New Updated Curriculum Mapped to the ATD Competency Model
I am pleased to announce updates to our curriculum were approved and will go into effect starting with the Fall 2019 semester. The updates resulted from the remapping of our curriculum to the current ATD competency model to ensure that our students develop essential skills required for success in the industry.
Rationale for Curriculum Revision
The purpose of this revision is to realign our curriculum with the current Association for Talent Development 
(ATD; formerly ASTD) Competency Model. The ATD Competency Model is the standard for professional skill identification and certification within the training and development industry. The Model serves as a guide for both entry-level and advanced certification that is very desirable in the job market. ATD recommends that the Competency Model serve as a foundation for academic curricula and suggests that each Area of Expertise (AOE) may reflect planned courses. Our curriculum was initially mapped to the 2003 Model over ten years ago resulting in many positive outcomes for our program.
A matrix (below) was used to first map our previous curriculum and program objectives to the ATD Model. Each AOE was mapped at four levels (I, R, M, A) to identify whether the AOE was addressed in an introductory manner, reinforced, led to mastery, or offered an opportunity for assessment. This process revealed significant curricular gaps in several areas of the revised ATD Model: Managing Learning Programs, Integrated Talent Management, Coaching, Knowledge Management, and Change Management. A revised curriculum was developed to address the gaps using existing courses and revised course titles. The revised curriculum was once again mapped to the AOE and objectives to ensure that each competency is addressed at the mastery and assessment level in at least one course.
As a result of the revision, the following courses are no longer offered: TRDV 422 Adult Learning Theory, TRDV 435 Organization Development, TRDV 453 E-Learning Course Authoring II. Three new courses that address specific ATD competencies have been added to the curriculum: TRDV 432 Training Strategy & Leadership, TRDV 445 Coaching for Talent Development, and TRDV 433 Change Management. Other courses have undergone minor name changes without a change to the course number. The new course sequence can be viewed in our Graduate Catalog at https://catalog.roosevelt.edu/graduate/education/training-development-matd/#requirementstext
What This Means for Students
All new students who begin their studies in the Fall 2019 semester will follow the new curriculum but continuing students, who began their studies prior to Fall 2019, will have flexible scheduling options. Note that all previous courses taken by continuing students will apply to their degree and every effort will be taken to ensure that continuing students graduate on time as planned. All continuing students must take the seven essential courses listed below but will have flexible options for the five additional courses required for graduation.
Essential Courses that must be taken to graduate without substitution
TRDV 400 Introduction to Training, TRDV 451 Instructional Design 1 and TRDV 470 Instructional Design 2; TRDV 434 Training Evaluation, TRDV 450 Learning Technologies, TRDV 439 E-Learning Course Design, and TRDV 499 Professional Portfolio.
Flexible options for Continuing Students
Below are new courses that continuing students may substitute for previous courses that are no longer offered. Although it is recommended that students use this substitution schedule, as long as continuing students take all seven Essential Courses, we can offer some flexibility in the additional 5 courses they must take to graduate. Please direct questions about scheduling to Laura Lag at llag@roosevelt.edu or Kathleen Iverson at kiverson@roosevelt.edu
New Course Previous Course
TRDV 433 Change Management TRDV 435 Organization Development
TRDV 445 Coaching for Talent Development TRDV 422 Adult Learning theory
TRDV 432 Training Strategy & Leadership TRDV 453 E-Learning Course Authoring 2
Keep in mind that if you are a continuing student or alumni and would like to develop the skills provided by the three new courses, you may take them after graduation on a non-credit basis for a nominal feel. Learn more about this here: https://www.roosevelt.edu/alumni/benefits
RU Training @ Roosevelt University in Chicago 
Since this program is now in COB, will tuition change? Also what if we were advised to take a course that is a duplicate of an old class, can that be moved?
I realized this when glancing at the layout of the course requirements. I took TRDV 435 Organization Development and was wondering if it would count. And of course it will since I had already taken it. Thankful for that. But also great to see they are keeping up with what is important for degree requirements.
I am so excited about the new curriculum! I love how RU is staying current and relevant to the TD industry! I have been in communication with the dean to learn which courses I can swap and which courses is still needed.
I was thrilled to learn of the changes to the curriculum when I registered for my fall classes. It’s clear that RU seeks to remain on-trend and relevant which is vital to the success of the students and the growth of the program. I feel confident that any and all emerging trends will be explored during my time here.
I’m very pleased to hear that RU continuously is staying on top of industry trends and thought-leadership in the area of training and development to ensure our curriculum for this program is up-to-date and relevant to the quickly changing world around us. I’m very excited to take the two new courses: Training Strategy and Coaching for Talent Development, especially the Coaching class. So many of us are put into management positions in our careers as a reward to being “great at your job,” however, with little to no support as to actually how to be a good manager. There’s more to being a good manager than “being great at your job.” I’ve been reading more about coaching replacing managing and I’m very excited to take this class as it aligns with a skill gap I’d like to close.
I think that it is essential that RU continues to align with the most current ATD and skill sets. It shows that this University keeps us in the know and is all about evolution, which is why I am proud to be a student here. I am going to miss the TRDV 422 course though as it was one of my favorites. I am one of the continued students, so this does not affect me much, aside from this fall semester I did need to switch out my classes for the most current ones as described in this blog. Overall, I think that we need to keep pushing forward with that same energy and meeting the students where they are in their journey.
I love the changes. Just starting out in TRDV 432 and set to graduate this fall. I can already tell this course will have applications in my current role and career path. I will look into taking the other two courses after I graduate too! The ATD competency mapping has given me an edge so far and I plan on sticking to the updates as well. It looks like there is an emphasis on applications within the previous courses being replaced so I can continue to build on what I already learned. Looking forward to these changes!
I am pleased to hear about the changes made to this program and look forward to the new courses to be taken this fall. I did know that courses can be taken as non credit. This is good news for any other changes in the future that I may want to consider after graduating.
Best,
Emerson
A great article of showing how an ADT model can be implemented in an academic setting. Very excited for future improvements.
Great News!! I am glad that the department made the decision to Adopt the 2019 ASTD Competency Model. This is a great change for students starting in the fall of 2019.
I am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT COURSE!!! I love the new course layout.
When it comes to the current student degree planners – will they be updated automatically to reflect the new courses or is this something current students have to pay close attention to?
Advancing human performance even more to target certain issues and misunderstandings in the workplace is great. Better employees to do better work! Exciting !
I am happy to see that the ATD competency model is being implemented. I know that when I applied for the OD program, they were just rolling this out and so it is nice to see that changes have been made and that students can learn based on this model.
This is an excellent article about the application of the ATD model in an academic setting. By identifying the existing gaps and addressing it, it would be interesting to note how well these new courses help the students to develop a skill set that they can apply in the practical world.
I think this is a great article about the competency model. I would love to apply this model in the near future.
These are enlighting changes that made to the course.
Thanks Tom. I appreciate your comment
This a great and even more comprehensive than the previous curriculum. Very exciting and very happy to see a coaching component added! 🙂