Adventure Education

The online MEd in Adventure Education at Springfield College is designed to promote career advancement, enhance an earned related undergraduate degree, and/or to provide advanced academic training for individuals employed or planning to seek employment as physical educators, recreation leaders, and/or youth development professionals in academic, community, and youth serving agencies.

Graduate students enrolled in this program will choose adventure education to refine and enhance their knowledge and skills in the use of adventure and team development. The core of the adventure education graduate degree centers around critical components within the field: theory, risk assessment, programmatic design and implementation of experiential education programs. The selective portion of the curriculum is designed for students to work with their advisors to select courses that meet their individual academic, personal and professional needs.

As a culminating experience, all students will complete a capstone project. The capstone requirement is meant to synthesize the scope of knowledge, theory, and skills developed across the breadth of the program and allow students the opportunity to put theory into practice and engage with the community. Capstone proposals and projects will be unique to the student and their current or anticipated professional experiences. Comprehensive capstone proposals and projects are accomplished with consultation and direction provided by the faculty.

As part of this online degree program, we are proud to offer the option for students to complete up to 9 credits through professional development workshops with high quality adventure agencies. These experiences can be completed at convenient times in the student’s professional schedule. To earn these credits, the student must be accepted into the degree program and enrolled in one online course within the Adventure Education program core. Students will work with the program director to examine prior experiences or identify and complete workshops aligned with curriculum outcomes. Students with experiences completed in the prior 3 years must provide evidence of the content, assignments, and completion of specific hours to the program director. The cost of converting these experiences into credits will be a $175 assessment fee, per credit. It is imperative, again, that students work with the program director for consultation and review in this process.