Community Development Online Master's Degree Program

This is a program of the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA).

The Community Development Online Master's Degree program is one of the fastest growing programs with fifty-four students. During April, this program received two awards. On April 18,2008, the program received the Points of Presence Award at the IACON Conference held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This award is given to individuals or organizations for specific outstanding distance programs and initiatives serving learners.

The Community Development program also won the 2008 Innovative Program Award form the Community Development Society, a national organization. This award was presented to a Community Development Society member or a group in recognition of a superior innovative program using the principles of good practice as adopted by the Society.

The program involves five participating universities: Iowa State University, Kansas State University, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and it is a program of the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA).

Students in the program take a series of required core courses and choose electives from three specialization tracks; six hours are dedicated to the students’ capstone experience. The specialization tracks include Building Economic Capacity, Natural Resource Management, Working with Native Communities and Non-Profit Management.

This cutting edge, trans-disciplinary, inter-institutional program has been a major success since it started. To find out more information about the online community development master’s degree program, please visit: Community Development Information.

Core Courses (required for everyone):

• Orientation to Community Development
• Community Development I: Principles and Strategies of Community Change
• Community Development II: Organizing for Community Change
• Community Analysis (Introduction to Methods)
• Community and Natural Resource Management
• Community and Regional Economic Analysis

Elective Tracks:

• Working with Native Communities
• Building Economic Capacity
• Natural Resource Management
• Non-Profit Management

For more information contact:

Cornelia Flora, Professor
107 Curtiss Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011
(515) 294-1329 or e-mail: cflora@iastate.edu

Admission Information:

View the Admission Information to see how easy it is to apply!