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All candidates for a Master’s of Education degree in the Department of Teacher Education are required to advance in good standing from admission to completion of program requirements. After admission, you must complete the coursework listed in your program of study, the clinical experience requirements of your program, and a capstone experience.

The following sections of this Handbook describe how to complete these requirements.

Program of Study

Some programs adhere to a prescribed program of study that you must follow. These programs are monitored by the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS).

For other programs, your Master’s advisor will guide you to develop a program of study (POS) as soon as possible after being admitted. It is expected that an approved program of study will be on file in The Patton College Office of Graduate Student Affairs within the first semester of initial enrollment in the Master’s program and no later than the start of the second semester of enrollment. Master’s students in the Department of Teacher Education are required to purchase a LiveText account to complete course requirements. The Teacher Education POS and corresponding approval page must be filed in the PCOE Graduate Records Office of Student Affairs. The template for completing the POS is available on the Patton College forms page. .

The official, approved POS establishes the contractual agreement regarding required courses for the Master’s degree. It can only be changed by intentional action. A form entitled "Request for Change in Approved Master’s Program of Study" is used for this purpose, and is available from the Office of Student Affairs in The Patton College of Education Forms page.

The total number of hours to be taken in a Master’s program varies by program and according to many factors. Every student is required to complete at least 30 semester hours of coursework relevant to the program beyond the Bachelor's degree. For Master’s students in an Initial licensure program, the faculty advisor may require undergraduate courses to fulfill additional teaching field requirements.

Transfer of Credit

For a Master’s degree program of 30 hours, a maximum of 8 semester hours are transferable. For Master’s degrees longer than 30 hours, no more than 25% of the total graduate credit hours required to complete the degree are transferable. To be eligible for transfer, courses must be:

1. Designated as graduate credit at the institution where taken,
2. Letter graded B or better,
3. Cannot have been used to satisfy the requirements for completion of another degree,
4. Earned within the past five years, and
5. Applicable toward a graduate degree at the institution where taken.

Credits requested for transfer cannot have been used to satisfy requirements for completion of another degree. Courses equivalent to those at OHIO cannot be transferred for credit and also be taken for credit at OHIO.

Any request for transfer of credit must be recommended by your advisor and department chair before final review and acceptance by the Dean's office, who forwards the approval to Graduate College. No letter grades will appear on your OHIO transcript for transferred courses, nor will they be calculated in your GPA. Only courses counting toward an OHIO degree are eligible to appear on the OHIO transcript as transfer credit.

There is no set limit to the number of credit hours that may be transferred for doctoral degrees; however, it is up to the discretion of the advisor whether any credits (and how many) will be accepted as transfer credit.

If a student intends to count a transfer course in their program of study, they should designate this arrangement by flagging the course on the program of study with the letter "T." Students must submit an approved Request for Graduate Transfer of Credit form to the Graduate College102 Grosvenor Hall. Before the transfer can be processed, the Graduate College must receive an official transcript from the institution where the course was completed. Courses that are transferred to the DARS are listed as having a grade of "T" rather than a letter grade.

Clinical Experiences

While most Master’s degree program coursework requires work that is completed in clinical settings, not all programs require formal clinical experiences. All initial and blended Master’s degree programs that lead to a teaching license require clinical experiences in the form of early field experiences, a professional internship, or both. All placement for the clinical experiences, including the professional internship, will be made by the Patton College of Education. To complete clinical experiences, Master’s students must comply with the following requirements:

• Anyone representing OHIO has to wear identification. Check your program to ascertain if you need to obtain an official OHIO Patton College photo ID nametag.
• Apply for a Pre-Service Teacher Permit as required by state law. Your program will provide directions on how to complete this process to ensure we and the school district have access to your records. This will also include completing Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification (BCI) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) background checks before beginning clinical experiences. Maintaining current background checks and permit status are required annually for the duration of enrollment at OHIO. Master’s students are responsible for keeping copies of all documentation. You must follow program and college guidelines to ensure we receive appropriate copies and/or access to your records.

Additional information about clinical experience requirements are available on the Clinical Practice web page. 

Early Field Experiences

When required by the program or practicum courses, field experiences provide Master’s students with opportunities to observe, teach, and work with students, teachers, and administrators in educational settings.

Professional Internship

All Initial master’s degree with licensure candidates are required to complete a yearlong (two-term) professional internship (PI) in a P-20 classroom. In the first term, candidates observe and 10 teach in a classroom for a minimum of 10 hours but no more than 2 full days per week. During the second term candidates observe and teach in a classroom full-time.

Master’s students must complete and submit the Professional Internship in Teaching Application. Without this application, students will not receive information about the PI. The Patton College Guide to Successful Internship Experiences provides additional information about the PI.

Capstone Experiences

All students in a master's degree program must complete a research capstone experience. The type of research capstone required varies by program and may include a Master's Research Project- Study, Master’s Research Project- Portfolio, or Master's Thesis. The Master’s Research Project- Portfolio option is only available to Master’s with Initial Licensure program students. Consult with your faculty advisor to determine the capstone experience that is most appropriate for you. This decision should be made during the first semester of enrollment and no later than the time the Program of Study is submitted for approval.

Master's Research Project

A Master’s Research Project (MRP) in the Department of Teacher Education varies by program and can take the form of a research study or portfolio. Master’s students must contact their faculty advisor for information about which options are available for their program. Students who plan to complete the MRP must register for EDTE 6940 – Master’s Research Project. With guidance from the faculty advisor, a student will select the type of MRP to complete early in their program, within the first semester of enrollment. For initial licensure programs, this selection must take place before the start of the professional internship. To successfully complete the MRP, students must maintain regular communication with the course instructor and submit an approved final study or portfolio. The faculty advisor or the course instructor will submit a completed and signed MRP approval form (Appendix A) and the first page of the plagiarism detection report.

Master’s students who plan to complete the MRP-Study work with their course instructor or advisor to develop a research question, design a research plan, obtain Institutional Review Board approval for research with human subjects (when appropriate), collect and analyze data, and write a research report. A plagiarism review is required before final approval of the MRP- Study by the chair of the Department of Teacher Education. Additional guidelines and resources for the MRP- Study are provided in Appendix B.

Master’s students who plan to complete the MRP-Portfolio work with their course instructor or academic advisor to create a timeline towards completion of the portfolio, identify a list of program-specific teaching and assessment strategies, and determine appropriate types of evidence and artifacts. The MRP-Portfolio is not to be confused with the ePortfolio required during the Professional Internship or the Professional Teaching Portfolio required in the Curriculum and Instruction program. Additional guidelines and resources for the MRP portfolio are provided in Appendix C.

Master's Thesis

A student who plans to complete a Master's Thesis must register for EDTE 6950 and prepare a thesis under the guidance of his or her thesis director and a master's thesis committee. The master's thesis committee is composed of the chair/director of the thesis as well as a minimum of two additional faculty members. One of the members of the committee must be a faculty member outside the program area and will serve as the Dean's Representative. The Dean's Representative is the only committee member who has veto power over the thesis. Guidelines for the preparation and submission of a master's thesis are available at the TAD website. Each semester, deadlines for the submission of the thesis for graduation are made available from the Office of Thesis and Dissertation Services (TAD) on the OHIO Graduate College website.