College of Education & Human Services

Master of Science in Education (M.S. Ed.) in Education

Location: Online

Program Overview

  • Our 33 semester hour program allows you the flexibility to design a course of study to meet your personal and professional goals and complete it at your own pace.
  • You do not need to have a teaching license to join this program. This program will also work well for adult educators, trainers, researchers, administrators, policy analysts and more!
  • However, with 18 elective credit hours, teachers can add an additional teaching endorsement to their license while earning a Master’s degree.
  • Federal, state and university grants and scholarships are available, along with federal Direct Loans.
  • This program does not lead to initial licensure. If you are seeking a teaching license, see the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) - Alternative Licensure.

Why Choose an MSEd in Education at WIU?

The Western Illinois University Master's in Education program helps develop highly competent, flexible, and empowered practitioners who make a positive impact on student learning, their professional setting, and their profession as a whole. Graduates work as teachers, instructors, educational consultants, policy analysts, and academic advisors in schools, colleges, and other professional settings. The MSEd in Education program pairs a shared foundation core in research methods, cognition and instruction, and equity and sociocultural contexts of education with 18 credits of open electives that students design in consultation with their advisor. Licensed teachers can use these open electives to add a subsequent endorsement to their license, while others use them to build expertise in areas like assessment, educational psychology, literacy, or early childhood and elementary education. Students complete the program with a graduate seminar, thesis, or portfolio and coursework in educational philosophy, ethics, and policy.

Possible Careers

  • Professional advancement and additional endorsement areas for P-12 teachers
  • Postsecondary and Adult Educators
  • Educational Consultants, Researchers, or Policy Analysts
  • Leaders in schools, industry, non-profit, and other settings

Application

Apply for admittance to the Western Illinois School of Graduate Studies

To seek admission, you must formally apply to the School of Graduate Studies declaring Educational Studies as your area of study. You must meet the general admission requirements of the School of Graduate Studies and have a minimum cumulative GPA for all undergraduate work of 2.75. You will need to submit your official transcripts.

The Program Coordinator will contact you for an interview once your application is complete.

Financial Aid

Our Faculty

Program faculty are scholar-practitioners spanning educational psychology, sociocultural studies, philosophical/historical studies, and science, social studies, literacy, early childhood, middle level, and elementary education. Their range of disciplinary perspectives is what makes the department's degree options genuinely interdisciplinary. Our graduates are equipped to explore, question, and solve real problems in their professional lives, and to bring that impact back to their students, peers, and communities.More

Information for Current Students

Degree Plans

The 33 hour M.S.Ed. in Education requires all students to complete just 9 semester hours of core coursework offered by the program. The remaining credits are electives: 3 credits of directed electives and 18 credit hours of open electives. This curriculum gives students extensive flexibility to design a professional development path that aligns with their goals with the option (or for licensed teachers) to add an additional endorsement.

    Educational Foundations Core 9 s.h.

  • EDS 500 Methods of Research (3)
  • EDS 502 Cognition and Instruction (3)
  • EDS 507 Equity and the Socio-Cultural Contexts of Education (3)

    • Directed Electives 3 s.h.

  • EDS 574 Educational Assessment and Evaluation (3)

    • or

  • ECH 474G Early Childhood Assessment (3)

    • or

  • EDS 453G Assessment of Multilingual Students (3)

    • Open Electives 18 s.h.

  • Electives to be selected in consultation with the student’s advisor.

    • Exit Options (select one) 3 s.h.

  • EDS 600 Graduate Seminar (3)

    • or

  • EDS 601 Thesis (3)

    • or

  • EDS 602 Educational Studies Portfolio (0) and
  • EDS 501 Educational Philosophy, Ethics and Policy (3)

    • TOTAL PROGRAM 33 s.h.

A Degree Plan must be developed in consultation with the student’s advisor and the Licensure Officer (in cases where students are pursuing a subsequent endorsement to a teaching license) no later than completion of 15 semester hours of course work. Any substitutions for courses on the degree plan must have the approval of the advisor prior to enrollment in the course. Substitutions must be proposed by petitions, supported by the advisor, and submitted to the School of Graduate Studies for final approval.

Culminating Project Guidelines and Approval Forms

Graduate Program Information

For more information, contact the MSEd in Education graduate coordinator,
Dr. Andrea Hyde
Andrea M. Hyde

Office: WIU-Quad Cities - Riverfront Hall 200
Phone: 309-762-9481 x62242
Email: AM-Hyde@wiu.edu

Voices of Alumni

"As a practicing teacher, I have found myself constantly incorporating what I have learned through the program into my daily practice. Since my first semester in the program, I have found myself more engaged and reflective about my own teaching. The renewed energy and focus I have as a result of the contagious passion and enthusiasm of my professors have launched me into a new era in my career.: -- Susan Raley

"The thing that I like most about the EDS program is the exceptional quality of the instructors. In addition to being experts of the material, the professors for the EDS program are highly skilled educators who put the theoretical work of education into classroom practice on a daily basis. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn about education from such an amazing group of educational professionals." -- Seth Knappen