See table for Iowa approved re-certification credit class fees.
UW Platteville is joining with Virtual Education Software (VESi) to help Wisconsin educators balance their ongoing professional education needs with the rest of their busy lives. New interactive, Computer Based Instruction (CBI) courses can be taken for UWP undergraduate and graduate credit. These classes are written by top professionals and are fully approved by UWP.
Our joint mission is to provide superior undergraduate and graduate distance education classes on state of the art courseware for educators seeking professional advancement or teacher re-licensure.
Self-paced and fully accredited, VESi's multimedia, interactive courseware is forging a new style of learning. Educators rely on VESi's expert instruction and the flexibility of e-learning to advance their careers to the next step or compensation level.
Merging education with technology the experienced educators and technologists at VESi understand that producing effective CBI courses is a complicated process. Rather than simply lifting an established course from the classroom and slapping it into a computer file, we use our collected expertise to carefully and thoughtfully craft the services and courseware the market needs.
Our unique method of delivering courseware to individuals delivers unmatched convenience. Our course professors, as accessible as university staff, establish regular office hours and provide a number of ways for students to reach them. Simply put, we want to make it as easy as possible to help people meet their educational goals, so we create services and courses to fill that need.
Advanced Classroom Management: Children as Change Agents ©
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is geared primarily for professionals (e.g., regular or special educators, instructional assistants, school psychologist, counselors) serving children and youths presenting behavior problems in the school or community. This course focuses on cognitive and cognitive-behavioral interventions (often lumped together under the rubric "social skills") with an emphasis on teaching students how to change and manage their own behavior. Since previous knowledge and understanding of traditional behavioral (operant) concepts and strategies is required, it is strongly recommended that you take an introductory behavior management course to learn the basic terms and concepts of behavior management prior to taking this "advanced" course.
Attention Deficit Disorder: Information & Interventions for Effective Teaching ©
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course will help you achieve a better understanding of ADD and intervention strategies to facilitate positive student change. Taught by Mick R. Jackson MS/ED, this course covers the history of the disorder, accepted methods to assess and identify students with the disorder, and various methods, medications, and strategies that are currently used to treat the disorder. And for situations where a student needs services beyond what you can provide in the classroom, you will learn about the referral process for getting help for the student. Reference materials include a list of resources for both teachers and parents who would like more help or information about ADD or ADHD.
Autism & Asperger's Disorder: Information & Effective Intervention Strategies ©
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course describes Autism and Asperger's Disorder, including characteristics of these disorders, associated learning styles, communication weaknesses, and various intervention strategies. The course helps you make sense out of why individuals with Autism spectrum disorders act the way they do, and what you can do to enhance more appropriate behavior. This course also lists resources for educators, related service personnel, and parents who want more help or information on Autism and Asperger's Disorder.
Behavior Is Language: Strategies for Managing Disruptive Behavior ©
(3 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is designed to give you a new perspective on student behavior and effective tools to facilitate positive student change. Taught by Mick R. Jackson MS/ED, this course provides a developmental framework to help you understand what students are trying to tell you through the "language" of their behavior. You will learn behavioral techniques and intervention strategies that remediate disruptive behaviors, reduce power struggles while increasing classroom control, reduce your workload, and help prevent burnout. After successfully completing this course, you (and your students) will be better equipped to find and implement creative, effective solutions to behavioral problems.
Child Abuse: Working with Abused and Neglected Children
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Child Abuse: Working with Abused and Neglected Children is designed to help classroom teachers, school counselors and other educational personnel gain strategies to reach and teach students who have been affected by child abuse or neglect. Participants will learn the signs and symptoms for the three types of abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) and the four types of neglect (physical, neglect, emotional, and educational). Participants will explore how abuse and neglect affect a student’s learning, cognitive brain development and social-emotional development. The short- and long-term consequences of neglect as well as the social and family causes will be reviewed. The educator’s role in the intervention and prevention of child abuse and neglect will be discussed. Working with parents and community agencies is also emphasized.
Drugs & Alcohol in Schools: Understanding Substance Use & Abuse
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Drugs & Alcohol in Schools, is designed to give you a more comprehensive understanding of alcohol, drugs, and their influences in your classroom. The class provides a contextual framework for understanding what students may be experiencing through their own substance use or the impact of substance use around them. Addiction is defined as a "biopsychosocial" disease. We will explore each of these three elements individually, and then, discuss their interactions and impact on the substance using person. The information will be further processed in order to more readily translate that information into practical application in the classroom.
Educational Assessment: Assessing Student Learning in the Classroom
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is designed to further develop the conceptual and technical skills required by teachers to help them identify their educational goals, and implement meaningful instructional strategies for effective learning by students with special needs. The focus of this course will therefore be on assessment for instructional programming. The course will outline procedures for designing or selecting, administering and interpreting, a variety of informal assessment measures typically used in schools. The use of a range of informal assessment measures in the academic and social skills areas will form the core of the content to be covered. The presentation of assessment information in an acceptable format to parents and teachers will also be addressed.
Functional Analysis: Introduction to Completing Behavior Assessments
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Functional Analysis: Introduction to Completing Behavior Assessment includes an overview of the hierarchy of assessment procedures used to conduct Functional Behavioral Assessments. The course provides a detailed overview of functional analysis procedures and treatment packages that can be implemented based on the results of functional analyses. Particular emphasis will be placed on reinforcement-based interventions and dimensions of reinforcement. This course will be particularly useful for educators who work with children with disabilities because their results often lead directly to proactive intervention. Upon completion of this course, students will know the basics of how to conduct functional analysis in their classrooms, develop a reinforcement-based treatment package based on the functional analysis, evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention using single-subject design methodology and evaluate the long-term effects of their interventions.
Inclusion: Working with Special Needs Students in Mainstream Classrooms ©
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This interactive course is designed to help special and general educators gain a better understanding of inclusion, one of the current educational reform movements that advocates educating students with disabilities in the general education classrooms. Upon course completion, you will be able to define key concepts and terms, identify and describe federal legislature and court cases, and list and describe the federal definition of students entitled to special services. This course will also help you identify the roles and responsibilities of educators in providing special services to students educated in inclusive classrooms.
Infant and Toddler Mental Health: Issues & Information for Educators
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Designed to help you achieve a better understanding of infant and toddler mental health, child development, and strategies you can use to promote positive relationships with children and their families. This course provides information that will help you to understand and identify your role as a child care provider, educator, and early childhood professional. Infant and Toddler Mental Health will provide you with research-based information on child development, attachment, temperament, and curriculum. This course also lists resources for both teachers and parents who would like more help or information about infant and toddler mental health.
Learning Disabilities: Practical Information for Classroom Teachers
(3 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Learning Disabilities: Practical Information for Classroom Teachers provides an introduction to the field of Learning Disabilities for special education teachers, general classroom teachers, integration teachers and related professionals, especially those working in the areas of language, psychology and counseling. Covering diverse theoretical approaches, this course lays the foundations for sensitive and appropriate assessment and evaluation of students, provide directions for program planning and implementation, indicate the importance of and the need for a close, positive partnership with parents (or alternative caregivers) and consider ways for ensuring that the home-school axis is effective and meaningful. It will also consider some major trends and unresolved issues in the field of Learning Disabilities.
Reading Fundamentals #1: An Introduction to Scientifically-Based Research
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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States that receive funds from the No Child Left Behind, Reading First Act need to ensure that teachers are qualified to teach reading. They must have a working knowledge of scientifically validated instructional programs and practices. According to Kilpatrick (2003), the most critical part of the Act is that there must be an increase in teachers’ knowledge of the scientific process under which instructional programs are evaluated. Approximately 80% of teachers have little to no background in the use and method of science. What is needed, then, is a training program that allows in-service teachers to learn about science. In other words, we need teachers to become consumers of science and to learn how to think critically about the vast amount of data emanating from real science and from what can be described as "voodoo science."
Reading Fundamentals #2: Laying the Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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The purpose of this second course in this three-course series is to lay the foundation for effective reading instruction. As part of this course, you will learn about the elements of effective instruction. It is important that all teachers have a firm understanding of effective instructional procedures. Teachers benefit, and more importantly, students benefit, both in terms of their behavior and their academic performance. Further, you will learn about the importance of reading instruction and read some sobering statistics on reading performance in this country and what happens when individuals are not proficient in reading.
Reading Fundamentals #3: The Elements of Effective Reading Instruction & Assessment
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course will describe the elements of effective reading instruction in some detail. Educational assessment involves gathering, interpreting, and synthesizing information to help teachers make important decisions about student performance (Airasian, 2001). It involves everything from scores on projects, papers, and exams to how children perform on school, district, state, or national evaluations (such as standardized tests). Educational assessment can be teacher-designed or publisher/researcher-based. It can be centered on the curriculum in the school or district, or based on what children across the country should know in a particular academic subject area, such as reading.
Talented & Gifted: Working with High Achievers
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is designed to provide a foundation in talented and gifted education. It will provide individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and serve TAG students through a planned program for intellectually gifted and academically talented students within a framework of common practice based on current research. Students will gain an understanding of the characteristics and needs of TAG students, current legislation as it relates to the education of talented and gifted children in the USA, identification procedures, assessment options, programs and services models, and curriculum modification options.
Teaching Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Teaching Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom was designed to give you the knowledge, tools and dispositions to effectively facilitate a diverse classroom. This course will help you understand and identify differences in approaches to learning and performance, including different learning styles and ways in which students demonstrate learning. An emphasis in this course will be on understanding how students’ learning is influenced by individual experiences, talents, disabilities, gender, language, culture, family and community values. You will be challenged to apply knowledge of the richness of contributions from our diverse society to your teaching field.
Traumatized Child: The Effects of Stress, Trauma and Violence on Student Learning
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is designed to help classroom teachers, school counselors and other educational personnel gain strategies to identify and teach students who have been affected by stress, trauma and/or violence. This course teaches you to recognize the signs of stress, trauma or violence in students. It also discusses the specific factors that exist in families and communities where stress and violence are common. A major emphasis in this course is on helping the participant understand the special learning needs of the student who is experiencing stress, trauma or violence in his/her life and how to meet his/her needs in the regular classroom. Working with parents and community agencies is also emphasized.
Understanding Aggression: Coping with Aggressive Behavior in the Classroom ©
(3 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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Understanding Aggression includes topics on violence, aggression in the classroom, youth gangs, aggression in sports and on television, how drugs and alcohol play a role in aggression and violence, and "hot spots" that tend to breed aggression and violence The course helps school personnel become more aware of the causes of aggression and ways to evaluate aggression and intervene before the aggression turns to violence in the schools. The course also speaks about aggression in our communities through driving, dating, sports, television, music and how these issues are dealt with in modern society.
Violence in Schools: Identification, Prevention, and Intervention Strategies ©
(2 Undergraduate or Graduate Credits)
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This course is designed to give you a better understanding of school violence and increase your intervention strategies. Taught by Dr. Michael Sedler, this course provides an overview of violence and the motivational purposes behind aggression. The correlation and impact of the media, community, and family upon violence is investigated. You will learn identification and intervention approaches to working with out-of-control behaviors. In addition, you will receive information about the national resources available for both parents and teachers. Upon successful completion of this course, you will have a better understanding of violence and the motivations behind the use of violence, as well as specific strategies to minimize the occurrence of violence in a school and community.