Academics

Note: This list includes ALL of the GRAD courses. However, not all courses are offered every semester. Find a list of Spring 2024 courses here.
 

The Center for Graduate Life and Learning provides multiple academic courses which can be taken for credit, including career preparation, leadership,  communication, research, and teaching courses. Find a list of courses offered below:

Leadership & Career Preparation Courses

GRAD 6000 | Leadership Essentials for Graduate Students | 2.0 credits

Learn the strong leadership skills you will need to successfully recruit for and land professional career roles. Leadership Essentials will help you assess your leadership strengths and weaknesses and develop a personal leadership plan. The course will help students improve all aspects of their communication and learn how to cultivate collaborative relationships that foster trust, commitment, and coordination. The course will also cover how to recognize various styles of thinking and emotional behavior.

GRAD 6000/8000 | Topics on Diversity and Inclusion | 2.0 credits

The objective of this course is to explore diversity and inclusion from various multi-disciplinary perspectives. Diversity is often equated with a disciplinary view rooted in social justice. Yet, over the last few years research in diversity has demonstrated numerous disciplinary-specific points of view. Groups with more diversity perform better than other groups. Companies with a diverse employee base tend to produce better financially. These various discipline-specific findings provide a strong case for why diversity matters. Given the value of diversity, how do we build organizations and systems that are inclusive?

GRAD 6000/8000 | Navigating Graduate School as a First Generation Scholar | 2.0 credits

This 2-credit elective course is particularly relevant for first-generation and underrepresented graduate students. It will help graduate students identify and define how their individual identities, experiences, and skills can be leveraged to progress through the potentially challenging and isolating environment of graduate life.

GRAD 6304 | Intrapreneurship for Non-Business Majors | 2.0 credits

An intrapreneur is defined by American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language as a person within a corporation or organization who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a viable finished product or service through assertive risk-taking and innovation – namely an entrepreneur within the organization. The challenge and opportunity for the student is to explore and understand how to create, develop, and sustain innovative new businesses, products or services within established corporate, government or nonprofit organizations.

GRAD 6201/8201 | Teaching at the University Level | 3.0 credits

This course is designed for graduate students who teach or intend to teach.  Topics include developing a teaching philosophy, constructing a syllabus, using student demographics and learning styles in course design, managing controversial topics, incorporating active learning and critical thinking, constructing rubrics for use in testing and grading, and applying theories of learning and motivation to the classroom.  From this foundation, students will teach during class meetings to gain experience and benefit from peer review.

GRAD 6000/8000 | Creating Best Classroom Practices Using Psychological Theories | 3.0 credits

This course offers students who teach, either alone or as TAs, an opportunity to explore the creation of effective classroom practices.  Whether designing a course, planning a syllabus, or creating materials for class, teachers want to use evidence-based best practices to maximize the effectiveness of their teaching and the student's learning.  This course covers established psychological theories in the areas of learning, memory, and motivation to assist teachers in finding the best practices for their classrooms. Theorists include but are not limited to, Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner, and Piaget, as well as contemporary contributors to the fields.

GRAD 6320/8320 |Personal Career Branding: Identity, Management, and Promotion | 2.0 credits

Students will learn how to identify meaningful career paths, manage their preparation for various careers, and understand how to best promote themselves to future employers. Students will also gain practice and knowledge around their strengths, values, personality, effective communication, and organizational evaluation as it relates to their professional career journey. Developing and practicing core career competencies will contribute to students' overall career brand, confidence level around their career path, and their connection to targeted industries of choice.

GRAD 8000 | Grants: Find, Study, Plan, and Prepare an Application | 2.0 credits

There are up to $60 Billion dollars available in grant support for research and education. That money has very specific purposes, to support specific research and specific people, in specific regions and/or institutions. To find money, you must understand the funding agencies and yourself. We will study both; who are you? What is your research, specifically and more broadly? Where does it, and where do you fit among the funding agencies? Where can you fit that you didn’t realize before? How do you need to prepare yourself in order to be competitive? What is required in the application? How do you complete all of that, and make it, and yourself, most competitive?  Together, we will answer all of these questions one by one, and you will either have one or more great applications, or have a specific and actionable plan to apply to one or more opportunities by the end of the semester. 


 

Communication & Writing Courses

GRAD 6000/8000 | The Communication and Leadership in the Workplace | 2.0 credits

In this 2-credit, online course, you'll learn the strong leadership and communication skills you'll need to acquire and succeed in your next professional role. Learn more about what makes workplace communication so important and how you can quickly improve your communication skills. This course will also emphasize leading and communicating in an increasingly diverse world.

GRAD 6000/8000 | The Art of Effective Speaking: Oral Communication for Graduate Students | 2.0 credits

Master one of the most important skills in the workplace – oral communication.  In this advanced oral presentation skills class, graduate students will use a step-by-step approach to improve their presentation skills in order to be more effective and confident in spoken interactions in personal, academic, and professional situations such as interviews, meetings, and presentations. Your presentations are recorded for playback and your instructor provides helpful coaching and tips.

Note:  Students must be enrolled in a graduate program terminating in a Master’s degree or a doctoral degree.  

GRAD 6212/8212 | Academic Writing for Graduate Students | 3.0 credits

This course refines academic writing skills, especially those related to writing about empirical research. The course focuses equally on product and process. You will gain skills to help you effectively produce key parts of an empirical paper and you will explore different academic genres relevant to your discipline; then produce a relevant academic genre of your choice. You will also learn strategies for planning a large writing project, developing a regular writing schedule, managing procrastination and perfectionism and responding to critical feedback.

Note:  Students must be enrolled in a graduate program terminating in a Master’s degree or a doctoral degree.  Students who do not speak English as a first language must have already taken GRAD 6210/8210 or gained prior approval from the instructor to enroll in GRAD Special Topics Course.

GRAD 6210/8210: Graduate-Level Writing for International Students | 3.0 credits

Designed to benefit English as a Second Language (ESL) graduate students and serves as an introduction to concepts central to graduate-level writing in the United States, such as academic integrity, audience awareness, and discipline-specific variation.

GRAD 8610 | Making Dissertations Happen:  Managing Writing and Life | 2.0 credits

This course will help you manage your dissertation work through such topics as prioritizing your dissertation, writing more effectively and efficiently, improving your productivity, strengthening your relationship with your dissertation advisor and handling stress in healthier ways.  Join a supportive community of dissertation writers and learn to create more balance in your life. 

GRAD 6330 | Workplace Communications | 2.0 credits

Be more effective in the workplace... speak and write what you know!  The ability to exchange information and ideas at work is an essential skill in many roles. Learn more about what makes workplace communication so important and how to improve your communication skills.
  • 97% of workers believe that communication impacts tasks every day.  
  • 86% of corporate executives, educators, and employees cite ineffective communication and poor collaboration as reasons for failures in the workplace.
  • A recent survey of 400 companies conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) revealed that, on average, each company lost $62.4 million per year due to inadequate communication.

In this class you'll learn the principles of good communication in the workplace, with a focus on the special needs of writing in technical fields such as health, the sciences, and business. Emphasis is placed on communicating effectively in an increasingly diverse world. 


Research & Data Courses

GRAD 8990 | Academic Integrity | 0 credits (non-graded)

REQUIRED FOR ALL DOCTORAL STUDENTS. Here at Charlotte we value sound and ethical conduct in all educational and professional pursuits. This online training addresses issues of academic integrity and the University’s policies and procedures related to violations of the Code of Student Academic Integrity.  This course must be completed at the beginning of students' first semester. Once completed, a grad of "N" (for "non-graded") will appear in DegreeWorks. 

GRAD 6302/8302 | Responsible Conduct of Research | 2.0 credits

This course focuses on practical skills and critical thinking about the responsible conduct of research, highlighting the nine areas of instruction required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF).  This course features speakers with expertise in various areas of professionalism and research ethics. This course is required for all doctoral students. Graded on a Pass/Unsatisfactory basis.

GRAD 6240/8240: Research Ethics in the Biological and Behavioral Sciences | 3.0 credits

Designed to identify the fundamental elements that characterize not only methodologically grounded but also morally appropriate scientific research. Class discussion and readings focus on key issues in biological and behavioral research including informed consent, privacy and confidentiality, risk-benefits assessments, mechanisms for protecting animal and human research subjects, international research, vulnerable populations, conflicts of interest and data management, publication ethics, intellectual property issues and the politics of research.

GRAD 6340/8340 | Data Analysis & Presentation | 2.0 credits

Learn to use Excel and Tableau to gather, organize and present data for understanding and impact in a professional setting. This course helps develop decision-making and predictive modeling.