Virtual Open House Master of Education in Special Education – Autism Spectrum Disorders Transcript

Jodi Duke: Thank you all so much for coming. I recognize one of the names there, someone I’ve been chatting with about this program, so, I’m Jody Duke. I’m going to be, showing some slides while I talk this evening, and talking about our, autism spectrum disorders program at George Mason University. So, I will do a little presentation. You’re welcome to put questions in the chat as I talk, and I’ll try to monitor those and stop, or if it’s easier for you, at the end, we’ll leave time for questions as well. So, let’s jump in. This is the agenda. Anytime you take a course with us, we always like to tell you what’s coming. It’s easier to plan and be ready to think, so I’ll introduce myself, and then we’ll talk a little bit about George Mason University, and then dig a little bit into the program. I’ll show you some details of what our online classroom will look like, and then at the end, we’ll do admissions and next steps, Which, Matthew, I may need some of your help with, because I’m less well-versed in that. But between us, we will handle that. And then we’ll do a Q&A at the end. All right, I already said this, but lots of ways for you to participate tonight, even though this is a webinar format. So, in your controls, in your window, you should see a chat icon. Please feel free to message us in there. You can select one of us or the other, but just put it to both of us, and I’ll be handling questions. You can also raise your hand. And, then I’ll be happy to call on you if you prefer to ask your question verbally. At the end, I’ll take questions. You should see a Q&A in your control box. You’re welcome to put your questions either in the Q&A or in the chat. I’ll read both of them, so whatever’s easiest for you. The goal is to get all the information to you tonight. So this is me. I am Jody Duke. I am the Associate Professor of special education at George Mason University, and I’m the academic program coordinator for our autism program. I just got a little plaque. I celebrated 15 years I’ve been at Mason, which is a long time, and I’m… just love working and running this program. as we talk through the content, you’ll see I get very excited about all things related to autism and education. So, it is exciting for me to be able to be a part of this. So, what makes us special at George Mason University? First of all, we have a part-time format, which I think is really helpful for graduate students. It allows you to carry on with your life, in work, in family, whatever your obligations are, and yet, even though it’s part-time, we like to talk about our high-quality, immersive student experience. You’ll see when I explain a few of the details of our course work and specifics about our program, that we have really worked hard in designing this program to make it something that you are going to come in and learn the foundational skills and knowledge, but also leave with the practical skills that you need for the real world. Our goal is to prepare you to work with autistic people of all ages in a variety of settings, whatever your professional is. So, it’s really important to know that even though we’re within the special education program, this program itself is not a school-based program. So, we’re going to be teaching you skills for all kinds of different fields with autistic people. That might be early childhood, that might be adult services. We have a lot of people who run coaching companies, we have a lot of people who work in, neurodiversity initiatives in their, in their, work environments. So, a real range that, that you’ll be equipped for. when you, are applying, you’ll see you can opt either for the graduate certificate track or the master’s, but, we have two programs. We have a behavior analysis and an autism spectrum disorder. Tonight, I’m only talking about the autism program. The APC for the BA program does her separate event because they’re so different. Our program is ranked number 7 for Best Online Special Ed Programs by U.S. News & World Report, which we’re very proud of. And, we really… I mentioned this already, but a unique and innovative approach to inclusive education. We really are designing programs throughout, our Department of Special Education. to benefit learners with disabilities throughout their entire lives. And I think this is one of the things that sets Mason’s autism program apart from others, is our lifespan focus. So we will talk about early childhood all the way through aging, and specific resources, supports, best practices for each of those, phases of life. And I haven’t seen a lot of other programs do that, so that makes us very special. Alright, I know I talk fast, so I’m gonna take a breath here. This is our curriculum. When you come into the program, you will take, core courses if you’re doing the master’s program, and if… as well as the autism track. If you opt to just do the certificate, you will just take these courses within the autism track. I’m gonna just take a moment to talk about all of these courses and give you a little synopsis of each, so you can get a sense of which curriculum is better for you. In the master’s core courses, you do an introduction to special education. If you are interested in working in any kind of school environment, our program isn’t a licensure-based program. In Virginia, there is no licensure specific to autism. But, you might want to work as a different kind of professional in the school setting. Even if you don’t choose to go into a school setting, we think that that intro to Special special ed is really valuable, because it’s going to give you a sense of, of the U.S. law surrounding disability, as well as the different eligibility categories for disability. So we’re trying to give you a really nice full picture of, Of special education in general. The other courses you’ll take, 517 is one of everyone’s favorites. This is called Computer Applications for Special Populations, and you will learn about all kinds of low-tech and high-tech options to support autistic individuals. So, this is everything from a simple picture board that you might print out and have people point to, all the way to iPad technology and even voice output technology, which is really critical in our field. You will get, really a nice overview of all of these, and you’ll do some project-based learning in that class. And then the final master’s core course is EDSE 590, and that’s our special education research course. And in that course, you are going to learn some of the basics of how to ask a question and collect data on it. I think this is a great intro course for a variety of fields that you might choose to work in, because it will give you the tools that you need to study a problem in whatever setting you end up in. Then we turn to the autism track, which is what you’re really here for, and we are so proud of the track that we’ve put together. I’m gonna, go through these in order of how you would take the courses, which I’m noticing I should change this chart, because EDSE 634 comes first. That’s our characteristics of individuals with autism, and think of it like your intro course to autism. Dr. Lynn Jorgensen, who I’ll highlight our faculty in a moment, she teaches this course, and it is a great examination of all things autism. So, we do go through some of the diagnostic pieces of the DSM-5 and what are the characteristics of someone with autism. We talk about the three levels of autism diagnosis in here. But we try to balance that out with a really neuro-affirming approach to what are some of the strengths and, you know, really gifts, even, of people who are autistic. So, we’re really trying to balance out that medical model with some of the social model of autism. You will do some cool assignments in this course. My favorite is a media analysis, where you will choose a book, and we have just updated that list this week, actually, with some really great new choices. But reading a book of your choosing that includes and features an autistic character, and you’ll do some analysis and small group discussion in there. So the goal of 634 is that you leave with a really comprehensive understanding of what autism looks like, and knowing that it looks different in every person that you’re gonna meet, but what are some of the things that you might look for? Then you come to me. I teach EDSE 620. I’m engaged in this course right now. It is my absolute favorite, supporting the behavior and sensory needs of individuals with autism. This course, we break down all things behavior and look at how we can support and really improve the quality of life of all kinds of autistic people by examining behavior and deciding whether or not it needs to be intervened with or not. If it does merit attention, then how can we do a very neuro-affirming approach to intervention? And so, this is a really balanced look at behavior, where we talk about what the function of behavior is, what is the person trying to communicate through their behavior, and then what supports might be beneficial. A key feature of this course that’s also very special is that we dig into the sensory overview and the sensory profile of an autistic person, and the importance of that sensory profile and in the role it plays in the person’s behavior and communication. And so that is really how the person is managing themselves and regulating themselves in all parts of life. And sensory, I think, is such a key aspect to the autistic world. And so, we’ll do a lot of work in that course examining that. Then you go to 636, which is a wonderful course Dr. Francis, one of my colleagues, teaches on supporting communication and literacy for autistic individuals. And this one is wonderful because you do a little bit of follow-up on what you learned in EDSE 517 with the technology pieces, so you will examine some of the technology for communication, but also best practices for encouraging literacy. One of the things we know about autism is that autistic people are often really good at decoding text, but struggle to comprehend and make meaning of text, so we dig into that, as well as encouraging how we work on writing and presentation of thoughts through writing and speaking. So that’s a wonderful course as well. EDSE 635, you come back to me for the second course that I teach in the program, which is on intervention. And in this course, we go through, evidence-based practices, what are they, how do we critically analyze them, and then each week, we look at a different domain and a different evidence-based practice for that domain. For example, in looking at academics, we might be looking at something about, organization and executive functioning related to that. In looking at, some of the early childhood issues, we talk about floor time and some of the, some of the work that can be done with really little autistic kids. So, that’s a great course because I like to tell students, you’re going to fill your toolbox there. You’re gonna leave with a whole toolbox full of tools to use with a variety of folks. The last two courses in the course, 637, is our collaboration, and that’s the one I talked about with the lifespan emphasis. Instead of a weekly module, this one is divided up into several large modules, I want to say 4 or 5, looking at each phase of life, so all the way from early childhood through aging. What are the things that we need to be looking at and supporting. and what are the key collaboration points, and then you’ll do research in that course, identifying resources in your own community that you could share with autistic people and their families related to each of those phases of life. And the final course is our newest course, EDSE 638, where we look at issues in assessment and intersectionality. The assessment is, sort of a follow-up on what you learned in EDSE 634, really digging into how do we, how do we measure different skills and behaviors in autistic people? So, equipping you to do some analysis and assessment in things like cognitive function, social skills, communication, and then the intersectionality part is really cool, because this is where we dig into the intersection of autism and other marginalized identities. And so we know from the research that autistic individuals have higher rates of identifying as LGBTQ+, higher rates of racial and ethnic minorities, and a variety of other marginalized community identities. And so we really look at this. And because, the three faculty that you’ll meet in this program, we are all, white cisgender women, we really rely heavily here on autistic voices that are outside of ourselves. And so, you will do a lot of work examining guest speaker, videos. We have done a whole lot of work pulling blogs and websites and other resources to get the autistic voice embedded in that course for you in a really special way. So by the end of the program, hopefully that gives you a sense of the really comprehensive curriculum. You’re going to have such a rich understanding of autism, and it really allows you to go out and engage in just about any kind of profession related to autism. Alright, so the graduate certificate track related to autism spectrum disorder, like I’ve been saying, it will prepare you to do just about anything. I was at a conference last week, the College Autism Summit, and it was so exciting. One of our program alumni was there. You’re gonna… I’m gonna read a quote of hers in a minute. Beth Felson. She lives in the Northern Virginia area. She runs, a company called Spectrum Transition Coaching. she created. She is so successful. She works with autistic high school and older students and their families, working to come up with individualized plans to support those autistic students as they move out of high school into whatever comes next for them, whether that’s college or a job, and really doing some exciting work in that realm. I think it was really cool to see her. She has actual people working in her company for her now, so really, anything you want to create can happen. This number has actually gone up since we developed these slides. We’re at 1 in 36 children now, 8 years old, being diagnosed with autism. So, you can imagine that no matter what domain you choose to work in, you are going to be working with autistic individuals, and this is going to be really valuable knowledge for you to have moving forward. And, what we often… try to remind people is these students, these 8-year-olds are going to grow up, and they go into all kinds of different careers. My research focuses on autistic college students, because we’re seeing just huge increases in the number of autistic students going to college, but the college environment isn’t well equipped to support and meet the needs of autistic students. So that’s the work that I’m engaged in. We are dealing with so many more autistic adults moving all the way through aging than we’ve ever seen because of these diagnostic numbers going up. And so, just really important, information that the program will prepare you well for just about any kind of work. I added this in because I wanted to kind of just highlight very quickly one of the really special features of our program, which is these video case studies. You can see here, this was, gosh, I want to say we built this program, like, 10 years ago, so that’s me, maybe 10 years ago, sitting on a couch, with a wonderful family, but in our autism program, you will meet four autistic individuals. Jake, Allie, Brooke, and William. And we were so incredibly fortunate when we built this program that we were able to identify four individuals and their families who were willing to let us follow them around, if you can imagine, for 3 to 4 days at a time with a full camera crew. And we videoed every facet of their life. This is me talking to Jake’s parents on their couch. Jake, as an example, we visited Jake at home, we learned about his school life, we, worked with Jake on a couple community settings. Jake is now about 22 years old, so this has been 7 or 8 years, but Jake, at the time was doing a lot of really exciting work training, Montgomery County, Maryland police, force, personnel in how to interact with autistic people, so we were able to get video footage of him working and collaborating with police officers. and highlight that important work. Allie was a student at George Mason, a master’s student, actually, and we were able to get video footage of her at home and in her dorm on campus, and even teaching as a teaching assistant in our Mason Life program. So, throughout the program, you’re going to have these four individuals, and all of your major assignments focus on them. And this is how we elevate that book knowledge and foundational knowledge that we’re teaching you to the real-world practical application. And so, this is a great example. In EDSE 620, you’re gonna watch video of Jake, in this class we used for this one, Jake, Brooke, and William. Allie didn’t really have any behaviors of note, so, in this case. Jake, you’re gonna watch video. I interview the families, and then I interview Jake, and then you see him, and his behavior that we focus on is becoming really dysregulated and overly silly when he’s talking, and his volume got really loud, and he would yell and shriek. And so that was the behavior that he and his family said, this is something we’re really working on, and we’d love for you to to highlight. And then we give you all kinds of background information in this course, so you’ll get, in-depth interview data, assessment data from Jake, Jake’s mom and Jake’s teacher regarding that behavior. This is a screenshot of ABC data, which is a type of data collection that we use in behavior, looking at antecedent behavior consequence. And so you’ll do all of this analysis to figure out what is the function of Jake’s behavior. What is he trying to communicate? And then, in the second half of that course, you develop a behavior intervention plan. So, what kind of neuro-affirming supports and practices can we use to, to really equip Jake to be able to regulate better? And so, This is how all of our assignments are developed. In each course, you will just get more and more time with these four individuals, and it was such a gift to the program to get this footage. So I think… I think that’s something that sets us apart from other programs, and that you will find really meaningful and enjoyable. Okay, I guess I didn’t tell you about the other faculty, so let me do that really quickly. There are 3 of us who are full-time faculty at Mason who teach in this program, and so myself, you’ve met. Dr. Grace Francis is a research faculty member, and her focus is on family-professional partnerships. She’s fantastic. And then Dr. Lynn Jorgensen is, an instructional faculty member like myself. And she also is the director of the Mason Life Program, which is our post-secondary program for students with intellectual disabilities. And so the three of us do most of the teaching. We have one or two adjuncts who will also teach for us, but you will get full-time faculty for 90% of your coursework. Okay, Matthew, let’s see what we can do with this one. Admissions process. You want me to start, and then you fill in? Do you wanna…

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, sure.

Jodi Duke: Okay, I’ll see what I got here. So, there are a few things you’re going to need to put together to apply to our program. We need an official transcript from wherever you did your undergraduate work, and so that is something that you have to reach out to that institution to send to Mason. We need your resume. You’re going to want two letters of recommendation, and these can be from anyone. So. It’s okay, they don’t have to be from professors. If you’ve been out of college for a while and you’re coming back to school now, it can be from people who are important in your life now. So, we see a range of recommenders, including employers, people you engage with in the community, really anyone except someone you’re related to, I would say, on that one. And then there is a personal statement that is required. I’m seeing a question. Oh, perfect.

George Mason Online Admissions: Email to the chat.

Jodi Duke: Perfect, thank you so much. So, Matthew’s put his info in if you do have any specific questions, on that admissions process or anything else. And so there’s a QR code here that you can use, to access the application. please use our phone number, and our… the email. I guess that’s the website, actually. I’m going to put my email in the chat as well. I’ve already been in contact with at least one of you about our program, and I’m always happy to answer questions. I think that’s all I have. So, if anyone has questions, please feel free to raise your hand, or put questions in the chat. We’ll give people a minute. I guess one other thing I can share is that we… we offer this, program in a you’ll take one course at a time, typically, and we offer them in sort of mini semesters, so you’ll have a fall one, and a fall two, and a spring one, and a spring two, and so that really allows you to focus in on the course content and not be too overwhelmed by taking too many. Some students change the pacing, and we’re flexible with that, but… I think that’s another nice feature, is that, we run 8-9 week semester courses, essentially. I don’t see any questions. Matthew, is there anything else you think? I’m happy to stay on if anyone wants to talk at the end, otherwise that’s all I have tonight. Oh, there’s one. Yay!

George Mason Online Admissions: There we go.

Jodi Duke: Okay. Daryl, thanks for your questions. When is the application deadline for spring semester? Do you know that one, Dan and Matthew?

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, so if we’re talking about, Spring A, the application deadline will be December 15th. Now, to my understanding, That’s just the deadline for the application. We’ve got a little bit longer on the supplemental documents that need to come in, so once again, the supplemental documents are… you know, there aren’t a ton. It’s your… it’s your two references. Your resume and your… and your statement of purpose, so nothing super out of the… out of the ordinary there. And we do have a little bit more time on that, and when I say a little bit, I mean, like, a little bit. Because the document deadline is December 16th, so you get one extra day. So, if you can have everything in by, the application deadline, great. If not. Like we said, yeah, there’s just a little bit of extra time to get your supplemental documents in. And then registration deadline is January 12th, so it’s about a month after that.

Jodi Duke: Perfect. Yeah, and we typically start students in the spring and the fall semesters, Daryl, so, we do not start new cohorts in the summer. We actually have found in this program that we have a lot of family members of autistic individuals, and we got a lot of input in the beginning of the program that when kids were home in the summer and things were going on, it was too much, so we, we ended up just shifting to a spring and a fall start for this. I can definitely answer the second question. So, is it possible to overlap any courses in the same semester? Yes, if you really want to hustle through the program, we can work with you to make that happen, but we have just found that students are most successful when they do one at a time. So you still finish in a pretty quick manner, because you’re doing two courses a semester, it’s just… in a divided pace. But if that’s something that’s important to you, then make sure to let us know, and we’ll work with you on that, for sure. Great questions, thank you. Any other questions? Well, my email and Matthew’s are both in the chat, so please copy those before you leave the session tonight to make sure you have them. Deanna, do you have a sense of how many hours? That is such a good question. How many hours does the average student spend on their studies each week? Yes. We… each course is a 3-credit course, and we recommend that you plan for about 9 hours a week. So it’s about 3 times as many hours as it is credits, is what we typically say. Because the way this is set up is each course is going to have a weekly module that opens for you. And so, like, in my course, it just opened today, and so my students have video recorded lectures that they need to watch, they have readings that they need to do, and then, some courses, we have quizzes. We don’t actually have any exams in this program, I feel like I should say that, too. We’re very project-based, because we really want you to be out there, learning how to problem solve and apply. So, about 9 hours will take care of it. And if you feel like you might need extra time, you would need to plan for that, but that should do it. Aw, Daryl, that’s so nice! I hope to meet you guys. I know. I love it. I hold, even though we’re an asynchronous program, which means that we don’t sit online at the same time like this, we all hold virtual office hours, so we send out things called doodles to try to get a sense of what day and time works best. We vary those, and… I also set up Zooms with my students. I have at least a couple students every week that I meet with, so, we’re very accessible, and we’re all excited to work with you guys. All right, thank you so much for coming, and for your participation and your questions, and have a great night, and please reach out to either of us if you have… oh, wait! Daryl. Okay, Daryl. Alright, so here’s the bad news. I’m not going to prepare you in any way for the BCBA exam. That’s going to be the behavior analysis program. And so… That is their full track of the program, I believe, gets you the hours that you need, and and so if that’s what you’re interested in, definitely reach out to Matthew, maybe? Are you the person to help connect him to, that program instead of the autism program?

George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, be more than… be more than happy to.

Jodi Duke: So, great question. The fields are a little bit different, and it’s… we’ve really worked hard to differentiate ourselves. So, in autism, you’ll learn all the curriculum I just talked about, and we do a lot of behavior work, but we do not, we do not have that preparation piece for behavior analysis. Behavior analysis is a very specific science, and so that is a preparation program that they offer. So, glad you asked. That’s important to have that differentiated. Thank you so much for coming, everyone. Have a great night.