Spring Semester
Spring 2021 Schedule
The Muhlenberg College School of Continuing Studies provides quality education for adults, offering a supportive learning environment like no other in the area. We take the time to get to know our students, discuss their goals and help them find the best path to success. There is no one-size-fits-all at Muhlenberg. We offer over 25 majors in flexible formats including 15-week courses, 8-week Saturday-only courses and 5-week Accelerated Degree course modules.
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To enroll in spring classes, simply fill in the enrollment form and upload it to our portal. Do not email the form as email is not a secure method. If you are a current student, enroll using Capstone.
Special Topic Courses
BUS 385-90: Special Topic: Project Management Theory & Practice
This course provides an in-depth introduction of project management principles and theory. It is designed to blend praxis and theory. It applies the learned principles and theories to cases studies, simulations and an actual project. This course deals with the fundamentals of project management including project definition, project selection, project planning, estimating, scheduling, resource allocation, stakeholder management, risk management and project control. At the completion of this course the overarching goal of this course is to have the student be capable of managing a straightforward project. Can be used as an elective within the Management concentration. Prerequisite: BUS 236 Management and junior or senior standing, or permission of instructor.
BUS 387-90: Special Topic: Disruptive Companies & Marketing Innovations
As technology matures, radical changes are taking place in our everyday lives. From the downfall of rick-and-mortar stores to the rise of trillion-dollar user experience-based businesses, intangible technology has a massive footprint on the economy. It has become ingrained in the fabric of business and everyday lives, and brought forth revolutions in ideas, culture and behaviors. With it comes a host of issues facing businesses and consumers alike; from legal dilemmas and privacy concerns to security risks and cyber warfare. This course presents an overview of the core issues businesses face when dealing with disruption from intangible technology. We will study: what makes technology “good” for business; patterns of technology adaptation; behavioral change though the use of technology; big data; social media; data security; and user experience. Leading texts and quantitative analysis are used to highlight competitive challenges and opportunities. Can be used as an elective within the Marketing concentration. Prerequisites: BUS 233 Operations & Info Systems and BUS 239 Marketing.
EDU 289-90: Special Topic: Representations of Disability in America
This course will investigate how disabilities and difference have been defined and regarded, shaping and being shaped by the interrelationships of culture, law, politics, policy and education. The inherent tensions and debates between the various proposed models defining disability will be analyzed. Topics include Deaf culture, intellectual disabilities, chronic illness, mental health, Tourette’s, autism, giftedness, and gender identity. The complexities of what we know, how we know it and the ways in which disability has been represented and, in some instances, misrepresented in American society thereby perpetuating stigma and stereotypes will be examined. Meets the general education requirement SL.
ENG 486-90: Special Topic: Reading for Writers
This course is a culminating experience for Creative Writing minors, in which they will study poetry and fiction beside the manifestoes, letters, definitions, apologia, protests, and other assorted writings by their authors' and others that argue, examine, or ask what poetry and fiction should or should not do or be. We will interrogate the imaginative, critical, and formal processes involved in creative writing and the nature of aesthetics (in both others' work and our own); what do we mean, for example, when we experience a text as compelling or beautiful? Students will become acquainted with the current modes of what is considered the best of contemporary writing and establish their own sense of aesthetics and purpose in concordance or contrast to these movements. We will ask: what role does and should the creative writer play in society? How does the way we approach or analyze a text influence its effect on us? In addition to critical responses, students will create a sustained creative piece that is in conversation with the readings, and learn to approach their own writing with enhanced purpose, clarity, and pleasure. Readings may include writings by Paul Celan, Frank O'Hara, Adrienne Rich, Roland Barthes, David Foster Wallace, Alice Fulton, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Junot Diaz, Elif Shafak, and others. Prerequisite: One 300-level workshop.
Cluster Courses
BIO 184-60: Life on Earth & Air Quality
This course will examine the scientific evidence documenting the impact of human produced air pollutants on the biosphere's plants, animals, and microorganisms and the sustainability of the natural systems that support them. Students will study not only the evolution of earth's atmospheres upon which all earthly life depends but also the atmospheric changes humans have caused that interact with the earth's inhabitants and processes. Human activities are changing both the troposphere and stratosphere, resulting in negative impacts on plant (including food production) and animal health, climate, precipitation chemistry, and stratospheric ozone layer composition. The course will explore the possibility of life on other planets in relation to atmospheric composition and other characteristics (e.g. soil, water, oxygen) essential for life as we currently know it. This course, in conjunction with PHY-183, Astronomy:Environ Beyond Earth, satisfies the IL requirement. Meets general academic requirement SC and is a cluster course and a linked (IL) course with PHY 183-60, Astronomy: Environment Beyond Earth.
PHY 183-60: Astronomy: Environment Beyond Earth
This course will examine the possible objects both within our solar system and beyond it that might sustain life. Students will view our planet as the third planet from the sun but only one of 8 planets orbiting one out of a billion stars in our galaxy that is only one of a billion galaxies in the universe or multiverse. The course will include a study of the structure, motions, and evolution of these planets, moons, stars, and galaxies. Topics of special interest include impact of the sun on the earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, cosmology, and astrobiology. This course, in conjunction with BIO-184, Life on Earth & Air Quality, satisfies the IL requirement. Meets general academic requirement SC and is a cluster course and a linked (IL) course with BIO 184-60, Life on Earth & Air Quality.
EDU 212-90: Theory & Practice of Teaching English Language Learners
The purpose of this course is to prepare preservice teachers to create equitable learning environments for emergent bilingual students (often referred to as English learners) in preK-12 school settings. In doing so, the course content is approached from a transformative paradigm, where we engage in analysis of school systems, program, and instructional approaches for emergent bilinguals and critique the ways in which schools and teachers maintain linguistic hierarchies. In doing so the course draws from the research on instructional design and assessment, applied linguistics and second language acquisition, sociology of language, and anthropology of (language) education. Topics covered include linguistic racism, language ideologies, culturally sustaining pedagogy, translanguaging pedagogy, co-teaching and sheltered instruction, and integrated language and content instruction. Students will be expected to develop theoretical knowledge as well as demonstrate practical skills through analyzing, planning, and delivering lessons. Twenty hours of fieldwork in a K-12 school are required. This course, in conjunction with GEO-102, World Geography, satisfies the IL requirement. Prerequisite: Provisional admission to the program. Meets general academic requirement DE, is a cluster course and a linked (IL) course with GEO 102-90, World Geography.
GEO 102-90: World Geography
This course offers an introduction to the basics of physical and cultural geography, including climate, vegetation, landforms, language, economy, and religion, and the study of physical and cultural geographical features of the various regions of the earth. In addition, the course examines human, theoretical, and physical geographic structures of world regions while questioning thoughts and experiences with and of geographic understandings. The course intentionally integrates investigation of educational systems and geographic curriculum into geographic inquiry. This course, in conjunction with EDU-212, Thry/Prac: Tch Eng Lang Lrnrs, satisfies the IL requirement. Meets general education requirements SL and DE, the cluster requirement and is a linked (IL) course with EDU 212-90, Theory & Practoce pf Teaching English Language Learners.
ENG 180-80: Literature of The Civil War
A study of the literature that was written in and around the time period of the United States of America's Civil War. Writings from both the North and the South, and issues of national tension are explored. Among possible writers studied are: Whitman, Poe, Twain, Bierce, Douglass, and Stowe. Meets general academic requirement HU and is a cluster course with HST 235-80, American Civil War & Reconstruction.
HST 235-80: American Civil War & Reconstruction
This course examines United States history from the coming of the American Civil War through Reconstruction, focusing on the causes, the war itself, its aftermath and consequences. The dramatic political, social, and cultural events surrounding the war, the end of slavery, and the reconfiguration of American society afterwards continue to define us even to this day. Why does the war remain a touchstone in the United States? How did the Civil War change American society? What issues remain unresolved? These guiding questions underlie this course’s exploration of the Civil War era. Topics to be covered include: the role of slavery in American politics, sectional conflict in the 1850s, women’s war efforts, the experience of battle for both soldiers and civilians, Native Americans and the war in the West, and the rise of white supremacy and Jim Crow in the post-war South. Meets general academic requirement HU and is a cluster course with ENG 180-80, Literature of The Civil War.