Program overview
The Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI) supports excellence and innovation in transition programming for current and former members of the armed forces.
As a service member in transition, you may face barriers reaching your potential in accessing higher education and beginning meaningful careers, despite the many effective programs offered to this population by the Department of Labor, Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program, and other programs offered by the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. With this in mind, the CVTI is dedicated to creating free courses that will help to break down those barriers to your successful transition. Currently we are offering three courses to meet these demands, with more courses on the way. While these courses are created for veterans and active duty service members, they are free and available for all.
Attaining Higher Education is a course designed to facilitate the successful transition of active duty service members and veterans to postsecondary education, whether at a two- or four-year college for an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, or even graduate school.
University Studies for Student Veterans helps orient veterans to the norms and expectations of the college classroom, along with offering strategies to ease the transition, to help achieve academic goals, and to allow students to optimize their college education.
Find Your Calling: Transition Principles for Returning Veterans will focus on the development of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and intellectual character strengths as they relate to making a successful career transition from military service to the civilian workforce. The course content is meant to provide you with a framework for an iterative process of self-reflection and the development of practical skills that enables you to make career choices that better align with your values, ambitions, and continued service. Ultimately, this course helps you answer the question: What should I do next?
What will you learn
- General and detailed information about colleges and universities.
- Foundational academic and study skills for achieving academic success in college.
- Strategies for more effective reading, writing, test preparation, and time management.
- Practical tips and strategies for making a successful military-to-civilian career transition.
- A framework for how to begin thinking about and exploring new career opportunities.
Program Class List
1Attaining Higher Education
Course Details
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Prepare to transition to college using intentional decision-making. Aimed at active duty service members and veterans, with this course you will learn about the college admission process, including financial aid, to help you choose a right-fit college.
2University Studies for Student Veterans
Course Details
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This course helps veterans transition smoothly from military service to college, and helps them maximize their success once they arrive.
3Find Your Calling: Career Transition Principles for Returning Veterans
Course Details
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This course provides military veterans with a useful roadmap to transition more smoothly from military service to a new and meaningful civilian career.
Meet Your Instructors
Beth E. Morgan
Director of Higher Education Transition and Partnerships at Columbia University
Born in Quantico, Virginia, Beth grew up in a Marine Corps family and was raised around the world, living for periods of time in Hawaii, Germany, and Korea. Professionally, Beth has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, for several non-profits, as a consultant, and on staff at major universities throughout the United States, including Colgate University, Princeton University, and the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration at Columbia University, Beth worked most recently with the non-profit Service to School as Executive Director and previously directed the Marine Corps Leadership Scholar Program (LSP), both of which assisted transitioning service members and veterans with admission to undergraduate and graduate programs. Beth has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts degree from Stanford University.
R.J. Jenkins
Curriculum Designer at Columbia University
Before joining the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration as a Curriculum Designer in 2016, R.J. served as an Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies where he directed the Academic Resource Center and served as the lead instructor for University Studies, a transition course for first-year, non-traditional students. An award-winning teacher, R.J. has advised college students at Columbia, Cambridge, and Harvard Universities, and has taught courses in English and American literature, literary history, close reading, academic skill-building, and English for Speakers of Other Languages. R.J. holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and anthropology from Columbia University (2003), a Master of Letters in English literature from the University of Cambridge (2005), and is currently pursuing doctoral work in English literature.
Skip Bailey
Senior Advisor to the Director of Educational Financing at Columbia University
William ”Skip” Bailey has been a financial aid administrator for more than 34 years. He has been managing financial aid for non-traditional students at the School of General Studies (GS) for over 20 years. Previously he administered financial aid at multiple colleges including the University of San Diego and the University of Michigan. A degree in education from Michigan State University and lots of experience has provided Skip with the tools he uses every day to assist students at GS with the myriad issues involved with college financial aid.
Tanya Ang
Vice President of Veterans Education Success at Columbia University
Tanya is the Vice President of Veterans Education Success and has more than 17 years of experience in higher education. She has worked at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and also served as the Director of Veterans Programs at the American Council on Education. Prior to joining ACE, Tanya worked at two universities including working as an Administrative Analyst for the Vice President of Student Affairs Office at California State University - Fullerton and as Associate Registrar at Vanguard University where most her work focused on the non-traditional student including military and student veterans. She was the certifying official at her institution for student veteran GI Bill benefits and worked hand-in-hand with the various offices on-campus to ensure students received the benefits and the support they needed to successfully navigate their academic career. In her current role, she works to ensure military-connected students have access to high-quality education to achieve their long term career goals. Tanya is the first in her family to graduate from college, and earned her BA in Communications at Biola University and an MA in Organizational Leadership at Vanguard University.
Sara Remedios
Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University
Sara is Associate Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies where she directs the Academic Resource Center and oversees all academic and learning initiatives. Before coming to Columbia, she worked to restructure the CUNY Pipeline Honors Program, a program dedicated to assisting exceptional undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds in gaining admission to doctoral programs. She is also an accomplished teacher. Dean Remedios holds a B.A. in English and political science from Washington University in St. Louis (2009), an M.Phil. in English literature from the City University of New York (2014), and a Ph.D. in English literature from the City University of New York (2016).
Josh Edwin
Senior Assistant Dean of Students at Columbia University
Josh is Senior Assistant Dean of Students at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. His teaching experience at Columbia includes University Studies, academic writing classes, one-on-one writing support, and creative writing workshops for veterans. He has also taught at a public high school in Atlanta and an English language school in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to teaching, he has published widely as a poet, translator, and reviewer. He holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Emory University and an M.F.A. in poetry and literary translation from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Michael Abrams
Executive Director - Center for Veteran Transition and Integration, Marine Corps Veteran at Columbia University
Michael Abrams joined the Marine Corps shortly following the September 11, 2001 attacks and served on active duty for eight years, which included a deployment to Afghanistan with an infantry company as the artillery forward observer. After leaving active duty, Michael attended New York University’s Stern School of Business graduating with an M.B.A. in Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. While attending business school, he founded FourBlock to help bridge the gap between returning service members and the business community. The program is a university accredited, semester-long course that educates and prepares transitioning veterans for meaningful careers in corporate America. FourBlock is in nearly twenty cities across the country, educating and serving hundreds of transitioning veterans each semester. Michael is now serving as the executive director of the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration. The newly established center of excellence is dedicated to creating and supporting evidence-based programming that enables returning service members with reaching their academic and career potential.
William Deresiewicz
Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Essayist at Columbia University
William Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic, a frequent speaker at colleges and other venues, and the best-selling author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. He taught English at Yale and Columbia before becoming a full-time writer in 2008. Bill has published over 250 essays and reviews. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, The New Republic, The American Scholar, and many other publications. He has won the Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, and a Sydney Award; he is also a three-time National Magazine Award nominee. His work has been translated into 17 languages and anthologized in more than 30 college readers. He has spoken at over 80 colleges, high schools, and educational groups and has held visiting positions at Bard, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna Colleges. Bill’s previous book is A Jane Austen Education. He is working on a book about how artists are making a living in the new economy.
Sheena Iyengar
World-Renowned Expert on Choice, S. T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia University
Professor Iyengar has taught courses in leadership and entrepreneurial creativity. Her research addresses the implications of offering people, whether they be employees or consumers, choices. She has examined choice in a multitude of contexts ranging from employee motivation and performance in a global organization, Citigroup, to chocolate displays at Godiva, to the magazine aisles of supermarkets, and to mutual fund options in retirement benefit plans. Professor Iyengar received the Presidential Early Career Award for her ongoing work in examining cultural, individual, and situational factors that influence people's choice-making preferences and behaviors.
Sebastian Junger
NYT Best-Selling Author, Documentary Filmmaker at Columbia University
Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR and TRIBE. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world, and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film "Restrepo", a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Program overview
Education systems around the world face the central challenge of finding innovative solutions and techniques for improving student performance. This challenge is shared by teachers, teacher-leaders, and principals who are responsible for improving opportunities to learn, with two goals: raising average levels of student performance and reducing achievement gaps between students.
Beyond schools, leaders in district offices, government agencies, professional associations, and other non-governmental enterprises also share the challenge of improving student performance at scale across entire schools, districts, and systems.
What will you learn
- To envision new possibilities for the work of students and teachers in classrooms.
- To understand alternative logics and strategies for organizing the practice of educational innovation.
- To examine the application of the emerging field of improvement science to the practice of educational innovation.
- To explore innovation and improvement in large-scale educational reform initiatives in the US and around the world.
- To improve your own practice as an educator, innovator, and/or reformer.
- To develop and manage teams that use disciplined, evidence-based methods of educational innovation and improvement.
- To employ disciplined, evidence-based methods of educational innovation and improvement to manage collaborations among schools, districts, and systems.
Program Class List
1Leading Ambitious Teaching and Learning
Course Details
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Learn why ambitious teaching and learning may be the key to global educational improvement and how to put it into practice.
2Designing and Leading Learning Systems
Course Details
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Learn leading strategies for educational innovation to improve practice, raise student performance, and reduce achievement gaps.
3Improvement Science in Education
Course Details
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Learn how to apply principles and practices of improvement science to improve educational practice, raise student performance, and reduce achievement gaps.
4Case Studies in Continuous Educational Improvement
Course Details
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Learn about leading approaches to continuous educational improvement through case studies of educational innovation.
5Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement Capstone
Course Details
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Apply your knowledge and demonstrate mastery, personal growth, and competency along dimensions central to leading educational innovation and improvement.
Meet Your Instructors
Deborah Loewenberg Ball
The William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of Education and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Education at University of Michigan
Deborah Loewenberg Ball is the William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of Education and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan, and the founding director of TeachingWorks. She taught elementary school for more than 15 years, and continues to teach mathematics to elementary students every summer. Ball serves on the National Science Board and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Board of Trustees, chairs the Spencer Foundation Board of Directors, and is the president-elect of the American Educational Research Association. She completed eleven years as dean of the U-M School of Education in June 2016. Ball's research focuses on the practice of mathematics instruction and on the improvement of teacher training and development. She is an expert on teacher education, with a particular interest in how professional training and experience combine to equip beginning teachers with the skills and knowledge needed for responsible practice. Ball has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications and has lectured and made numerous major presentations around the world.
Nell Duke
Professor in the School of Education at The University of Michigan
Nell Duke is a Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. She is the recipient of the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award from the Literacy Research Association and the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award, as well as awards from the National Reading Conference, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the International Reading Association. She has served as co-principal investigator on projects funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, among other organizations. Duke has served as an advisor for many education and policy organizations. She has also served as author and consultant on a number of educational programs and speaks widely on literacy education. Among her books is Inside information: Developing powerful readers and writers of informational text through project-based instruction and Beyond bedtime stories: A parent’s guide to promoting reading, writing, and other literacy skills from birth to 5, now in its second edition.
Liz Kolb
Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Education at University of Michigan
Liz Kolb is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. She authored Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education (published by ISTE, 2008), Cell Phones in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for the K-12 Educator (ISTE, 2011), and Unleash the Learning Power of Your Child's Cell Phone (ISTE, 2013). In addition, she has published numerous articles and book chapters on new technologies and education in prominent publications such as Education Leadership, Scholastic, Edutopia, ISTE's Edtekhub, and Learning and Leading with Technology. Kolb has done consulting work and has been a featured and keynote speaker at conferences all over the United States and Canada. She is an elected board member to MACUL, the state of Michigan organization for teaching with technology. She is a member of the COSN advisory board for mobile learning and emerging technologies. She is passionate about engaging students in education and educational opportunity through their own technologies. Kolb is also the creator and coordinator of the 4T Virtual Conference, which is a free conference for practitioners that occurs every May. Kolb is a former social studies and computer technology teacher.
Elizabeth Birr Moje
Dean of the School of Education at University of Michigan
Elizabeth Birr Moje is the Dean of the School of Education, the George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty associate in the Institute for Social Research and in the Latino/a Studies program. Moje began her career teaching history, biology, and drama at high schools in Colorado and Michigan. In her current research and community engagement work, Moje uses an array of methods to study and support young people’s literacy learning in Detroit, Michigan. She is particularly interested in the intersections between disciplinary literacies of school and the literacy practices of youth outside of school. She also studies how youth draw from home, community, ethnic, popular, and school cultures to make cultures and to enact identities. In related work focused on teacher learning, Moje developed and co-directs Teaching and Learning the Disciplines through Clinical Practice Rounds, with colleague Robert Bain. The Rounds Project, which advances discipline-based literacy teacher education in urban settings, was awarded the provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize at the University of Michigan in 2010.
Donald J. Peurach
Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation in the School of Education at University of Michigan
Donald J. Peurach is Associate Professor of Educational Policy, Leadership, and Innovation in the School of Education at the University of Michigan. His research, teaching, and outreach focus on the production, use, and management of knowledge-in-practice among social innovators and those they seek to serve. As such, his work sits squarely at the intersection of educational policy, leadership, and innovation. He is the author of Seeing Complexity in Public Education: Problems, Possibilities, and Success for All (2011, Oxford University Press) and a co-author of Improvement by Design: The Promise of Better Schools (2014, University of Chicago Press). Peurach also serves as a Fellow of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and as a Faculty Associate in the Center for Positive Organizations in the Ross School of Business (University of Michigan). Before pursuing an academic career, he was a high school mathematics teacher and, before that, a systems analyst in manufacturing, healthcare, and higher education. Peurach holds a BA in computer science from Wayne State University, an MPP from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Educational Studies from the School of Education at the University of Michigan.
Gretchen Spreitzer
The Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration at University of Michigan
Gretchen M. Spreitzer is the Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Management and Organizations in the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on employee empowerment and leadership development, particularly within a context of organizational change and decline. Her most recent work is looking at positive deviance and how organizations enable employees to thrive. This work fits within a larger effort at Ross to develop a Scholarship of Positive Organizing. She is the co-author of several books including How to be a Positive Leader (2014) with Jane Dutton, Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship with Kim Cameron, The Leader's Change Handbook: An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (1999) with Jay Conger and Edward Lawler, The Future of Leadership: Speaking to the Next Generation (2001) with Warren Bennis and Thomas Cummings, and A Company of Leaders: Five Disciplines for Unleashing the Power in Your Workforce (2001) with Robert Quinn.
Anthony S. Bryk
President at Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Anthony S. Bryk is the ninth president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he is leading work on transforming educational research and development, more closely joining researchers and practitioners in networked improvement communities to improve teaching and learning. Formerly, he held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University from 2004 until assuming Carnegie's presidency in September 2008.
He is a member of the National Academy of Education and was appointed by President Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences in 2010. He is one of America's most noted educational researchers. His 1993 book, Catholic Schools and the Common Good, is a classic in the sociology of education. His deep interest in bringing scholarship to bear on improving schooling is reflected in his later volumes, Trust in Schools (2002) and Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (2010). In his most recent work, Learning to Improve (2015), Bryk argues improvement science combined with the power of networks offers the field a new approach to reach ever increasing educational aspirations. Bryk holds a B.S. from Boston College and an Ed.D. from Harvard University.
Paul LeMahieu
Senior VP for Programs and Operations at Carnegie Foundation
Paul LeMahieu is the senior vice president for programs and operations at the Carnegie Foundation. At Carnegie, he directs all of its programmatic efforts as well as the work of the Center for Networked Improvement (comprised of groups dedicated to collaborative technology, analytics, improvement science, as well as network initiation and development). LeMahieu served as superintendent of education for the state of Hawaii, the only state in the nation that is a unitary school district with annual budgets totaling over $1.8 billion. He was President of the National Association of Test Directors and Vice President of the American Educational Research Association. He served on the National Academy of Sciences' Board on International Comparative Studies in Education, Mathematical Sciences Education Board, the National Board on Testing Policy, and the National Board on Professional Teaching Standards. His current professional interests focus on the adaptation of improvement science tools and methodologies for application in networks in education. He is a co-author of the recent book Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better, and lead author of the forthcoming Working to improve: Seven approaches to quality improvement in education. LeMahieu has a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s from Harvard University, and a bachelor’s from Yale College.
Alicia Grunow
Senior Fellow, Improvement Science at Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Alicia Grunow is a Senior Fellow, Improvement Science, at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Amanda Meyer
Associate, Improvement Science at Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Amanda Meyer is an Associate, Improvement Science, at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Program overview
Engage and inspire students through technology.
Learn how to create enhanced learning opportunities using the latest tools and techniques to connect with today’s digital-first students.
Our unique approach to instructional design focuses on understanding learning theory, blending traditional instructional design models with rapid prototyping and data analytics to create online courses. You will gain hands-on experience developing and publishing online courses using the edX platform.
This Instructional Design and Technology MicroMasters program will provide the knowledge and skills needed to capitalize on one of the fastest growing areas of education – online teaching and learning. This program will prepare you to create engaging and active learning, using digital pedagogy, emerging technologies and data analytics.
Through this program you will learn how to design captivating learning experiences for students who want mobile learning opportunities that are collaborative and accessible, while advancing your knowledge of educational theory.
What you will learn
- Understand contemporary learning theories to develop online learning experiences
- Apply instructional design models to the development of online learning experiences
- Select, evaluate or design digital media to support learning
- Identify, evaluate, and integrate emerging technologies to support online learning
- Design an implementation process for online learning experiences
- Apply data mining techniques to the design and evaluation of learning experiences
Program Class List
1Instructional Design and Technology: Learning Theories
Course Details
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Explore emerging learning theories and interactive technologies to create engaging experiences for today’s connected students.
2Instructional Design Models
Course Details
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Explore traditional and current instructional design models as you develop your own outline of an online course.
3Instructional Design: Digital Media, New Tools and Technology
Course Details
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Explore the design, development and use of digital media and emerging technologies to support online teaching and learning.
4Instructional Design Course Evaluation & Capstone Project
Course Details
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Develop your Instructional Design & Technology MicroMasters capstone project while you learn course evaluation models to assess the impact of design on the learning environment.
Meet Your Instructors
LeAnn Derby
Associate Collegiate Professor, Learning Design and Technology at University of Maryland University College
Dr. Derby holds a doctorate in education, teaching and learning from The Ohio State University and has over eleven years’ experience teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, leading curriculum design for blended learning environments and working with faculty development. She uses her background in pedagogy, paired with technical expertise of hardware and software, to teach graduate courses on topics of instructional design, leading educational technology change, and designing multimedia learning environments. Her research interests include adaptive learning and online teaching and learning.
Doug Brtek
Associate Professor, Learning Design and Technology at University of Maryland Global Campus
Doug Brtek has 15 years of experience of online course design, professional development, and performance evaluation across the corporate learning and development and higher education fields. He has facilitated professional development workshops on a variety of topics including course development, online learning strategies, technology based learning tools, online facilitation, and adult learning theory. Currently, Doug works within the academic and corporate entities and provides consultation on learner analysis, technology implementation, and learning management system configuration. Doug’s educational accomplishments include a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Nebraska, a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology and Adult Learning from Bellevue University, and a Doctorate Degree in Education Technology from Northcentral University.
Randy Hansen
Professor and Program Chair, Learning Design and Technology at University of Maryland University College
Dr. Randy Hansen is a professor and program chair, Learning Design and Technology at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Randy’s research interests include innovative online instructional design, technology’s role in engaging learners in the learning process, and design of effective professional learning experiences. In 2015 Dr. Hansen was selected by the Center for Digital Education’s as a Top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers. In 2016, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) awarded him a Making IT Happen award. In 2018, Dr. Hansen was recognized by UMUC with the President’s Award for outstanding work and contributions to the university. Currently, Dr. Hansen servers as a member and Treasurer for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Board of Directors.
