Master of Arts in Applied Professional Studies

Develop advanced in-demand skills to meet immediate workplace needs. An Applied Professional Studies degree focuses on industry specific skills that employers are looking for today while combining real-world application. We designed the MAPS program for the working professionals – offering a flexible format, online courses, and affordable opportunity to achieve your professional and personal goals that align with potential for career advancement and upskilling needs.

The master of arts in applied professional studies (MAPS) is an applied professional program with workforce development, organizational leadership and personal development at the core of its vision. The mission of the program is to develop advanced skill sets in multiple subject areas to meet emerging workforce development needs. The graduate degree is designed to provide students an accessible, online, and affordable opportunity to achieve professional and personal goals that align with potential for career advancement and upskilling needs.

This program is an interdisciplinary master’s degree combining the academic social sciences and applied professional experience with a common set of Core courses (15 credits) and a self-selected Concentration (15 credits). There are four separate and unique concentrations within the degree for students to choose graduate level courses: Leadership in Public Service, Smart City Policy and Planning, Content Expertise for the Professional Educator and Individualized Degree Plan. Students have the unique opportunity to select graduate coursework individually suited to their chosen area of concentration.
Goals of the Program

All participating students will integrate theory, research and practice to render professional judgement and choice in applied contexts. This will result in decisions and actions that effectively and ethically promote the viability of organizations and activities in the private and/or public sector.
MAPS Program Outcomes

Graduates will:

• Evaluate and critique existing structures in the public or private sector
• Produce a problem solving policy based on evidence, professional inquiry, and decisive action
• Plan effective implementation strategies

Core outcomes:

• Develop strategies to resolve value-based conflict
• Analyze and interpret data in the professional setting
• Consider organizational change in the context of a dynamic society
• Employ effective communication strategies for diverse settings and audiences

Concentration Area Learning Outcomes

Leadership in Public Service

• Apply ethical principles to leadership practice in the public and private sectors
• Conduct successful research in public policy analysis
• Develop a public policy position, taking into account both scholarship and interest group narrative
• Apply critical theory to questions of social justice in community and economic development
• Utilize conflict management and resolution strategies in a variety of situations

Smart City Policy and Planning

• Acquire the breadth and application of interdisciplinary knowledge supporting smart cities across new technologies, social sciences and management disciplines.
• Develop an attitude of innovation, creativity, and curiosity demonstrated through active questioning, discussion, and the acceptance of new ideas.
• Understand the benefits and challenges of partnerships for smart city initiatives
• Understand the conceptual framework for the formation and management of P3
• Develop a holistic and system-level perspective on smart sustainable cities that takes an integrative approach towards complex problems leveraging Big
• Data analytics and strategies related to planning, and public policy.
• Access, use, and manage information towards identifying and solving public challenges.
• Practice collaborative skills and decentralized (parallel) decision making

Content Expertise for the Professional Educator

• Effectively communicate the subject matter of their discipline with other professionals
• Understand current research approaches in their discipline
• Utilize advanced knowledge in the subject matter of their discipline to address a practical challenge
• Articulate the significance of the subject matter of their discipline in an applied setting
• Demonstrate mastery of the subject matter of the discipline through its integration with other disciplines

Structure of the Program

This 30-credit online degree requires a combination of 1) core courses (15 credits) designed to ensure that all graduates have the basic, requisite skills needed to succeed in the fast-paced, ever evolving professional world and 2) concentration courses (15 credits). There are four concentration areas (15 credits) where students will have their choice to hone their professional skills further as they relate to their professional career. The concentration areas are Leadership in Public Service, Smart City Policy and Planning, Content Expertise for the Professional Educator and an Individualized Degree Plan. As part of the Core, all students in the MAPS are required to complete a Practicum, an applied learning opportunity to continue to demonstrate the skills learned in the MAPS. The Practicum is a faculty supervised project that identifies a business or community partner problem and a solution created by the MAPS student.

Students also have the opportunity to explore graduate level coursework across the concentrations for a self-designed degree. Students who wish to design their own program of study to achieve a Master of Arts in Applied Professional Studies degree are able to graduate with a unique skill set that does not exist in a current degree program. Students who wish to design their own degree program are required to complete the core courses and an additional 15 credits of graduate level electives within the MAPS program. Self-designed degree programs must be created in consultation with a MAPS advisor and require an approved Individualized Degree Plan.

Degree Completion

Students entering without deficiencies and who enroll full-time can complete all degree requirements within one year of first enrollment. Students may take no more than seven years to complete a degree, beginning with the semester in which they complete their first course as a UW-Parkside degree-seeking graduate student, unless they apply for and receive an extension through the appropriate graduate program.

• Evaluate and critique existing structures in the public or private sector.
• Produce a problem-solving policy based on evidence, professional inquiry, and decisive action.
• Consider organizational change in the context of a dynamic society.
• Develop strategies to resolve value-based conflict.
• Analyze and interpret data in the professional setting.
• Plan effective implementation strategies.
• Employ effective communication strategies for diverse settings and audiences.

This program is an interdisciplinary master’s degree combining the academic social sciences and applied professional experience with a common set of Core courses (15 credits) and a self-selected Concentration (15 credits). There are four separate and unique concentrations within the degree for students to choose graduate level courses: Leadership in Public Service, Smart City Policy and Planning, Content Expertise for the Professional Educator and Individualized Degree Plan. Students have the unique opportunity to select graduate coursework individually suited to their chosen area of concentration.