MAT in Special Education Program Format
Pacific University's MAT in Special Education is an online program, which allows students to connect with a rich and diverse distributed community while still enjoying flexibility of location.
- 24-month program (5 semesters) starts in August (Academic Calendar)
- Online classes are scheduled live (synchronous) on weekday evenings and select Saturdays
- Video conferencing technology builds a virtual classroom community experience for lectures or collaborating in small groups
- Mentored clinical experiences near you— student teaching at schools in your community
- Accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP)
The Online Course Experience
What should you expect when signing on? Live courses are set up as a video conference, allowing you to speak face-to-face with instructors, get to know your classmates, and participate in roundtable discussions.
Student Perspectives
"I had a lot of misconceptions about what it would feel like to join an online program. Joining a virtual course with constant video feed feels even more interactive than many of my previous ‘live’ in-person courses, in which all students are facing forward. It definitely feels very engaging."
"The mixture of verbal and non-verbal communication was so important to me in gaining clarity around messages from both my instructors and classmates. Our comfort level seeing each other face-to-face made it more safe to share, put ideas out there, and ask questions."
"It feels more like a roundtable and this has made speaking up a little easier for me. Professors seem a little closer, as odd as that might sound! I’ve taken completely online, non-synchronous courses in the past and I enjoyed being able to read the posts and responses from my classmates and to think through my own posts and responses. With this synchronous format, I still get the online discussion but then I also get to know my classmates in a more face-to-face way."
Instructor Perspective
"I appreciate the opportunity to meet synchronously online with students as we can interact, share information, and make sure we're all on the same page in real time. This complements the more traditional asynchronous components of the course quite nicely and I have noted that the discussions tend to be richer and deeper after we have had a chance to meet live as a class."
