Course Details

In addition to the institutional and degree level learning outcomes objectives, the Master of Arts in Homeland Security also seeks the following specific learning outcomes of its graduates.

CO-1: Evaluate specific domestic security challenges for the 21st Century that face the United States and other industrialized nations.

CO-2: Evaluate and propose changes at federal, state, and/or local levels, to reflect the evolving strategic policy issues associated with a statutory and presidential direction for homeland security.

CO-3: Recognize terrorist groups’ proclivities in order to forecast the risks, types, and orders of magnitude of terrorist threats most likely to confront the nation-state.

CO-4: Define and describe by example the statutory, policy, strategy and legal differences between homeland security and homeland defense.

CO-5: Describe the roles/missions of USNORTHCOM, and the DSCA mission, compare and contrast these with the DHS mission.

CO-6: Recognize the interdisciplinary nature of Homeland Security functions and be able to assess and integrate various functional areas.

CO-7: Evaluate existing policies, procedures and protocols by DHS and inter-agency community to allow seamless agency integration through prevention, protection, incident response and recovery scenarios.

CO-8: Validate literal and procedural alignment/compliance with the National Response Framework, National Incident Management System, and Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs).

Students are expected to work with their instructor and must follow all guidance provided in the course including submitting all required components of the research process. Students should not expect to submit a final product at the end of the course without having completed each stage of the research process as outlined in the assignments below.

Please note: The language in the evaluation procedures section is a compilation from the APUS End of Program Assessment Manual for Graduate Studies. Some passages are verbatim from the Manual. For clarity, these passages have not been specifically identified as quoted passages but are integrated into the syllabus. The student should read this syllabus in conjunction with the End of Program Assessment Manual.

The course grade is based on the following assessments:

Discussions – 1 percent

Discussion questions will be provided and posts should reflect an assimilation of the readings and respond to the assigned topic(s). Students are required to provide a substantive initial post by Thursday at 11:59 pm ET and respond to two or more classmates by Sunday 11:59 pm ET. Discussion posts are graded on timeliness, relevance, knowledge of the weekly readings, and the quality of original ideas.

Research Question, Purpose & Design Statement – 1 percent

Thesis Proposal – 1 percent

Literature Review—2 percent

Theoretical Framework – 1 percent

Research Design – 1 percent

Findings/Results/Discussion – 2 percent

The Finishing Touches – 1 percent

Draft Capstone — 5 percent

MA Thesis Submission – 85 percent

All required readings are located under the Content tab in the classroom.