are necessary for public administrators, will be built over the course of the term by building each component of an effective analysis. This course builds on the skills developed in Research Methods by applying them specifically to public, nonprofit and community problems similar to those they can expect to encounter in their careers.
In this MPA core course, students develop the practical skills associated with managing public and nonprofit funds. It acquaints students with the economic and political implications, processes, data systems and techniques for effective administration of budgeting and finance in the public and non-profit settings.
This MPA core course introduces students to the uses and applications of advancing technology in public and nonprofit administration as well as community engagement. It begins by exploring the ways in which governance and Public Administration were and are impacted by the rise of information technology broadly and explores the implications for these impacts on students’ careers as public administrators. It explores some of the ways technology has been leveraged by the public and nonprofit sectors for understanding and responding to challenges as well as empowering communities. Further, students are exposed to some of the more common software packages they will encounter throughout their careers.
This MPA core course teaches Public Administration students about the methods and practices of organizational management through strategic performance management systems in governmental, nonprofit and community organizations. This course emphasizes the application of a number of management systems to for the purposes of organizational management and community empowerment. Students will examine real-world situations and events through the use of case study analyses. The student will learn about these systems and demonstrate their understanding by developing a plan for an organization or community of their choosing.

In this MPA core course, MPA students are exposed to Strategic Human Resources Management, the legal intricacies of HR, methods for successfully identifying job functions, recruiting, compensating, retaining, evaluating and managing staff within public and nonprofit organizations to accomplish strategic organizational goals. This course establishes and builds students’ working knowledge with an emphasis on how the public and nonprofit sectors differ from the private sector and each other. Students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge through application of course content to an organization or case study.

Capstone

Credits

In this final MPA course, MPA students demonstrate their mastery of program material. The Graduate Project is an applied policy analysis or program evaluation and plan to be completed over the duration of a full semester. It requires students to relate theory to practice in a real-world, experiential study. The policy focus of the project and the relevant level of government, nonprofit or community organization will be selected by the student and instructor together at the conclusion of the student’s foundation courses. This will relate to the student’s academic and career interests and wherever possible will engage with community stakeholder needs. The policy plan involves the review of a policy issue or program, its relevant history, an analysis plan, a full analysis complete with recommendations and a plan for implementation. The Graduate Project culminates with the submission of a written document as well as a presentation before a graduate committee.

Internship

Credits

The Internship is a special MPA core course required for students who do not have 3 to 5 years of professional management experience upon applying to the MPA Program. In this course, students will spend 90 hours with a host organization in the public or nonprofit sector over the course of a full semester. Placement details are established before the start of the semester with the instructor and students will be expected to reflect on their experience periodically through written assignments. Students are expected to learn from and contribute their developing MPA skills to the organization of their placement.

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