Course Requirements
Following is a discussion of the course requirements of the OTD specialization. The Regular option of the specialization is comprised of a University Core, OTD Professional Sequence, Occupational Training and Work Experience. The Capstone option has the same four major components, but with an additional 11 semester hour Capstone Component. Both options require 120 semester hours for graduation. Illustrations of the Regular and Capstone options of the OTD specialization appear in the "General Information" section of the OTD homepage.
University Core
The University requires 39 credit hours of coursework distributed across three general areas. University Core requirements for both the Regular and Capstone options may be found at the Core Curriculum website.
Recommended Professional Sequence
The OTD Recommended Professional Sequence requires 36 semester hours for completion. Following is the list of recommended professional sequence courses.
- WED 381-3 Technical Communication
- WED 382-3 Developing Your Career
- WED 460-3 Occupational Analysis and Curriculum Development
- WED 461-3 Workforce Education Needs Assessment
- WED 462-3 Instructional Methods and Materials
- WED 463-3 Assessment of Learner Performance
- WED 465-3 The Human Resource Specialist
- WED 466-3 Foundations of Work Education
- WED 468-3 Education/Labor Force Linkages
- WED 469-3 Training Systems Management
- WED 486-3 Adult Learning
- WED 498-3 Special Problems
Occupational Training
Occupational training includes all formalized instruction beyond high school that prepares individuals for employment. The training can have been earned at accredited two- and four-year educational institutions; corporate, apprenticeship, proprietary, government, military and volunteer organizations; non-accredited post-secondary technical institutions; or a combination thereof. The amount of credit to be awarded is determined by a departmental assessment of the student’s occupational training record. The credit will be awarded once the student has completed 12 semester hours of WED coursework with a 2.0 or better GPA. A student must be able to document 27 semester hours of credit (1700 clockhours) to meet the occupational training requirement.
Professional credit earned at SIUC, transfer credit earned at other accredited four-year educational institutions, or technical credit transferred from accredited two-year educational institutions can be used to meet the occupational training requirement. Also, training received from non-accredited organizations will be recognized and credit awarded by way of WED 259* or WED 359.
WED 359 - Occupational Training
Training offered by each of the aforementioned "other-than-education" organizations must be recognized by an outside professional association(s) or accrediting body or bodies.
The criteria for awarding WED 359 credit are as follows:
- Minimum requirement: 27 semester hours of credit.
- Maximum award: All recognized, non-transferable, occupational training can be awarded WED 359 credit.
- Occupational training must correspond with the student’s work experience.
- WED 359 training can be documented by transcripts and/or certificates from the organization responsible for the training. The transcripts and/or certificates must include the total number of clock hours of training.
- The ratio of 50 clock hours of training to one semester hour of academic credit is used to compute the amount of WED 359 credit to be awarded. For example, to earn 27 semester hours of WED 359 occupational training credit, the student must document 1700 clock hours of training.
- Documentation of WED 359 occupational training credit is submitted to the "Records and Registration" section of the SIUC Registrar’s Office for posting on the student’s transcript.
- Credit awarded for WED 359 will satisfy the SIUC Senior Institution requirement.
WED 359 training can be documented by transcripts and/or certificates from the organization responsible for the training. The transcripts/certificates must include the total number of clockhours of training. The ratio of 50 clockhours of training to one semester hour of academic credit is used to compute the amount of WED 359 credit to be awarded. For example, to earn 27 semester hours of WED 359 credit, the student must document 1700 clockhours of training.
Once the documentation of occupational training has been submitted to the OTD Coordinator, the original "WED 359 Credit Award Form" is submitted to the "Records and Registration" area of the SIUC Registrar’s Office for posting on the student’s transcript. One copy of the "Credit Award Form" and accompanying documentation of training is sent to the SOE Advisement Office to be placed in the student’s file. An second copy of the advisement form and documentation are placed in the student’s WED file. A third copy of the "WED 359 Credit Award Form" and the original documentation are sent to the student for their records.