Cognate and Elective Courses
OVERVIEW
Students must work with their advisor and the program coordinator to ensure that their cognate and/or elective requirement is appropriate for their plan of study. Below is general guidance on those requirements, depending on the program you’re enrolled in.
The doctoral programs differ with respect to requirements, but the Ed.S. in Ed Tech and the Ed.D. in Ed Tech have the same requirements (nine credit hours of electives and nine credit hours of cognate).
Here are some key ideas:
- A “cognate” is a set of courses that are intended to develop expertise in a specific field or subfield.
- The courses that make up a “cognate” or an elective can have a 500-number or a 600-number.
- The courses for a cognate will tend to have a prefix related to one’s degree program (ex., EDCI, EDTECH, or EDLEAD), but this is not universally true
- Electives can be graduate courses from any area of study the student finds interesting, but a best-practice is to align them in some way to one’s professional field or dissertation study topic(s).
Ed.D. Curriculum & Instruction
The current EdD/C&I “degree box” (required courses and credits for the degree) indicates that students must complete 26 credits of “cognate” hours. The intent of the cognate credits, as described in the Graduate Catalog, is that they represent “an area of specialization. Approved cognates are bilingual education, curriculum and instruction, early childhood education, educational technology, kinesiology, literacy, mathematics education, special education.”
The cognates listed are not the only ones possible: educational leadership, STEM education, English education, etc., can form the cognate. Although the cognate is not required to be comprised of a master’s degree from the College of Education (or its graduate certificates), the degrees and certificates are a good fit for the cognate credits. It is possible to use transfer courses (i.e., those taken outside of Boise State) toward a cognate, and many students use the transfer request process to do this.
The key point is that the cognate hours, or at least the majority of them, must connect content to pedagogy. The courses are not a loose collection of graduate courses with no relationship to teaching and learning. Students must complete (or have fulfilled) at least 18 of 26 credit hours of their cognate requirement before they’re eligible to enroll in EDU 691 Comprehensive Examination.
Ed.S. in Educational Technology
The Ed.S./EDTECH program requires students to complete nine credit hours of “Cognate” and nine credit hours of “Electives.”
In the case of cognate hours, they must be in educational technology or a closely related field (ex., educational psychology, distance learning, instructional design, organizational performance & workplace learning, etc.) The cognate courses do not have to be completed at Boise State, but Ed.S. students are limited to transferring nine credit hours total, or using nine “carry over” courses from a previously completed BSU degree.
The nine credit hours of “electives” are graduate courses related to one’s area(s) of interest and not necessarily related to teaching, learning, technology, etc. For example, if a student is interested in graduate courses in the topic(s) they studied during their bachelor’s degree program, they can apply those courses to the electives requirement.
Ed.D. in Educational Technology
The Ed.D. program requires doctoral students to complete nine credit hours of “Cognate” and nine credit hours of “Electives.”
In the case of cognate hours, they must be in educational technology or a closely related field (ex., educational psychology, distance learning, instructional design, organizational performance & workplace learning, etc.) The cognate courses do not have to be completed at Boise State. Students are limited to using up to 30 credit hours of transfer or carry-over courses, which have to be approved through the program and Graduate College processes.
The nine credit hours of “electives” are graduate courses related to one’s area(s) of interest and not necessarily related to teaching, learning, technology, etc. However, it is to the student’s benefit for the electives to be related to their area of research interest and/or dissertation study.
The completion of the cognate requirement is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition that makes one eligible to enroll in EDTECH 691 Comprehensive Examination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take any graduate courses to complete the cognate requirement?
No. The cognate must be comprised of courses related to teaching and learning. The courses should also have a common thread or theme that runs through them (ex., courses related to special education, or STEM education, or game-based learning, or distance learning, etc.). The rationale for a thread can be a series of related projects that a student does through a set of courses that might not have, in and of themselves, an obvious theme. For example, if a student takes a course in game-based learning, and assistive technologies, and grant-writing, perhaps the theme is a series of related projects completed for the class (a game-based learning design for special needs students, for which the student is seeking external funding to develop further).
Can I take any graduate courses to complete the elective requirement?
Yes … but. We strongly recommend that even the electives are related to your area of study or research and, as such, should probably have a connection to pedagogy. However, in some cases students wish to take, or have taken, graduate courses in fields that have helped them in their professionalization in a given area but that do not have any pedagogical connection.
What courses in the Boise State Graduate Catalog count as “cognate” courses? Which ones count as “electives”?
We do not have specific courses set aside as either. It’s the combination and topic of the courses that help determine how a student uses them in their plan of study. ANY course with a 500 or 600 number could be potentially used to complete either the cognate or elective requirement.
If I take courses to complete the cognate and/or electives that are part of a graduate certificate program, can I earn that certificate after taking those courses?
No. You *must* apply to and be admitted to a given certificate before you take more than 1/3 of its total credit hours. Students cannot “back into” a certificate after completing its requirements (this is a Graduate College regulation).
Am I required to take cognate or elective courses at Boise State University?
No, you are not required to take the courses at BSU. Many students use courses that have been recommended and approved for transfer for both or either. The program coordinator has a significant role in helping students understand how such courses can be used in the plan of study.