Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies

1
Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies

• An Overview of Brandon Universitys ADES
  Department
• This presentation is an updated version of the
  one originally presented by John Lindsay at the
  PSEPC Higher Education workshop, November 2005.

2
The New Path to Emergency Management

• Brandon University began offering a four year
  degree program in 2001 and has graduated both BA
  and BSc students in disaster studies.
• The ADES degree is designed to combine social and
  physical sciences perspectives of hazards and
  disasters within a liberal arts education
  framework.
• The ADES department has three full-time faculty
  and draws expertise from across Canada.
• In 2005/06 over 60 students declared ADES as
  their major and 50 students in the 1st year
  classes.

3
Exciting New Faculty

• As of January 06 the ADES faculty is
• Dr Jason Levy
• crisis decision making, decision support software
• Dr Elaine Enarson
• disaster sociology, social vulnerability
• John Lindsay
• emergency management systems and practices

4
The Original ADES Path

• Initially the prescriptive 4 year program relied
  on heavily courses from other departments.
• ADES and these other core courses accounted for
  75 of the 120 credit hours for the degree
• At least 18 credit hours of elective courses were
  also selected from either the science (BSc) or
  planning (BA) concentrations.
• The remaining credit hours were for Liberal
  Education and prerequisite requirements.

5
Challenges

• The original program design, while driven by
  necessity, created some challenges
• Scheduling difficulties effectively limited the
  variations possible.
• A high degree of homogeneity in the students
  transcripts arose.
• Limited students options to pursue a minor to
  complement ADES.
• This slide was not included in original
  presentation.

6
Major / Minor Solution

• ADES is now offering a major and minor based
  program starting in September 2006.
• This builds on the established core ADES course
  offerings while giving students more flexibility
  in selecting their electives.
• The BA/BSc will be based on the selection of
  Science or Arts electives.
• ADES will also be available as a minor.

7
ADES Core Courses

• 40151 Intro to Disaster Studies
• 40152 Intro to Emergency Management
• 40251 Hazards Causes and Consequences
• 40252 Emergency Planning
• 40253 Hazard and Risk Assessment
• 40352 Emergency Management Law
• 40362 Disaster Response Management
• 40448 ADES Practicum (6 credit hours)
• Total Credit Hours 27

8
ADES Electives

• An additional 15 ADES credit hours (5 courses)
  are selected from topics including
• Disaster Mitigation
• Crisis Decision Making and Support Systems
• Disaster Sociology
• Disasters and Development
• International Emergency Management
• Risk Communication
• Current Issues in Emergency Management

9
Balancing Core and Supporting Courses

• The challenge that the ADES program is solving is
  how to focus students on a discipline that has
  not yet matured and will be best studied in an
  interdisciplinary approach.
• The combination of core ADES courses with an
  inclusive set of electives (an additional 12
  credit hours) forming the major area of study
  ensures students have a balanced perspective.

10
Theory in Practice

• The applied aspects of the program come through
  in four main ways
• Use of the Emergency Operations Lab
• Assignments based on practical tasks, including
  preparing policy related documents
• Incorporating current practitioners as guest
  speakers and sessional instructors.
• Client-focused final practicum projects

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Disaster and Emergency Practicum

• Develop and complete a client based emergency
  management project in order to
• Understand the goals, structure and functions of
  the agency, and how the agency fits into the
  larger emergency management system.
• Identify, comprehend and apply relevant emergency
  management related concepts and skills.
• Gain experience while contributing to local
  efforts.

12
PLAR

• Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR)
  is a BU initiative that allows students who have
  gained university-level knowledge and skills
  through life-and-work-experience to apply for
  academic credit.
• ADES welcomes PLAR applications to help recognize
  prior emergency management experience and
  training.
• This slide was not included in original
  presentation.

13
Second Degree

• Students who already have a Bachelor's may
  qualify to take the ADES program as a second
  degree student and finish sooner.
• This recognizes the prior degree and reduces the
  credit hours for the 4 year degree to just whats
  required to fulfill the major and minor (e.g. 54
  for ADES 18 for geography 72)
• This slide was not included in original
  presentation.

14
Liberal Education

• Maximum of 18 credit hours (6 credits per area)
  from courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences
  and Natural Sciences.
• Courses can count toward both the ADES
  requirement and the Liberal Education
  requirement.
• This complements the interdisciplinary nature of
  the ADES program.

15
Campus-based Program

• ADES is combining the convenience of distance
  learning with the benefits of campus resources
  like our Emergency Operations Lab.
• To fulfill the residency requirement 60 credit
  hours must be Brandon University courses and
  this may include BU courses offered on-line
  through Campus Manitoba.
• Students considering a combination of distance
  and campus based study should contact ADES .

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for more informationwww.brandonu.ca/academic/ADES
/

• call [phone]
• drop by the ADES offices
• (ground floor Brodie Science Building)