University of the Pacific, Benerd College

Graduate-Level Semester Credit

Graduate-Level Professional Development Semester Units of Credit for Salary Advancement and/or Recertification

University of the Pacific, Benerd College, is pleased to offer graduate-level semester units of credit for completing coursework with Smekens Education. Dedicated to assisting educators and teachers across the nation, our professional development course options are designed to be practical, meaningful, and affordable. At only $62 per semester credit, opportunities are available to all current (ongoing) or previous Smekens Education participants.

Pursue up to 3 hours of graduate-level semester credits/units for each conference, workshop, or webinar that you complete with Smekens Education. Completing a PD opportunity with Smekens will provide you with simple and effective strategies that will help you build successful readers and writers. The University of the Pacific provides a convenient and cost-effective way to earn 1-12 graduate-level credits within a timeframe that works best for your schedule. With more than a dozen workshops to choose from, teachers at every level can benefit from the on-demand strategies featured in every 5-hour online workshop video, or they may choose instead to join one of Smekens’ virtual-interactive events. Smekens Education is committed to helping you meet your salary advancement or recertification requirements through practical and meaningful PD experiences.

For over 5 years, University of the Pacific/Benerd College has partnered with Smekens Education to provide graduate-level semester credit for educators, administrators, counselors, speech-language pathologists, and teachers across the nation.

UOP Benefits:

How It Works:

Complete a Smekens Education Workshop or Webinar.
Please note: Smekens Education workshop/webinar training fees are paid separately from the university credit tuition fee. Only $62 per semester credit.
Register for the corresponding UOP-Smekens Education course (see below) and upload your certificate of completion.
After completion of your Smekens Education course, simply register for university credit and upload your certificate of completion along with a reflection paper to verify your participation.
Earn Graduate-Level Credit on an Official Transcript from University of the Pacific, Benerd College.
After your documentation has been reviewed and approved, your course grades will be posted at University of the Pacific, Benerd College. An Official Transcript is available upon completion of course requirements with Smekens Education.
Register today... 
It's simple!

Registration is quick and easy. Simply choose the course that corresponds to your workshop or webinar training to begin earning credit. At checkout, you will be able to select how many graduate level credits you want to earn for your course. 

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Overview of Reflection Paper Requirements

1 credit = 3-page reflection paper

2 credits = 6-page reflection paper

3 credits = 9-page reflection paper

Each graduate-level credit requires a 3-page, typed, single-spaced reflection paper. The reflection paper will demonstrate your professional development by describing in detail the projects you will create and implement into your educational setting. Try to incorporate the following key points into the structure of your report.

Activities, projects, strategies, or techniques of implementation:
Describe the lesson plan, activity, project, strategy, or technique that you developed and implemented (or plan to implement) as a result of completing the professional development workshop, conference, webinar, etc. Be sure to include materials and resources utilized. For example, handouts, video/PowerPoint presentations, visual aids, props, books, learning strategies, etc. Detail why you chose this idea and how it fits into your professional development needs or those of your learners. Explain the actual process of introducing your project and the methods used for instruction.

Population target–grade level, type of class, groups:
Define the needs and goals of the learners that you designed these ideas for and how they might correlate to their specific needs and/or core objectives. Indicate if these learning methods were designed for special need students, specific groups within a class, developmental ages, etc.

Objectives and goals:
Describe the specific targeted learning objectives and how they related to the goals of your instructional program. Try to correlate the objectives/goals to the specific activity/project you presented. Possibly correlate, when appropriate, the objectives/goals with the Common Core Standards (or your state standards) set for your curriculum.

Evaluation methods utilized:
Describe how you evaluated/will evaluate the success of the projects you developed. What methods or criteria did you use/will you use to assess your achievement of specific goals? 

Overall outcomes and reactions:
Include your personal assessments of how the learning objectives and goals were achieved. What were the reactions of your learners? How would you redesign or change the methods utilized with future utilization of the projects?

©2020 Smekens Education. UOP Affiliate. All rights reserved.

Self-Created Time-Log Sample

Document all the time you spend creating and implementing lesson plans, curriculum, activities, projects, strategies, or techniques inspired by what you learned. Creating your own log gives you the freedom to document all the time and effort you have dedicated to completing your coursework requirements. Your log must be specific and include dates and accomplishments. For each graduate-level credit/unit, you must document 15 hours of academic involvement. All your coursework participation must be away from professionally paid hours and after completion of a Smekens Education conference, workshop, or webinar.

Date Objective & Goals Times Hours
4/21
Created new curriculum & lessons for upcoming semester
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
6
4/23
Developed new learning activity for my curriculum/lesson plan
7:00 am - 9:00 am
2
4/27
Created PowerPoint/video presentation incorporating new strategies
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
2
5/2
Reviewed workshop materials and wrote draft for reflection paper
2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
2
5/3
Developed new learning activity for lecture
3:15 pm - 4:45 pm
1.5
5/6
Typed 3-page reflection paper discussing new lesson (first credit)
6:00 am - 7:30 am
1.5
Total hours of involvement/participation must meet 15 hours per credit
15

It may be that you require more or less time completing your own personal activities and/or projects, and that’s why we have left it to you to decide how you manage your time. 

*The log above is only a sample. Specific course guidelines and requirements will be provided upon course enrollment. 

 

©2020 Smekens Education. UOP Affiliate. All rights reserved.