All students will take 12 credits of core courses.  This equates to four, 3-credit courses.

MSLD 201:  Understanding Self and Others

MSLD 202:  Leadership in Organizations

MSLD 204:  Ethics and Leadership

MSLD 206:  Analyzing and Communicating with Data

In addition to the core courses, students will take an additional 5 courses with at least 3 of those courses coming from a selected concentration.

The focus of this concentration is to strengthen the leader’s ability to obtain results through others.

You will gain knowledge on topics such as personality, influencing others, engagement, and intercultural relations. You should select this option if you are interested in becoming a stronger, more inspiring, and more innovative leader.

All listed courses are 3-credit courses

MSLD 203:  Organizational Politics and Influence

MSLD 205:  Global Leadership

MSLD 207:  Inspiring and Involving Others

MSLD 208:  Leading Change

MSLD 209:  Innovation and Future Thinking

Talent development professionals must help others reach their full potential.

Available on campus only.  If you select this concentration, you will combine critical leadership courses and four courses specifically related to the field of Talent Development. You will gain skills in learning technologies, instructional design, facilitation, and performance consulting.

All listed courses are 3-credit courses

MSLD 211:  Organizational Learning

MSLD 212:  Learning and Technology

MSLD 213:  Performance Consulting

MSLD 214:  Designing, Developing, and Facilitating Learning

The capstone is a 3-credit hour experience completed near the end of the MSLD program.

MSLD 210:  Capstone Experience

Completed near the end of the MSLD program, this course acts as a capstone project to the student’s graduate school experience.  Students may select among two options: (a) an original (basic or applied) research project or (b) an approved project directly related to leadership development. Prerequisite: 24 hours of MSLD courses. 

Students have the option of participating in an international experience as part of their capstone experience.  See International Opportunities for details regarding this trip.  

PharmD students can complete a dual PharmD and MSLD degree by adding only eight graduate courses! 

You will work with professionals from various industries (for-profit, not-for-profit, higher education, and health) and gain valuable leadership competencies.  Pharmacy students interested in teaching may, with the MSLD advisor's approval, substitute some of the leadership requirements for Talent/Training and Development courses such as Performance Consulting and Designing, Developing, and Facilitating Learning.  Visit the PharmD/MSLD website for details.

The Talent Development Concentration provides skills that translate to any career field.  

The School of Education offers a Talent Development concentration for undergraduate students.  All majors are welcome.  Visit the Talent Development website for details.

The MSLD program offers an annual international experience to students and alumni.  

The inaugural trip visited Morocco.  Any MSLD student can participate in the trip, with there being an additional option to make this part of of a student's capstone experience.

This trip is designed to add a global perspective to the MSLD experience, as well as continue to grow the MSLD community by networking current students with alumni.

In this course, you will discuss your preferred leadership and team style and carve a vision for your future growth and development. The course heavily focuses on the importance of personality in human and work relationships. You will learn about the Five-Factor Model, a serious personality model preferred by personality researchers. We will have in-depth discussions on the model and its applications to strengthening leadership competencies, building relationships, building strong teams, and developing others. Students complete a Big Five personality assessment and a 360-competency review. They also practice coaching others using the Big Five model and work on application case studies. At the end of the course, students receive a Certification for the Narrative Big Five, a valid and reliable Big Five personality assessment.

This course serves as a foundational investigation of personal and organizational leadership with an emphasis on developing leadership talent. The following foundational topics in leadership are included: Overview of key leadership theories; differences between management and leadership; followership, influence, and power; and research-based practices on leadership development.

Today's organizations are challenging, complex systems where success depends on the ability to navigate the political and communication environment.  Organizational leaders must effectively work with others to accomplish individual and organizational goals. This class will examine tools and techniques for identifying and effectively interacting with organizational and political challenges and realities. A variety of communication challenges, strategies, and techniques will be examined. Topics include conflict resolution styles and models, negotiation, organizational politics, influencing processes, and the language of leadership.

The study of ethics is the study of moral philosophy and the ways in which moral dilemmas are evaluated and, ultimately, resolved.  Throughout this course we will focus on exploring the perennial question, "What is right?"   Through processes of shared inquiry, we will explore the theoretical foundations for making ethical choices and examine implications for contemporary workplace, environmental, and sociopolitical challenges.  In particular, we will emphasize the nature of moral and ethical leadership, review and critique our professional Code of Ethics, and discuss best practices for developing moral leaders.

This course explores the complexity of leadership in organizations within a cross-cultural and global environment. Topics include definitions and dimensions of culture, cultural awareness and development models, intercultural communications challenges, connections between national and organizational cultures, and diversity in the workplace.

This course prepares students to become critical consumers of research reports in the fields of leadership and organizational learning. Students learn fundamental concepts on research design and implementation including an introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methods, a discussion on the design of research assessments, and a preliminary review of basic statistical analyses. Discussions on validity, reliability, and various types of research bias help students separate solid from sloppy research. Ethical and legal considerations are also addressed.

This course helps students strengthen their ability to foster an engaging and meaningful environment for their followers. Topics include emotional intelligence, employee engagement, psychological safety and meaningfulness, availability of resources, person-environment and person-work fit, career development / growth, group dynamics, trust, collaboration, and building synergistic and collaborative teams.

Leaders must not only deal with change effectively but also help their followers thrive in a constantly changing environment. This course will focus on the challenges and opportunities of organizational change. Topics include systems thinking, adaptive leadership, organizational diagnosis, and effective change leadership interventions.

This course helps students hone their ability to recognize future trends, consider possibilities, and generate innovative solutions.  Additionally, students learn how to foster a culture of innovation, one that tolerates risk, rewards experimentation, and accepts failure as a catalyst for growth.

This course introduces students to key concepts in the field of organizational learning, emphasizing its strategic nature within the organization. Topics include leading the learning function; organizational learning and andragogy theories; the ADDIE model (analysis, development, design, implementation, and evaluation) of training and development, and non-traditional learning interventions through coaching, mentoring, and cross-training. Special emphasis will be placed on the first and last components of ADDIE: Needs Analysis and Evaluation.

This course introduces critical assessment, collaboration, and learning technologies.  Since technology changes constantly, students will also learn how to continuously identify and gain proficiency in new tools.  Ethical and legal considerations related to the use of technology in the workplace are also addressed. 

This course helps students explore the field of human performance improvement.  Students will gain critical skills in applied organizational research, learning to identify performance improvement gaps and to propose appropriate interventions.  Topics include data collection methods, the HPI model, data analysis, and best practices in internal and external consulting.

This course provides an overview of how to design, develop, and facilitate effective learning experiences for adult learners.  Design and development topics include writing instructional objectives, selecting appropriate training methods, and designing and developing instructional games and simulations. Facilitation topics include the rationale for selecting various facilitation methods and approaches for engaging learners.