Variety and Flexibility in the iSchool’s Spring 2016 Course Schedule

iStudent Blog

Published: October 21, 2015

The end of the year is fast approaching, and the only thing more exciting than planning your holiday gift wish list is—you guessed it!—planning for and enrolling in your next semester courses at the iSchool. I love, love, love flicking through course titles, syllabi, bios for course instructors and the Career Pathway pages to shape and mold what my degree and my future (especially the next semester) will look like.

This semester, as I look at my completed coursework, the classes I’m still required to take and the courses I really should take, I’m coming to the alarming conclusion that I’m going to graduate sooner than I thought. And with so many amazing courses still dangling out there like jewels on the horizon! More! I want to take more than my 43 units! Alas, they won’t let you, and so I need to plan even more carefully and be shrewd about how I spend my remaining units. There is, however, a PhD program to consider. Or if that’s too daunting a proposition there are also open classes and the Post-Master’s Certificate program.

Planning for Enrollment
Enrollment appointments for regular session begin on November 3, 2015, while special session enrollment begins on November 11, 2015. For updates and more technical details, be sure to follow Dr. Main’s Curriculum Center blog.

Your core courses, Info 200, Info 202 and Info 204, are all prerequisites for your other courses, but once you’ve completed those you can really begin to shape your degree and take just about anything you want. The iSchool’s Career Pathway pages and Career Environment pages can help you customize your degree based on your interests and desired area of employment. Besides the core courses, you are also required to take Info 285: Research Methods, offered in a variety of topics, and either Info 298: E-portfolio or Info 299: Thesis

A Wide Variety of Topics
Special Session spring semester is offering a variety of courses for a whole range of interests, whether you’re into children, technology, medicine or management. Topics for Info 220: Resources and Information Services in Professions and Disciplines include medical librarianship, digital humanities, and data services in libraries.

For those interested in youth services, Dr. Wrenn-Estes will be offering a Info 267: Seminar in Intellectual Freedom for Young Adults, and Dr. Higgins will be offering Info 271: Genre and Topics in Youth Literature: Emerging Trends in Literature for Children and Young Adults.

If you want to dig deeper into technology and computer programming, the topics being offered for Info 246: Information Technology Tools and Applications—Advanced include JavaScript/jQuery, Information Visualization, and Learning to Use Drupal and Understanding Content Management Systems.

MARA students will have the option to take MARA 284: Seminar in Archives and Records Management on the topic of information assurance, taught by Dr. Daulby.

Regular session topics in Info 285: Research Methods include survey research and a general overview course about research methods—great for the generalist. MARA professor Dr. Franks will be teaching a Info 284: Seminar in Enterprise Content Management and Digital Preservation, and Dr. Main and Dr. Hansen will teach Info 280: History of Books and Libraries.

Variety in Course Structure, Too
As always, the iSchool is giving you options—three-unit options, one- and two-unit options, and intensive courses. Some of the one-unit course offerings for spring Special Session include several topics for Info 281, like Marketing Your LIS Skills in a Networked and Changing World. Dr. Maret will be teaching two one-unit courses—Information Ethics, Information Integrity and Digital Copyright. There’s also a one-unit Info 282: Leadership course. If intensive is the way you want to go, Info 285: Research Methods on action research is being taught by Dr. Jefferson.

For Regular Session, a few one- and two-unit Info 210 courses are being offered by Dr. Tunon, including Reference Collections in the 21st Century (a one-unit course) and Reference in the Age of Google (a two-unit course).

Much more of this is listed on the iSchool website, but here you have a taste of topics and flexible scheduling for all your graduate school wishes, desires and requirements. Here’s hoping Santa will offer me as much variety!

For more great reading, check out these posts:
Highlights of the Fall 2015 Director’s Forum
Core Competencies at the iSchool Build the Foundation for a Successful Career
Get a Head Start or a Sneak Peek at the SJSU iSchool with Open Classes

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