Structure of this Text

Information in this text falls into three main categories:

1. Background information
2. Investigations and considerations for planning your SUNY Empire State College degree
3. Competencies that support academic and professional work, as well as educational planning

Part 1: Background Information

This portion of the text includes information on how to use this text, what educational planning encompasses, and resources that support educational planning.  It includes the following sections:

• Introduction to ESC’s Educational Planning
• Resources & Tools for Educational Planning

Part 2: Investigations & Considerations for Educational Planning at ESC

This portion of the text brings you to all of the different aspects you’ll need to consider as you plan your ESC degree.  What’s the difference between an associate and bachelor’s degree?  Do you want a degree in a specific field, and if so, what’s involved in study in that field—what skills and knowledge will you be expected to have gained with this type of degree?  Do you want to pursue credit through ESC’s process of prior learning assessment, and if so, what’s involved in that?  These are just a few of the many things to consider, and the many questions to ask and answer, as you plan your degree.  You may find that planning is not always a linear process and that you circle back to certain questions and investigations as you proceed; however, there’s beauty in the flexibility of the planning process. This flexibility enables you to design a degree suited to your individual interests and needs and is respectful of the knowledge you already bring to your degree.

Sections and pages within this part of the text, as well as Part 1: Background Information, will be assigned reading as part of your Educational Planning course. Some information may provide the basis for course discussions, while other information offers things you need to consider and enact in order to plan your degree.

This part of the text includes the following sections:

• Personal Considerations: Goals & Contexts
• Academic Expectations
• Professional Expectations
• Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)
• Degree Plan
• Rationale Essay
• Next Steps for the DP & Rationale Essay: Academic Review

Part 3: Competencies that Support Academic and Professional Work

This part of the text offers information about competencies that are important for all aspects of life.  As the nature of work has become more fast-paced and variable—with continual changes in technology, processes, and information—employers have started to focus on overarching skills and characteristics that enable workers to succeed in any workplace, regardless of the type and content of the work.  Employers now want employees who can adapt to change, work effectively with a variety of other employees, communicate effectively, and offer creative insights while sticking to the work at hand.  Inherent in all of these competencies is the ability to learn throughout life.  These competencies bridge work, life, and academic work; note their similarities with ESC’s Learning Goals:

ESC Learning Goals

• Active Learning: Assess and build upon previous learning and experiences to pursue new learning, independently and in collaboration with others.
• Breadth and Depth of Knowledge: Cultivate a broad, interdisciplinary understanding in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as expertise in a particular field.
• Social Responsibility: Engage in ethical reasoning, and reflect on issues such as democratic citizenship, diversity, social justice and environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.
• Communication: Express and receive ideas effectively, in multiple contexts and through multiple strategies.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Evaluate, analyze, synthesize and critique key concepts and experiences, and apply diverse perspectives to find creative solutions to problems concerning human behavior, society and the natural world.
• Quantitative Literacy: Read, interpret, use and present quantitative information effectively.
• Information and Digital Media Literacy: Critically access, evaluate, understand, create and share information using a range of collaborative technologies to advance learning, as well as personal and professional development.

Competencies included in this section of the text:

• Learning Engagement
• Research
• Collaboration & Teamwork
• Critical, Lateral, & Creative Thinking
• Communication
• Quantitative Literacy
• Resiliency
• Quality & Integrity

All of the pages in this part of the text include learning activities related to the various competencies.  As you plan your degree, you may be asked to incorporate some of these learning activities as assigned coursework, depending on the number of credits and course level of your particular educational planning study.

Navigating this Text

The main page of the text – the Table of Contents – contains a link to each page of the text.

If you want to read all of the pages within a section, go to the section heading and then keep clicking the “next” button at the bottom to get to the next page. (There’s also a “previous” button at the bottom of the page.)

You’ll know what section you’re in by looking under the OER services logo at the top of the page; the sample below shows that you’re in the section “Learning Engagement.”